A pearl revealed in each and every trip
Moms + Breastfeeding + Travel = challenge. This great post at the Wall Street Journal blog site ‘The Juggle’ (WSJ.com on choices and tradeoffs people make as they juggle work and family) is a great resource if you’re breastfeeding an infant and now need to make a road trip. Planning ahead is a must, and both you and your baby will get through it.
Business Travel While Breastfeeding
It’s hard to explain to anyone who doesn’t travel a lot what our lives are like. We go days, weeks even, without seeing our kids and spouse. We drop in on friends when it’s convenient for us, like birds flittering down to land every once in a while to get grounded again. We have refrigerators that hold bottles of water and green masses of mold, and full sized bottles of shampoo confuse us.
We spend more time with colleagues and strangers of the opposite sex than we do our own spouse (no, not in that way, but at meetings, over dinners, seatmate times on a flight, co-commiserators over a delayed flight). You see the same people on the same flights, week after week, and know them better than you know your siblings.
Seems my husband is missing. Or maybe I am.
It was great being home for a couple weeks around Christmas but after that, the road was calling. That means companionship time suffers.
The travel season began in early January. Off to chilly Scotland for me but my husband and I had a great meetup in Ireland. Lots of fun but all too brief.
February was busy for me, beginning in Houston and back to Scotland, adding Norway to the itinerary. This month ends with me in New York and him in San Diego. No time for home but my husband and I did meet at a hotel for one weekend in Los Angeles. But hey, at least it was Valentine’s Day weekend.
March is another busy travel month but we will meet up for a few days in Chicago (Travel Goods Show!).
Ah April, finally some time at home for me. But wait, hubby is gone. He will be in China nearly the whole month. Hmm, my crystal ball is showing me on a road trip to China for a long weekend meetup.
I’ve been wearing a pedometer since the first of the year to measure my steps each day. A travel day, sprinting through airports, almost always gets me a few thousand steps towards my 10,000 step goal. This got me wondering about which airports are most favorable to walkers?
Minneapolis (MSP) has got to be towards the top of the list. Sometimes I feel like I’m walking between two cities in this airport. (Maybe that’s why they called it Minneapolis / St. Paul because it’s the bridge between the two cities!)
Atlanta (ATL) is surely in the running, since their lack of moving walkways keeps us putting one foot in front of the other. And when you just get to gate B32, your gate may change to A1! That walk alone could get you 10,000 steps just for one flight!
Dallas? Chicago’s United terminal (or checking in at Continental’s terminal, then having a gate at the end of Terminal C)? London Heathrow? Amsterdam?
Usually the longer the walk, the more us travelers complain. But I’m trying to look at the ‘healthy’ side of things, so the distance can actually be a good thing!
Where do you think the airport walks are the longest?
If your USAir flight is delayed today, it could be because your flight attendants are out picketing. And I guess I can’t blame them. According to this article in Travel Weekly, flight attendants and airline management have been unable to hammer out a contract that covers flight attendants – ever since US Airways and America West merged in September 2005 – six years ago! The America West flight attendant contract went into effect in 1999, and was being renegotiated when the company and union merged in 2005.
According to this post, the flight-attendant groups, with America West in the West and US Airways in the East, are represented by different chapters within the Association of Flight Attendants. Both sides have something to gain from a new contract. Starting wages for West flight attendants are $16.18 an hour, compared with $19.71 an hour for East flight attendants, a point of contention when the company announced new hires in the East and West in 2011. The East, however, has less vacation time than the West under the existing contract.
I wonder if my cousin Nancy, a USAir flight attendant based in Charlotte (i.e., “East”), will be out carrying a sign? If so, you go girl!
Although the smartphone market has been taken over by Android-devices and iPhones, BlackBerry is still a favorite among business travelers. Research in Motion has just released BlackBerry Travel to help keep track of all of your travels. Features include:
The app is free, but is also in Beta so don’t be surprised if it’s a bit buggy. You can find BlackBerry Travel in BlackBerry App World.
If February 14 didn’t meet your expectations, Cambria Suites is offering the opportunity for a do-over with its second annual Valentine’s Day Redo Contest. The all-suites brand from Choice Hotels invites consumers to share stories of their Valentine’s Day gone wrong for a chance to win one of three vacation prize packages at the Cambria Suites property of the winner’s choice. The grand prize includes airfare for two, a three-night stay in a premier suite, a $1,000 Visa® gift card, a $150 dining credit for the hotel’s bistro and a personalized welcome package.
Between February 15 and 28, people can enter the contest by submitting their personal story in 200-words or less on the Cambria Suites Facebook page. Whether a significant other forgot about the day or best friends got into a fight, entries should demonstrate why people deserve a Valentine’s Day redo. Winners will be chosen based on their story’s originality, creativity, and adherence to the contest theme.
For safety reasons, I will usually use a hotel’s valet parking service when arriving at a hotel late at night. Otherwise I’ll use the self-parking as the rates are much lower.
Though tonight I got an unexpected and wonderful surprise. It made such a great first impression that I was already sold on this property and I hadn’t even checked in yet!
The Houston Marriott West Loop by The Galleria has a solo woman traveler’s special valet parking rate – just $13.00 a night! The regular rate for valet parking is $25.00 a night and self-parking is $13.00. But because I drove up alone (which I do 95% of the time), I received the special rate.
I thought the valet guy was kidding. I asked, “Is this a Monday special? Or You’re Just Feeling Nice?” No – he said this is always the case. Still, I had my doubts. As I checked in, the desk agent saw my valet ticket and asked if I was traveling alone. With a nod of my head, she confirmed the $13.00/night rate. Any last doubts were now gone.
This is a great safety feature for women traveling alone. Women like me who always have the head-debate going on – “Is it worth the extra money?” And it’s priceless to the hotel as well, as the cost of one parking lot incident could cost millions.
Now I don’t have to decide; it’ll be valet parking for me!
I hope I see more hotels with this great benefit.
If you know of other properties that offer smart deals for solo women travelers, please share!
I love cruising and have taken many cruises to many wonderful places. I do have a collection of on-desk sunset photos and a book on how to create towel animals, but I wouldn’t put me in the category of World’s Best Cruiser (yet!).
So if you’re a frequent cruiser, you may be interested in this contest by Budget Travel. Good luck and Happy Cruising!
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: WORLD’S BEST CRUISER
Budget Travel is on the look out: Have your readers taken more cruises than they can count? Do they have a collection of on-deck sunset photos? A shrine to towel animals? Tell them to prove it!
I booked my first-ever ticket on Aer Lingus. The airfare from Glasgow, Scotland to Dublin, Ireland, a quick hour flight, was only £14.99 (about $22.00 US). A great fare! Or so I thought.
Then the taxes added in at £37.29; plus an online handling fee of £5.00. Then add a baggage fee (yes, I had to check a bag on my 22-day trip) of £12.00 for 20kg (44 pounds). Any extra weight, and the pounds keep adding on (literally!).
There was also a sports equipment price, which thankfully I had no need for. But look at this list! Each golf bag, pair of skis, surfboard and more costs an additional £25.00.
In the end, my excitement over a 14.99 airfare quickly went to irritation as I saw the total add up to £69.28.
Aer Lingus also had a promotion going for ‘free fares’. Hmmph, free? I’m not picking on Aer Lingus, as they’re not the only airline with uber-enticing airfares that wind up costing you more than what you ever planned for, but a ticket price that quadruples seems a bit outrageous.
Has this ever happened to you? Share you outrageous fees below.
I stayed at the Westin Dublin this past weekend and had a beautiful room overlooking the Temple Bar area. Before hitting the pubs, I took advantage of the Westin’s workout room to get in a calorie deficit before BG (Before Guinness). Their workout room was small in area, but very full in equipment. Free weights, weight machines, treadmill, bike, elliptical and more. And I had the room all to myself when I used it. Very nice!
Then I saw a sign in the elevator for WestinFitness rooms (also known as WestinWorkout rooms) – guestrooms with their own fitness equipment. What a great idea! I asked for a tour and the hotel’s staff was glad to take me to one of these rooms.
When I saw the room, my first thought was “I could really get used to this!”
