Every year, Embassy Suites surveys hundreds of business travelers to see what their feelings are and what is most important to them during their trips. Some of the results, specifically around social media, were not surprising to me at all. However, the final paragraph baffles me. Read on for the results and my commentary.

• Nearly 80% of survey respondents report that the economic climate changed the way they traveled for business over the past five years. including an increase in teleconferencing (33%), more pressure to book accommodations that offer great value (29%) and only flying coach (25%). Many reported stricter travel rules, with approximately one-third of respondents reporting that their company’s business travel policies became more austere over the past five years.

I can totally relate to everything in this section. My company has definitely tightened the screws with regards to travel! At this time, every trip is scrutinized and alerts are sent to managers if any red flags are raised.

• Nearly 50% of survey respondents said a great value is most important when booking a hotel for business travel in 2013. Almost half (47%) of respondents said their biggest business travel “pet peeve” over the past five years is new fees for previously free items or amenities.

“Value” isn’t the only thing that is considered under my company’s travel guidelines, but I definitely don’t stay in the most expensive hotels anymore. Any fees (such as wi-fi) are covered, so those don’t really annoy me, but I can see how that would be really aggravating for others.

• An overwhelming 85 percent of survey respondents said they would follow a travel brand on social media in order to learn about travel deals (61%) learn about other travelers’ experiences with that brand (29%) or stay updated on the brand’s latest news (28%). And 2/3 of younger travelers (21-29) are more likely to deal with a customer service issue through social media (although half of the respondents said they would call a customer service line).

I’m not surprised by this at all. Social media is taking over everything, especially for younger generations. At 32, I have both called in and used social media to deal with a service issue.

• 85% of survey respondents said they find business travel to be more enjoyable now compared to five years ago.

This was the most surprising to me. Travel is being downsized and squeezed from all angles, less money is being spent, hotels are taking away previously free services and it’s harder to get an airline upgrade. Yet people are enjoying business travel more than ever? Good for them, but I’m not sure I am in that 85%.

Readers, what are your thoughts? Do you use social media or 800 numbers to deal with customer service issues? Is your company spending way less on travel? Are you enjoying your work trips more than five years ago?

(Click here for the full press release.)

Something a frequent traveler notices pretty quickly is regional differences. Sometimes it’s clothing related—I’ve noticed (and I’m sure I’m not the first) that New Yorkers wear a lot of black, while in the South there is way more color. Or it could be local vernacular, like saying “y’all” in the South or putting “the” in front of highway numbers in California, i.e. The 101.

So I don’t know if this counts as a regional difference, if it’s just a state difference, or what it could be considered, but I think it’s interesting. The last time I went to Nashville, as I drove down Elm Hill Pike, I noticed the cars around me looked funny. Something was missing, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Once I finished my meetings, I walked outside, and realized—the cars don’t have license plates in the front! In Texas, cars are required to have license plates in the front and back. Are there other states that only have plates in back? I have to wonder—what happens if someone from Tennessee is driving through Texas. Do they get in trouble?

After a quick Google search, I found this eHow page that talks about it a bit. Apparently almost half of states only require a license plate on the back of a car. It’s crazy to me that I’ve traveled around the country a LOT for years and this is the first time I’ve noticed this.

Readers, have you ever noticed a state or regional difference that surprised you?

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Back in July, I took my last work trip before maternity leave. Before the trip, I was so looking forward to being done. It’s hard work to travel while seven months pregnant! Once I landed and got off that final plane I felt an overwhelming sense of relief to be finally done with the trips. But as I drove away from the airport another emotion took over, as a question kept repeating in my head:  Is this really the last business trip I’m going to take for five months?

In the past, I’ve always relished short breaks at home. Two weeks, even three weeks at home after back to back trips can feel like a vacation! But after a few weeks, I always seem to get antsy. Where am I going next? How are my travel supplies? Should I actually put away my suitcase, or leave it out? Will my travel skills get rusty?

For the past six years, I haven’t gone more than a month without a business trip.  Along with wife, daughter, friend, knitter, yoga freak, dog lover, and movie-watcher, “Road Warrior” is part of my identity! Who will I be the next time I go somewhere? One thing is for sure. I will have a new, huge, part of my identity: that of a parent.

The emotion that swept over me as I drove away from the airport that night was a profound sense of sadness. Sadness, and a little grief, for the loss of the old Road Warriorette. It surprised me, because I didn’t expect to feel anything but relief. But I know that the new Road Warriorette—the wife, daughter, friend, knitter, yoga freak, dog lover, movie-watcher, road warrior, AND PARENT—will be just fine. And it will be fun exploring this new identity!

Readers, have you had any major life changes affect your feelings about travel?

Boy, Alaska Air has been in the news a lot recently. Remember last week, when the guy went into a rage over his neighbor’s overhead light? And now this story from CNN.

Imagine you are on a flight. You’re super excited about your exit row seat, with all that extra room. You get settled, look out the window and see the wing….. with some writing on it? You look a little closer, and see the following message: “We know about this,” with an arrow pointing to the chunk missing from one of the wingflaps. Oh, dear.

When the passenger contacted Alaska Airlines to find out what exactly was going on, they were told that the wing flap had received an FAA-approved repair before the flight and was safe to fly. The note was left because:

“’…before every flight, pilots do a walk around the plane, and they kept seeing the section repair and pointing it out and kept filing a report saying, ‘you need to fix it,’ ‘ said airline spokesman Paul McElroy.

Maintenance workers wrote the note to head off further reports, which was ‘not the best approach,’ McElroy said.”

There is a spirited debate in the comments of the CNN story about the safety of airlines in general, today, and if you have a minute I encourage you to read it. I am not an expert and don’t know enough about airplane maintenance to know whether the plane was safe to fly, so I’m not going to comment on that. But what I do want to comment on is the incredibly unprofessional phrase used. “We know about this.” Really? Really. Is that what you were trying to say? I see that, and I think, Who knows about what? And was it fixed? Who is the message for? Passengers who keep pointing out the hole in the wingflap? There are a million other phrases they could have used, such as , “Repaired per FAA Guideline number XX.” Not that much longer, and looks way more official. I would be far less frightened to see a message like that, vs. “We know about this.”

Readers, what do you think? Did they handle it appropriately, or could they have done better?

I spend a lot of time talking about etiquette. The goal, of course, is that people will think more about their actions, and hopefully react more politely next time a situation comes up. However, I was reminded on my last trip to Nashville that rude people are not the only ones who travel these days. Kind people also travel! On this particular trip, I actually saw two examples of people going out of their way to make things easier for a fellow traveler.

I managed to snag a seat in the bulkhead, and I was super grateful for the extra room. On the other side of the aisle, a young lady was sitting in the middle and an older woman, who walked with a cane and therefore pre-boarded, was sitting in the window. I noticed they were chit-chatting, but it didn’t seem like they were discussing anything important—until the young lady broke down in tears. It turns out that she was a very nervous flier, and therefore incredibly anxious about our flight. The older lady tried to console her, and discovered the young lady was on her honeymoon. But because the plane was so full, her new husband was sitting several rows back. Without delay, the older lady got up and switched seats with the husband so that the new bride would have some comfort during her fear. I know I’m hormonal right now, but it makes me tear up a little just thinking about how nice it was.

A bit later, the door was shut and we were ready to push back from the gate. As the flight attendants began their announcements, there was a knock at the airplane door. The flight attendant looked through the window, and then opened the door. Turned out a passenger had gotten stuck in security and thought she was going to miss the flight. The gate agent thought there was still time, so brought her down the jetbridge. There were no seats available on the plane, so one of the captains who was hitching a ride to Nashville moved to sit in the cockpit. I have flight attendants open the door to tell a passenger it was too late to board, but never actually let anyone in. And because we made up time in the air, we still arrived in Nashville early.

I have to say, after that flight home from Cancun I had basically decided the world was full of rude people. But this flight to Nashville restored a lot of my faith in humanity!!

Rearders, have you seen any acts of travel kindness lately?

Also, last week I got a TAFTA award (which stands for The Award For Travel Awesomeness—hah!)  from MyDestination.com! They did an incredible write-up of the blog, so if you get a minute check it out and give them some love. Thanks for the honor, friends!

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I have seen some very kind things on airplanes. People giving up their seats so couples can sit together, passengers helping others put their bags in the overhead bin, smiles, and all around good cheer. I have also seen less nice things, and unfortunately coming home from Cancun there were a lot of non-nice actions to witness. Wonder why! Were people mad about coming home from vacation? Or hungover from the night before? Who knows. But something must have been going on, because I have never before seen this level of rudeness on one flight.

First, there were several pre-board passengers. That is a normal enough occurrence—a few elderly people, a guy in a wheelchair and his family, etc. Did not seem, to me, like anything out of the ordinary. But the people waiting to board were very impatient, making comments under their breath (or out loud) such as, “Does it really take that long to board?” Um, yes, for some people, it does take that long to board, and I’m pretty sure that is exactly why airlines have preboarding! But whatever.

When they called First Class to board (Home Warrior and I were lucky enough to get upgraded), a lot of people tried to board that were not in First. Not so surprising, again, as that happens everywhere. But I was very surprised at how the passengers in First handled it, although maybe I shouldn’t have been after the comments I heard during preboarding. They were angry—like noticeably angry. Multiple people made rude comments, not even trying to keep their voices down, about people in front of them. I get it—you want to get on the plane and get settled. But it felt like these people were seriously overreacting.

Then, while actually boarding, Home Warrior and I were behind a couple on the jetbridge. We were all waiting pretty patiently, until another passenger walked past us and the other couple, pushed in front of the family in front of them (who were picking up their bags to board), and got on the plane. At this point, Home Warrior and I were both wondering what the heck was going on. Yeah, the guy had no bags, and everyone else did, but the whole idea of waiting in line is that you wait for the people in front of you!!

Okay. So we’re finally on the plane, about to get to our seats, wondering what will happen next. The woman standing in front of us, who is sitting in the bulkhead, is looking for a place to stow her backpack. She sees a spot in front of another bag, and puts her bag up. The door to the overhead bin won’t close though, so she starts shoving her bag in as hard as she can. Repeatedly. Which wouldn’t be a big deal, except that she was crushing some other person’s bag in the process. The owner of that bag (also sitting in the bulkhead) jumps up and says, “Excuse me! Please don’t do that, there is glass in there!” The woman rolls her eyes, says, “Whatever,” and moves her bag to the next bin.

At this point I swear my eyes were about to pop out of my head. Luckily they didn’t, because as I was trying to put my own bag in the overhead bin, the person behind me shoved past so hard that I fell over. I caught myself on the back of my seat, and so didn’t hurt myself, but still. Come on, people! There’s just no call for that.

You would think that people returning from vacation would be relaxed and mellow, but not this time. Rude, rude, rude.

Readers, have you been on a flight where it seems like everyone got up on the wrong side of the bed?

Recently, I read a Facebook comment that said this person’s favorite time to fly is early morning, because they will get to their destination early, and flights are less crowded. I agree that early morning can be a good time to travel, but I am confused about the less crowded flights this person has experienced. Nonetheless, it inspired me to think about the pros and cons of flying at different times, and my own favorite time to fly.

Early morning: The nice thing about early morning flights is that the airlines haven’t had a chance yet to get off track, so everything is usually on time. Also, it’s true that you do get to your destination sooner, which for business travelers means getting to work sooner, so fewer nights on the road and more time with family. The problem is that the flights are usually super crowded, and airport security lines are often incredibly long. Another problem—you have to get up at obscene hours to make these flights, which can make for a looooong day.

Mid-morning to mid-afternoon: Early afternoon is actually my favorite time to fly. Most business travelers are through airports already, so lines are shorter and flights tend to be a little less full. You get regular amounts of sleep (yes!!!), plus I really like flying with the sun is up. Don’t know why. Of course, the problems are the opposite of early morning travel—you lose a lot of potential productive time, and delays could have built up by that time.

Evening. Flying home at the end of the workday seems so much more satisfying than going to a hotel and taking a flight out in the morning. The main perk is that you got your work done, and you get to go home! Of course, it has all the cons of the morning flights (crowded flights, long lines) with the added possible bonus of an entire days worth of delays stacked up. For me, though, that’s worth it as long as I get home.

Red-eye. Because I live in the middle(ish) of the country, I haven’t had the opportunity to take many red eyes. The few times I’ve flown overnight, I’ve been completely wasted the next day, and it was pretty awful. It seems like, in general, they would be terrible, unless you got an upgrade, but I’m sure there are pros as well.

Readers, what are your favorite times to fly? Did I miss any pros or cons? What about red-eyes? What do you love or hate about them?

There are about five movies (or sets of movies) that I would watch, any time. Intellectually I know that these are not the best movies of all time, but they are so highly entertaining that I can view them over and over and never get tired of them. Any time USA or TNT or one of the other cable channels is showing one, I will leave it on that channel. Even if I’m not actively watching it, I will enjoy it while I’m, say, folding laundry or cleaning the kitchen. Writing my list down, I’m realizing there is a theme….. Here are my top five:

1)      The Princess Bride. Best dialogue ever. My Number One movie of all time.

2)      The Mummy, The Mummy 2. Don’t judge, please. Brendan Frasier is a hot, smart, tough action hero who loves his girl. Rachel Weiss is gutsy and clever. What’s not to love? (The Mummy 3 was terrible. Terrible. Made me very sad.)

3)      Independence Day. Will Smith. Enough said.

4)      The Bourne Trilogy. Matt Damon is the baddest action hero around, IMO. And the car chases are so awesome they hurt my brain.

5)      True Lies. Hysterical plot, great special effects, bad guys get it in the end. And Jamie Lee Curtis doing a strip-tease.

At Blog World, I stayed in the Westin Bonaventure in downtown LA. It was my first time in LA, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But imagine how excited I was when I saw this plaque on the elevator leading to my room:

In case you can’t read it, it says, “This is one of two elevators used in filming “TRUE LIES” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. September 1993.” Staying in the hotel where part of one of my top five movies was shot? Yes!!!

Readers, what are your top five movies? What kind of super cool things have you seen while traveling?

First, an update from my Manila trip last week.  The visit went very well! There was no flood damage anywhere I went, and the hotel and office operated completely as normal. Thank you so much to everyone who gave me advice! I also managed to make it out to Green Hills (the famous shopping area in Manila) and got some gorgeous turquoise and citrine jewelry. Although the ridiculous amount of travel time in five days did take its toll, and I came home sick. Boo.

During this trip, I flew from DFW to Tokyo Narita on American, and then from Tokyo to Manila on JAL. I have flown this route before, but for some reason this time I noticed some things on JAL for the first time. First of all, when it’s time to board, all of the gate agents bow, in unison, as they open up boarding. It was refreshing–I felt like a guest, as opposed to freight. To add to the feeling, as our plane was taxiing out, the baggage people lined up outside the plane, bowed, and waved. I know it’s just a little thing, but it made me feel very special. Of course, coach is still coach regardless of airline, with its cramped seats and awesomely sub-par food, but at least I felt warm and fuzzy for a few minutes.

The next thing I noticed was that when it was time to land, the flight attendants walked down the aisles testing each and every overhead compartment. Not just brushing their hand along it like I’ve seen before, but several seconds pushing and testing each one. Made me wonder if they’ve had an issue with them opening at an inopportune time previously?

Finally, in the most of flights I’ve been on, when the plane lands and that fasten seatbelt sign goes off, people jump up. But as they are filing out of the plane, the vast majority of people will wait politely for those in the rows ahead of them to get up and walk out. On this flight (Manila to Tokyo), people jumped up, and then practically ran out. If you didn’t stand up immediately, you had to wait until there was a break in traffic to get up. And there wasn’t a break in traffic until practically everyone was off the plane. I have never seen anything like it before! I don’t know if it’s because it was a long-ish (5 hour) flight, or if it’s a Japan Air thing, or what. It just seemed very interesting and not what I expected. Anyone have any insight?

I’ve been inspired by top five lists recently. Starting with the Top Five Secrets of Business Travel, and moving on to my top five favorite sites in different categories. Today, it’s travel sites. Once I got started, it was hard to hold it to just five! I may have to do a top ten list in the future…… Next week I will talk about my top five business sites.

Boarding Area. I may have a personal bias here, but I think Boarding Area has the best collection of travel blogs around. A few of my favorites: Fly Gracefully, Flying With Fish, Loyalty Traveler, Pearls of Travel Wisdom, and View From the Wing.

Why Go Business. A lot of great content for business travelers, both new and experienced. In addition to travel information, they feature interviews with business travelers, frequent flier recommendations, and business advice.

FlyerTalk. Yes, it’s affiliated with Boarding Area, but FlyerTalk is still the best place to pick the brains of all kinds of frequent travelers. If you have a question, they can answer it, especially with regards to miles and points.

Budget Travel. When I’m not traveling for work, I want to travel for fun. Budget Travel helps you find interesting places, stay on a budget, and have amazing experiences.

Jetiquette. The Sky Steward writes about a subject near and dear to my own heart: travel etiquette. He will answer your questions, comment on current etiquette issues in the news, and is very entertaining to boot.