One of the easiest things to speed up your packing is to keep two sets of toiletries. Have one full size set that you use every day at home, and have a travel-size in a bag ready to go at all times. Some people may worry about the expense, but there are ways around that. One idea is to use samples from your favorite makeup store (Sephora in my case) or freebies from the hotel. Another way to cut costs is to simply purchase a set of toiletry bottles and fill them up. Sometimes I have had to purchase travel size toiletries, but that isn’t common–usually just contact solution and toothpaste. I have a mix of refillable toiletry bottles (love the Fillables from Aveda), samples, and free hotel toiletries. I keep them packed at all times, my liquids in a plastic Ziploc and the rest in a cute bag.

The only set I don’t keep duplicates of? Make-up. There aren’t a ton of sample or smaller options available, and so I would basically have to keep a whole second set. I’ve thought about getting less expensive makeup for travel, but my thoughts are that it is hard enough to look good while traveling, and I don’t want to use sub-par products. So I’m still working on that. I may have to just bite the bullet one of these days, especially after forgetting my makeup last month.

I am curious what other people do with their make-up. Readers, what do you do? Do you keep a full set of all of your toiletries, including makeup? Just shower stuff?

The Home Warrior was flipping through the news this weekend, when he said: “Come here, you have got to see this.” The article from NBC News read:

“LONDON — British Airways apologized on Friday after a crew member mistakenly played an emergency message warning Hong Kong-bound passengers that the plane they were on was about to plunge into the sea.

About 275 passengers on a Tuesday flight out of London’s Heathrow Airport heard the message: “This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water,” NBC News reported.

“People were terrified, we all thought we were going to die,” passenger Michelle Lord, 32, told Britain’s The Sun newspaper, which first reported the incident.  “They said the pilot hit the wrong button because they were so close together.”

“I can’t think of anything worse than being told your plane’s about to crash,” the Sun quoted another passenger as saying.”

I believe the word you’re looking for is ,”Wow.”

Even though this was posted on Youtube over a year ago, this is the first time I’ve seen it. And I immediately had to post it so all of you can enjoy it as well. This is so great! I hope I fly on this guy’s plane sometime.

Happy Friday everyone!

I know that I am lucky. In four years of traveling for work, I have only had to sit in the middle seat while flying three times. Because I have elite status with American, I typically get to pick a pretty good seat. On Southwest, I usually remember to print my boarding pass early enough that I can pick out a window or an aisle seat.  But as of this past Tuesday, I have had to sit in the middle seat four times. Luckily, it was a short flight. But even on that short flight, I got some nice time for introspection while the guy to my right was jabbing me in the ribs with his elbow. How can we make it easier on those poor people in the middle? Here are a few ways that I came up with.

• Be aware of your personal space. And by extension, of the personal space of the person next to you. Their space is limited enough already without you leaning over to get stuff out of your bag and putting your head in their lap.
• Let them have the armrests. They have to suffer so much already, just let them have it. What can make a bad situation worse? Having the guy on your right jab you in the ribs with his elbow as he pushes your arm off the armrest.
• Help them when you can. Don’t make them reach over you to grab their beverage from the flight attendant. Be polite when they need to get up to use the restroom. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, these are good etiquette tips for everyone.

We are all in the airplane together, friends! Let’s make this trip as pleasant as we can for everyone involved.

I love this passport cover from Modcloth. It is irreverent, not too dignified, and super cute. It will also make you laugh–something that is becoming increasingly important while traveling these days. A great gift for the Road Warriorette in your life!!

I think this blurb from The Frisky says it all:

“This passport holder is more than a mock airplane safety brochure. From “consult nitrous mask for in-flight comfort” to a very necessary “no clapping” sign, this passport wallet is sure to cause a chuckle while you travel. Its humor will lighten your traveling load, and the bright colors make it easy to locate in your bag. What a humorous way to explain your plane etiquette preferences to your seat mate!”

August 2009. What was I doing? What was I thinking about? What was I writing about?? It is still hard to believe that I have already been blogging for over a year. This time last year I was visiting Salt Lake City on a regular basis, looking forward to the Paul McCartney concert, and trying to figure out how often to write.  This past year has flown by!!

Some quick statistics about women business travelers

Interestingly, I have not been able to find any updated statistics since last year, even though I constantly get questions for them. If anyone finds some, send them my way!

Travel Tips for the Temporarily Handicapped

Whenever anyone asks me why I started my blog, my answer is always: “When I started traveling, there were no resources to help women. Now that I have some knowledge I want to share it.” When I say that, this post is exactly the kind of thing I am referring to. Last year, I broke my foot and was on crutches for six weeks. I could not find any resources to help me navigate the minefield of travel, so I had to muddle through on my own. I don’t want anyone else to have to do that!

Paul McCartney is Freaking Awesome

After this concert Home Warrior and I vowed that should Sir Paul ever tour again, we would go see him. Still consider this concert to be one of the best times of my life.

Okay, maybe I don’t actually hate Ohio. In fact I have family there, and I spent some great times as a child playing with cousins in North Canton. But it seems like every time I go there as an adult I have the worst trips. My first trip to Ohio for work almost three years ago was so awful I vowed never to return (Why I Hate Ohio Part I, which I will be sharing next week). However, when my team requested I go back I thought, Surely it can’t happen again. Plus I’ll be with my co-worker, J, so everything will be fine. Right? Uh, wrong.

After spending nine hours of transit time (airport, plane, airport, plane) to get to Columbus, I was actually feeling pretty good. The flight attendant on my second flight gave me a bag of almonds! The flight was smooth! The day was still beautiful! Surely everything would continue to go well. I met up with J and we got on the road. We knew that it was at least a two hour drive to the town where our meetings were going to be held, and we would probably get there around 11pm.

Since it had been several hours since either  of us had eaten, we stopped in a small town outside of Columbus to grab dinner. We even got to sit on the patio since it was such a nice night. We were visiting and talking and enjoying margaritas, when suddenly there was a commotion from the tables in front of us. “Oh no! Is that your blue car?” the lady asked us. Trying our best to remember exactly what color the rental car we got was, it took a second before we remembered. “Yes, that’s our car. Why, what happened?” The lady answered: “The kids in that SUV just backed into your car and then drove off!” What????? We run over to the car, and sure enough. A giant dent is in the left rear bumper. So we call the sheriff’s office, and a deputy comes out to make the report. Within a few minutes, however, a man in a truck stopped to tell the deputy that some punk kids had tried to steal bikes from him. Soon after, another deputy came to finish with us, and our first deputy left to chase the bike thieves. I never knew Ohio was such a hotbed of crime!!

When we got on the road again it was after ten, and we finally arrived at our hotel after midnight. After passing out for a too-short six hours, we we were up again to go to our meetings. Which did not go that well, but whatever. We left around 3 to drive back to Columbus. This was earlier than we had planned because we had to stop at the Budget Rental Car counter and fill out some papers due to the hit-and-run from the night before. It is a lucky thing we left early! Somehow, in the winding roads and hills of East Ohio, we got lost. The highway signs are confusing out there, and the GPS couldn’t pick up our exact location due to all of the hills. As soon as we realized we were lost we stopped and asked for directions. Turned out we were sixty miles off track. O. M. G.

We made it back to the airport 55 minutes before the flight was supposed to take off. Plenty of time, right? Not enough time to enjoy the glass of wine and small meal I had been daydreaming about, but at least I didn’t have to worry about making my flight.  So I went to print out my boarding pass. And what did I find? The machines weren’t working. None of them. We all had to wait in line while the ticket agent had someone else print our stuff remotely. I realize that situation could have been way worse than it was, as there were only about ten people that he had to print for in front of me, but it was definitely stress-inducing.

By the time I got to security, I had ten minutes and was relieved to see a very short line.  I thought, my luck is finally changing! I will have plenty of time to grab a sandwich before my flight! Then I saw the nudie-scope and thought, dangit! Luckily (I guess?) they were randomly choosing some people to go through the normal metal detector and some people to go to the nudie-scope, and I was one of the few who went through the normal one. Yes! My luck really is changing!  For those of you who haven’t had to go through the nudie-scope yet, it takes much longer than the normal metal detector. The TSA agent x-raying the luggage was clearly not paying attention, because he was shooting the luggage through much more quickly than people could pick it up. So fast, in fact that the luggage started to bunch up on each other, and bins started to pop upward from the impact. I ran over and started grabbing my stuff, but I was too late. The bin holding my laptop popped up, and my laptop fell on the floor.

At this point I thought the day couldn’t get any worse. Then I got to my gate and saw that they are boarding early (due to the malfunctioning ticket machines), so I have no time to get food. This is the point where I text the Home Warrior: “I hate this day.”

Once I arrive in Dallas, I was able to get on the standby list for an earlier flight home. I am the last standby to get on the flight, and I think (again): Finally. The bad is over and I am almost home. Until the captain comes over the loudspeaker and tells us some lightbulb needs to be replaced, and it’s going to take twenty minutes. Is that twenty minutes real time, or twenty minutes airline-mechanic time? You be the judge. One hour later we got in the air, and we landed at home later than I would have had I stayed on my original flight. I finally walked in my door at 11:30 and crashed on the couch.

Next time they tell me to go to Ohio I am NOT going. (Sorry for writing a novel.)

One of the message boards I frequent posted this article yesterday. Apparently, on a Southwest flight a woman slapped her baby to make her stop crying. The baby girl also had a black eye, which was supposedly from a dog bite. A flight attendant held the baby for a minute so the father could get out of the row, and according to the video that was controversial (although I don’t really agree).  Southwest had authorities meet the plane once it landed in Albuquerque, but the family then boarded another flight. One of the worst quotes of the article:

“Asked if she thought it was okay to hit a 13-month-old baby, the woman nodded to police and said, “She’s my daughter,” according to the police report.”

The article states that several passengers were upset by the behavior. Uh, yeah! If I witnessed that on a plane I don’t know what I would do. I don’t have kids so I try hard not to judge the way people parent their children. But still–who slaps a child to make them stop crying? And not just a child, a baby. Seems like that would have exactly the opposite effect.  A black eye caused by a dog bite? Sounds suspicious to me, considering the behavior. If the mother would slap her child in front of a plane full of people, who knows what she would do in private? The flight attendant probably had a hard time handing a child back to her parents when she knew what would happen later.

So now I am sad. Sad for the passengers who had to witness that, knowing they couldn’t really do anything. Sad for the flight attendant. And of course, incredibly sad for that poor, poor baby.

View from the path by my sisters' building

This past weekend, I went to Chicago to visit my sisters. I hadn’t seen them since my younger sister’s wedding in February, which is six months ago. Six months is the longest I think I’ve ever gone without seeing at least one of them, so to say I was excited about this trip would be an understatement. We had such a great time! We visited, we drank wine, we watched the Bears pre-season game, we played with my younger sister’s Boxer puppy,  Nash. They live in Rogers Park, actually on Lake Michigan, so we got to spend some time hanging out on the beach.

We also celebrated the grand opening of the yoga studio of a friend of theirs. Imagine, A Yoga Studio is in Rogers Park and is owned by a yoga teacher and her husband. The space is fantastic–hardwood floors, an exposed brick wall, lots of light. The owner/teacher is excellent–she really knows her stuff, and can adjust the difficulty level of class based on how the students are doing. She used a lot of cool music, including the Beatles, in her playlists. I have to say, on Friday night at the opening, doing yoga with my sisters in this beautiful space, to The Beatles, was an amazing experience. We ended up going to classes each day, and the weekend turned into a kind of peaceful retreat for me. So if you’re in Chicago, I highly recommend that you check this place out!

At this point I have gone to a class eight of the last ten days, and I am going to try to keep it up! I feel great.  Of course tomorrow I leave for West Virginia, so we’ll see if I can find a place to practice there…..may be me in my hotel room again…..

A few weeks ago I posted about my frustration with American Airlines with regard to charging Elite Aadvantage members $50 for a close-in award ticket. About two days after I posted that, I got an email from the Aadvantage people saying that as of the date of the email, this fee would no longer be charged to Elites. Great!! American Airlines had listened to its customers, and changed its policies accordingly. Good for them.

Except…. I fell into that four-day window in between the old and new policy. Had I ordered my ticket outside of 21 days (so two days earlier) I would not have had to pay the fee. Had I waited two days to get my ticket, the new policy would have been in place and I would not have had to pay the fee. I called customer care to see if I could be reimbursed, and was told by the (somewhat condescending) customer care agent that there was nothing she could do, and that I was basically lucky that I didn’t have to pay the fee anymore and why was I complaining.

The one option I was given was to email customer care and see if they could help me. I sent them a courteous summary of the situation, and heard back within two days. While I was not reimbursed, I was given 2k miles. I did the math, and I think that (depending on the ticket) 2k miles are worth about $20. I appreciate the gesture, and I am glad they are not charging the fee anymore.

So, okay American Airlines. I am not angry at you anymore. But to my readers: if something similar to this happens to you, or something happens that you think is unfair, send an email to customer care. Best case, your issue gets resolved and you may get some compensation. Worst case, at least they know what they are doing wrong.