Roman's miles

Meeting at TechEd's

Although I've published my near travel plans now can't miss an opportunity to put a cool banner on the blog.

See you in Vegas and Munich.

Technorati tags: SAP, Teched

    

Phoenix - Stingray Sushi - Green

Stingray Sushi (as gives a hint the name) is a Japanese restaurant in Sctorrsdale, an area close to the Phoenix airport.

Appearance/Design - stylish and spacious; convenient places for a group and cozy tables for a couple or a gourmet solo; quality silver; pleasant light;

Waitress/Staff - affable, sincere; prompt, not intrusive; pleasant and friendly;

Food - a bone for a sushi connoisseur (I'm not) - nigiri, maki, sashimi, temaki, etc:-); rich fish page; various Asian beer; Tasted the special of today - fresh halibut with oil - delicious!

Bottom line - highly recommended. Green light!

Technorati tags: phoenix, restaurant, cuisine

Travel plans

My (confirmed) travel plans for my friends and readers trying to catch me:

8/8 - Palo Alto
8/9 - Phoenix
8/14-15 - New York
8/22-24 Walldorf
8/25-29 Tel Aviv
September - vacation from travels due to expected Go-Live of our baby
10/1-4 - Las Vegas
10/8-9 Washington DC
10/17-20 - Munich
And probably some other unexpected trips so catch me!

Techonrati tags: travel

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly News

I'll start with the ugly news. Last couple of weeks I've been so busy with my job and studying that I didn't have time to blog whatsoever. At SAP we have tons of planning work for 2007 with my group and next week I'm on a global kick-off meeting in Singapore with the team. I also had my first test on Financial Analysis class yesterday and its preparation stole a good chunk of time (hope I passed it:-); another work is due tomorrow (on Strategic Business Communication). I'm very happy with the quality and the level of discussions in the class, the homework materials, which are hefty but very inspiring; and the professors are just amazing! Still the MBA consumes all my free time and nothing was left for blogging last weeks.

The bad news is I broke my marathon schedule.  Last Sunday I scraped out only a slice of time for a 11 mile long run (instead of planned 18) and missed this week's Wednesday-Friday short ones. I'm taking off to Singapore Sunday afternoon and hope to have a workout early morning. Really bad news is that in two weeks I have another week long business trip to Israel so the preparation is seriously under the threat - the marathon run is on March, 4.

The good news is about my family. After almost 7 years of  the "rest" we're again expecting! Our fourth baby's go-live date has been forecast yesterday as September, 22 (so Lia is on her 8th week). It's seems too far today and I don't know who's waiting it more - me, the kids, or Lia; she's struggling with either constant sickness or faltering, twinkling, spontaneous, and vanishing requests to eat - so she doesn't know exactly what she wants.

I guess this year will be a bit "under pressure" for me since there have been so many things happening together. But anyhow I'm very excited and sure we will be good (maybe with an exception for the marathon:-(

Technorati tags: pressure

The best of my first 92 blogs

I'm reaching the first hundred of blogs (this one is the 93d) and I want to group and re-publish links to the ones I like most. I hope you've found them interesting too.

On entrepreneurship:

• Why to become a founder?
• Business intelligence, SOA, and your grocery shop
• Falling corporate startups
• How to make your startup a "cool to be working in" company?
• Mossad, French Legion, or Taliban - what does your company look like?

On career planning

• Three questions employee should periodically ask themselves
• Work with pros
• Your current job -"a time to kill, and a time to heal"
• Are you waiting for a week-end to end or to start?
• Evolving from a software engineer to...

On managing

• How to manage Squidward in your team?
• Who is the ideal boss?
• Whom to hire for startup?
• Getting good at giving feedback
• How many of your folks will be working for you in a year?

Random ideas

• Committed or tentative?
• IT/Business - how to talk the same language?
• Three pragmatic isolations
• Resetting the targets (05)
• Email culture

Blogging with different pace during this year and making a blog not focusing on a particular topic I've somehow got a small but firm readership and I want to thank you all for that. Hope you'll continue enjoying reading my second hundred of posts too.

THE vacation is about to end

The vacation is about to end. We're flying back with Lia after six nights in Singapore and I'm writing an account on the trip sitting in seat 81C in Lufthansa - we're on our longest leg of this trip back - SIN-FRA. Just as Scoble invited  calling him while he's on road I invite you to call my skype (rytrom) or googletalk (roman.rytov@gmial.com) or drop me an email. There is a long way yet to go: 11 hours to FRA then almost a 5 hours stop-over and 4 other hours on FRA-TLV. I'm connected everywhere, thanks to Lufthansa, so the odds are good you'll reach me if you want.

Before we booked the trip I'd asked a forum how to spend my miles in the most efficient way: how to fly and where to stay . Now it's my turn to contribute back to the community. So this blog is mostly for the forum habitants and aimed to address their points of interests.

We opted for Hilton Singapore basically because we thought it's better in terms of the price/quality comparison (in plane English it was just significantly cheaper than Conrad). The result of this experiment is "A-" for Hilton. I'm really satisfied with everything in the hotel and gave a small minus simply to recognize some direction to polish it to perfection.

The hotel is located in a great place from any perspective - Orchard street - the hart of the shopping area, the sign of modern (Americanized?) country, a concentration of many exquisite and rather modest restaurants, parks, cinemas, cafeterias, night clubs, and, did I mention the shopping gravitational fields of Singapore? Orchard metro station just a couple of blocks down the street; buses, taxis - transportation neither is a problem in Singapore in general nor in this place in particular. The hotel is one of the best of Hilton (at least of those where I've been) and it was recently renovated. We were upgraded to an executive floor (I'm still a diamond in Hilton this year!). The 18th floor has a spectacular view and a spacious room. Other things are quite standard.

The gym of the hotel is one of the best. It has all the equipment a professional athlete needs: 5 treadmill, a few bike machines, tens of different devices for weight lifting, a mirror room for aerobics, and two saunas - a dry and a wet one. On the roof there is quite a big pool (I'd guess about 15 meters) and none of the facilities is ever crowded. Now the really good thing about all the above is it's open 24 hours/day! During working hours there is a professional instructor in the gym but if you struggle from a jet-leg or want to come there bright and early everything is easily accessible - just make a call.

For executive members there is a lounge which is very poor. Breakfasts include only a selection of juices, muesli, and fruits so if you're used to have meaningful breakfast plan to eat outside. The hotel service was just great. Very fast to satisfy any caprice, willing to help, and absolutely friendly. No hint or soliciting for tips as some on the forum alerted.

Actually, I gave the minus to the hotel not because of the poor breakfast but the Internet. It's not free neither in the rooms nor in the business center(!). I met a similar situation only in Double Tree hotel in Washington DC. I think the Internet is supposed to be free when a hotel charges you 250$/day, let alone a business center. It is like this even in Europe in most of the big brands but in Singapore the norms are apparently different. Again, all in all, we were very satisfied with the hotel and recommend it to everyone who's seeking a place in Singapore.

Now the flight part. I had a dilemma on how to fly there from Israel: either on a first in Lufthansa or in a business in Singapore Airlines. Since the money (miles) was quite the same for both options I stuck to the first of LH (never ever tried it before nor their new HON lounge in FRA). What can I say? The service is great, but in a business of LH it's not any worse. The seats are, hm, strange, comparing to their new business. I'm a bit disappointed by the first class (comparing to the business, of course). I think it's a waste of money (looking at the delta in the prices between the business and the first). It's cool to get a pyjamas, an additional appetizer (compared to the business), and, hm, that's all! The seats are flat, but in the (new) business they're almost the same flat either. The drinks, the choice of movies, the personal attention, what did I forget? - I feel it's a new business flight on an old first class chair. Don't misunderstand me - it's a great pleasure to fly in the first of LH. But I'd say it's like if a Audi A8 were cost 60K and a BMW 750 - 90K. There is no 50% of superior quality between two brands (so I didn't find between the business and the first).

Where the difference IS though is the lounges. The HON lounge is much, much, much better than the senator ones in every single parameter of comparison. No welter (as in any SEN lounge), the number of drinks (I guess it's 8 times more in the HON), the food and snacks (again, the factor of 8 in favor of HON), the environment, the bath (instead of a shower), the coolness(?!). If I really liked anything in flying the first then it's the HON lounge of FRA:-) It seems the ideal way is to be just a HON of LH and fly in a business. By the way, I hardly foresee my next trip in a first on my own or the company's expenses (unless I'm luckily upgraded from a business).

In the last point I want to say it was a great way to spend my LH and Hilton miles collected hardly during last years and answer to Jeff Opdyke's article. I offer my way to compensate our wives for long and frequent business travels we ought to have. Spend the miles with her and for her. I'm saying a big thank to Lia whose tolerance and acceptance of my choice for the sake of my career (eventually - our family) made it's all possible. This time it was much better than a business trip and a real vacation.

Technorati tags: travel, frquent flyer, singapore

THE vacation has started!

Today my great vacation has started! We're in Israel at my parents where we dropped our kids off and tomorrow I and Lia fly to Singapore for a week. Why Singapore, you'd ask? First, I love it and Lia hasn't been there yet. Second, I wanted to acquaint her with Asia and thought that Singapore is the best fit not to over-shock her:-) We have 6 nights to spend there and many things to see: Sentoza, the night safari, the river, Chinatown, Chinese and Japanese gardens, the zoo, Orchard street, the Mondial final (still waiting for advice of a good pub), and many more. Besides that, we'll meet our friends there and try delicious cuisines of Singapore. Hope we won't kill too much time on shopping.

Now, why I call it THE vacation? Firstly, it's our first international vacation without the kids. Secondly, it's time to spend my miles, points, and ,finally, pay the dividends of my frequent travels back to the family (even in the person of Lia only). We fly there in the first class for Lufthansa miles and stay there in Hilton Singapore for reward points. That's a ton of miles and points (270K of LH and 150K of Hilton) but it's worth that. As I wrote in my first blog, the miles and points exist only to spend them and what can be better than Lufthansa's first and 6 nights in the Lion City!

>Technorati tags: travel, frquent flyer, singapore

An excelent way to care for drivers!

How do you find a way in an unknown city? Yes, there are driving directions but they, typically, consist of street, bulevards, platzes, and other city infrastructure names. The problem with them is while you're driving you can't always read these names. In the US in some cities there is a good practice of signing forthcoming crossroads but this nice practice is not far accepted. In Germany usually every crossroad has a sign of both streets. Zurich is terrible in this sense - very few street tablets and signs. Vienna is even worse - few and far between street signs are hung on building and drawn by Gothic which for a foreigner's eye look unrecognizable like Chinese.

It is a great global practice to number exists on freeways. Drivers don't have to pay attention to the names but only to numbers and at the same time they can estimate how far the needed exist is. Ashkelon (Israel) made one step further and applied the same practice inside the city by putting number on traffic lights on main streets. Now when you give or follow directions no need to read street names but simply drive instead to an indicated light. Very useful, simple, cheap, and a great example of taking trouble of guest drivers. By the way, it's also a small step of building a positive image of the city.

Technorati: directions, drivers, brand

Flaws of frequent flyer programs. Part two - going extreme.

Richard commented in his blog to my previous post that to make the programs really working they should be more aggressive. Being totally agreed with the point I want to propose a few directions on making practical steps. Since we don’t plan a weighted program but rather brainstorm different ideas I decided to make the cases more extreme and dream about possible directions of the changes.

As Richard pointed out there is a problem of “over-flying” in the business traveling: "I am sure there are lots of people who take extra business trips, with questionable value to the business, in order to win or retain some privileged status with the airline." He claims that a portion of the business travelers takes flights for the sake of miles. Not possessing the numbers and having difficulties to agree on how significant these numbers are I nevertheless have to confess in general with the point. There is a certain conflict of interests between employers (sponsoring the travels) and employees (flying and struggling in the travels). The employers establish travel policies and try to balance between minimizing travel costs and maximizing convenience of travelers. For instance, it’s quite a common practice to allow booking a business flight on international routes longer than 6-7 hours after a few flights flown in coach. The idea behind it is to provide “humane” conditions to frequent fliers and at the same time not to make such an expensive gift to employees flying just a couple of times a year. 

The problem is although a big part of “seldom” fliers is filtered by this rule from taking expensive business it doesn’t repel frequent fliers collecting miles from odd flights (especially in business). This is relevant to odd nights in hotel as well. So the conflict is present – ones want to save money others want to gain from struggling for the job. 

I think the solution may come from the travel industry. They can together via new offering, new services, new models create a win-win-win situation (a win for them, a win for employees, and a win for travelers). As Richard suggested by decoupling the services, mileage calculation, and actual booking they can stimulate new services and new offering from third-party companies. Let me clarify.

If the airline companies remove most of the standard restrictions for changing, returning, replacing tickets and make the system of requesting, quoting, booking much more open and public (not merely to travel agencies but to the fliers as well) they can beget new services. If my company after I got a ticket (according to its travel policy) allows me to play with my itinerary and change the ticket to save money on it we can split the profit between us. Let’s say instead of taking an international business flight (I’m eligible to take) I’m ready to struggle and fly in a cheaper economy class. A profit of 3000 bucks can be split between me and company. Isn’t it a win-win?

Where is the win of the airline companies you’ll ask? Let’s keep dreaming. An offer for flier of taking a longer connection flight instead of a direct one with money or award miles compensation is a direct gain for airline companies. They already do it today for virtual money at the checking counters. Why not to expose this option farther and involve all the customers in advance? Promote postponed or connection flights to better utilize your fleet and divide the dividends with the fliers. Why not to offer new services for booking, requesting, quoting, holding, and replacing tickets to customers? Create new tools generating more options and making fliers’ life more flexible. Allow them to convert virtual dollars to miles, allow them to convert miles to actual dollars, allow them to transfer and borrow miles for free, and allow them to sell and buy miles and tickets on auctions, allow them to make a mile exchange if you will! Provide mechanisms for fliers to play with THEIR itineraries, create monitoring and tracking systems, and make it safe for the business.

I suggest the airline companies (and it’s true in regards to the hotels as well) to stop trying to earn money on award miles and using miles for fictitious attraction. Make it just a means of your business and offer additional flexibility to make your company really attractive. Like money is used by the banks as a means (to use real money) use the miles as virtual money for the travel ecosystem (to attract customers, increase efficiency of your business, and eventually earn real money). Create new affiliate programs around it but let fliers, agencies and third party companies partake in processes and business flows - you’ll be surprised how they all will be creative in building new offers on top of it.

Unfortunately without exposing a number of new services all of the above is only a dream. The positive side of this misfortune is the first company implementing it can get a significant advantage of “the first in the market”.

As I said the post may seem too extreme and it doesn’t propose a concrete business plan. But at the same time I’m sure there is a plenty of opportunities in generating new money and making a big joint win for the travel industry, companies, their employees, and just private travelers. They simply have to change the rules.

Technorati tags: miles, travel, frequent flier

Flaws of frequent flyer programs and sensitivity to customer needs

There is no company today in the tourist business (passenger transportation, hotels, rental cars, credit cards,  and so on) not offering either its own mileage program or being a member of a big affiliate network. I think the reason is simple - typical middle-class road-worriers won't use their service without award miles or points. Those companies made a very smart observation many years ago and built new channels of attracting new customers and sustaining customer loyalty. They found that though frequent fliers have some travel policy from the management regulating their choice the choice limits them to yet a few competitors in a niche. Those smart companies found a way to influence on that choice and it was the award points programs.

Hertz vs. Avis, Marriott vs. Hilton, Delta vs. Continental - just a few examples. A traveler's company may restrict him in budget or make a subset of business partners he can choose from but typically there is still a choice. The smart companies from the travel industry understood that the company will pay for tickets, car, and hotel, but it's up to the traveler to choose what particular provider to go every time.

What I found though is that not all of them are executing this idea to really differentiate and attract picky customers rather quite formally just to check a V in their program list.

An example is Hilton and Marriott require you to spend 70 and 75 nights per year to achieve the highest status in their network (diamond and platinum correspondingly). But Hilton allows you to do it in any continuous 12 month span though Marrriott only in a calendar year. A new customer choosing a network in the middle of a year will likely go to Hilton since in Marriot he has missed already half of the qualifying period.

 

There are flaws in almost every program. Hertz doesn't let you use your its miles anywhere but in North America (making collecting internal miles meaningless for international vacations). Delta doesn't let you borrow miles (as Lufthansa for instance does). United doesn't let you transfer miles from account to account that precludes from aggregating miles.

Another very obvious step each program can do (and almost none does) is to offer miles/points as a compensation means. They easily can distinguish frequent fliers/travelers from private ones and offer the former miles as a first option to compensate for any inconvenience. It doesn't make sense for problems with the Internet in a room to offer exclude it from the bill - the less bill the less point the traveler gets.

I'm saying a simple thing. If all the companies are hunting for new customers and increasing existing customer loyalty and have made a huge step for that with the miles/points programs why not to do it right and really attract new customers? Most of travelers still have options. Why not to please them with a program that does what the travelers expect from it and makes them very consistent clients?

Technorati tags: miles, travel, frequent flier

We're back from Washington DC

I'm sorry I was silent so long and didn't update my readers on the reasons. I was on a trip to Germany and Israel and then was enforced to take a vacation to prevent complete wasting those vacation days the company owed me:-)

It was a kind of a challenging task to organize a vacation in such emergency conditions. The first step I did on planning the vacation was I swore to my wife and the kids I'd provide full isolation from my work duties, the Internet, and the notebook as a working implement. I set up an out-of-office auto-response and continued planning our vacation.

Originally I thought of taking a ski trip to North Carolina. The last time I stood on ski was my last winter vacation of the pre-married era (sounds like B.C. - it was 14 years ago!) and none of the kids and Lia ever tried it. That meant we needed besides to renting equipment and clothes to take a group lesson or a few. Thinking about going to a NC resort in such a no-advance time is a big mistake - everything is booked and what is left is very expensive. For our band a 4 day vacation would come near to 2K of dollars. Taking into account that Lia is not a big fan of extreme outdoor activities I decided not to take all the vacation to a risk (let the financial aspect alone).

A bright idea appeared from nowhere - have a car trip Washington DC. First, we haven't been there and it's a must item on an educational road-map for kids (especially foreigners in the States). Second, we like this type of traveling and have an idea to drive to Toronto one day - so it's better to put a short distance trip to a test before. Washington DC is a great opportunity - only 600 miles from Atlanta. Third, I had to use my award points in Hilton and this fact helped us to address the financial aspect (we payed in the hotel only for parking). So it was decided - we had a trip to Washington DC last Sunday.

The major part of preparation to the trip was installing a DVD instead of a VCR our Chrysler T&C had. Surprisingly enough no garage was open on Saturday before (December, 24:-) but driving 600 miles one way with three kids in a car without movies would nip in the bud all the trip fun. A workaround came in a form of a car adapter for notebook and a FM-transmitter for sound. We fixed the notebook between the front chairs' hands by a belt and the kids got a 15' screen DVD with stereo sound.

It took us 10 hours to get to Washington DC with a few stops on the way and no traffic at all. Our hotel had a great view on Pentagon, Potomac river, Arlington stele, and Capitol. We spent three full days (besides two days for driving) in Washington DC and had time to walk around the White House down to Arlington, National Museum of American History, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Museum of Natural History, National Air and Space Museum, and the Zoo. You can easily spend three full days in each of the museums but we wanted to catch as much as possible to see.

Now we're back home and though I'm still on vacation until 3d of January I'm back to my blogs. I'll shot soon a couple of other blogs to compensate you for a long silence:-)

Happy Hanukkah and Happy new year!

Technorati tags: Washington DC, car, trip

Amenities of over-segmentation.

Sometimes “push comes to shove” but still “better becomes best":-) I’ve met this paradox planning my last round-trip. Actually it’s not a round-trip but an all-around-trip but let me tell the story in order.

I had a need to get to our Israeli offices when was asked to fly to a customer in Sydney (Australia). Looking at a globe from Atlanta one may assume that the destination points are diametrically opposite. That’s true, unless you decide to join them into one trip! So I called my Australia partner asking how we would pay for one trip consisting of two targets. We agreed that the Australia office would pay just the same sum as if they’d have paid had I flown only to Sydney and back to Atlanta. The rest of the trip (to Tel-Aviv and back to Atlanta) is on our shoulders. Now it becomes interesting - pay attention to the numbers!

A round-trip Atlanta/San-Francisco-Sydney-San-Francisco-Atlanta (all together around 19,5K miles) on United and its partners’ lines costs $7500 USD in business. That’s the sum the Australians were ready to pay.

I had to spend two days in our branch in Palo Alto before flying to Sydney. I thought to take a Delta flight from Atlanta to San-Francisco because there is only one direct United flight and I had to wake up at 4.30AM to catch it. So I asked for a modified long trip starting from San-Francisco. Here was the route: San-Francisco/Sydney/Singapore/Frankfurt/Tel-Aviv and then 5 days later back: Tel-Aviv/Frankfurt/Atlanta. All together 29K miles and $11500 USD. Big difference in miles and even bigger difference in price. Then I called again the travel agency and asked to replace the Delta flight Atlanta/San-Francisco to a United’s one. Guess how much it cost! I wouldn’t believe it if somebody told me. Only $6500 USD! Now we see that Atlanta/Sydney/Atlanta route is a thousand bucks more expencive than Atlanta/Sydney/Singapore/Frankfurt/TelAviv/Atlanta though 10K miles shorter. The most absurd situation is to compare the same huge all-over-the-globe trip starting from Atlanta with almost the same trip but starting from San-Francisco. It costs $5.000 USD more though it is 2K miles shorter.

Now what is the explanation? How is it possible and what are the reasons?

The airlines companies to calculate trip prices use the methodology called Yield or Revenue Management. It takes many hundreds of parameters and various statistical data to calculate the price. The algorithms it uses serve to load the planes more efficiently and sale the tickets on the highest possible prices. But then such challenging issues as overbooking and underselling appear. The algorithms try to figure out the type or the sector of a flyer: whether she’s a tourist that may cancel or change the flight if the price is 100$ more or a businessman who will pay other 500$ because she must fly this time. Depending on the class and the type of the ticket (full-fare, discounted or restricted) the final price may vary dramatically. Demand pattern and cargo load affect the final result too. The algorithms use their statistical data very intensively to make decisions. They have to use empirical approaches to produce any feasible results. The number of all parameters influencing final decision is estimated as 250 millions making it impractical (if not impossible) using all of them in every ticket request. The problem is very challenging, indeed, and I point interested readers to read more about it in this introductory and very informative article: http://www.luc.edu/faculty/eventa/archive/su483we/yield.htm. 

All in all, in my case the algorithm apparently decided that I’m a tourist and somehow the over-segmentation of my trip led to the significant decrease of the price. I guess the algorithm’s authors would be surprised by my case were it shown to them and I think it’s a bug in the algorithm. But as any empirical algorithm this one may run bad on certain cases. Anyway, that fact that the entire trip is cheaper is very pleasant for my Australian partner and my boss:-)  So when you plan a long trip don’t be afraid to improvise and add some crazy, at first sight, routes to your trip. Your total price may be cheaper.

At the end a cool link to a site helping to get cheap tickets: http://really-cheap-airline-tickets.blogspot.com/

"Fly smart!"(C)

This is a repost of my blog on SDN simply to start the Travel category.

To Alon W.,
the smartest lucky flyer I’ve ever met.

This blog talks about what, at least part of us, deals on a daily basis with. Though some of us have gotten various “certifications” in the area we still are learning by our own mistakes. When first time I faced it I thought it would be cool if I could have knew all this before but nobody had told me. Since then I’ve been seeing so many my friends making similar errors again and again. I decided to start sharing best practices and am calling you to help me with your feedback. Did you get what I’m talking about? Thrilled? The topic is how to fly smart with all polices, rules, and instructions we’re confined by.

Rule number one.

Stick to one company. I know a few flyers that didn’t approach this question seriously and made a bad choice. I don’t mean they didn’t know about frequent flier programs. They did pick up one but it was wrong. Today all air companies are grouped in a few alliances and you can fly on one company but collect your mileage on another of the same alliance. Think which of the alliance companies suits you best. Does it have a hub in your city or it bases in the destination city only? Think in long run prospective. Are you planning to relocate to another area? A friend of mine was collecting mileage on Alitalia knowing in half a year he would move to Atlanta (which is Delta’s patrimony). Now he still can spend his mileage on Delta but he started earning his status there from scratch.

Last caveat regarding alliances and mileage is all partners in the alliance are equal but some of them are more equal:-) Check before booking on a partner’s flight if you’ll get expected number of mileage as if you were flying on your company. Sometimes it’s not obvious and not always works as you expect.

A great source of such information, tons of researches and comparisons is Flyertalk site.

Rule number two. Be persistent.

When I titled my blog “Fly smart” I didn’t mean a popular Lufthansa award program. What I meant is whenever collisions occur on your trip don’t give up. You missed connection because of a delay? You baggage is broken? Your baggage is lost? The service was pure? In any case talk to managers and require compensations. My experience says you’ll always get financial compensation for damage. You’ll get free hotel and dinner/breakfast for over-night delay and almost always you’ll get a free one class upgrade (this is unfortunately only experience for international flights). Just don’t be shy and argument your demands clear and calm.

A big caveat. Whenever you have several options for a trip an itinerary with one company should prevail. Don’t fly to a middle destination on one company and then change to the final destination to another. If you miss it nobody will compensate it. If you put the entire itinerary in one company’s ticket your chance to get compensated is much higher than if you buy several independent tickets.

Rule number three. Collect miles – spend miles.

Most of the services on a traveler’s way offer mileage earning. Don’t neglect them. The hotel and car clubs are most obvious. My travel agent told me at the very beginning of my flyer “career” it doesn’t make sense to enroll there. Big mistake! Though you don’t earn thousands of miles as in air mileage it’s still worth of (and it’s free!). So stick to one club as you do with the air alliance. Hilton, Marriot or PriorityClub have quite the same rules but depending on your concrete conditions one may be more appealing than others. Some give air mileage and club points other at the same time give a fixed number of points/miles per staying (so it’s good for short stoppers). Check the conditions and choose anyone, but don’t miss it. One caution. As opposite to enrolling to air alliance hotel clubs don’t do it retroactively. So think in advance and do it ASAP.

Renting car companies respect memberships too. You don’t have to enroll for the sake of mileage collection. Just give your frequent flyer card when you pick a car or return it. By the way, you may decide to collect points on your rental company’s account to spend them for your free rent or upgrade on next vacation. What does make sense anyway is getting the gold membership itself (in every company it may be named differently). It may have its own benefits. For example, in Hertz when you arrive your car is waiting for you and you don’t have to get to a stand and fill any form. Or you can specify in your profile what type of car you prefer in case of free upgrade.

Don’t forget that the points and miles is only to spend them. Don’t regret to spend the earned miles. They won’t grow up.

Rule number four. Invest in your equipment.

Professional equipment is necessary if you take something seriously. My wife buys kitchen knives for 100 bucks a piece – she loves cooking. So I spend some money on traveler’s toys. If you fly a lot you should make it as comfortable as possible.

• a good suitcase and a backpack. If you really want to spend good money for good things then Tumi is your choice. If you’re not ready to spend few hundreds for a case then look at Samsonite – (not everybody can afford BMW, some people are satisfied with Audi). Check that the selected model fits to the carry-on size standards of your air company. For example you won’t be allowed to take a garment bag with you on board unless you fly first class.
• find a spare battery for your laptop. You have to spend time on 30.000 feet altitude efficiently. Convince your boss to buy it if you want to see some colors but black on your screen after 3 hours of flying.
• buy noise reduction head phones. Whether you want to work or to rest you need to do it without additional noise. Bose or Shure are the two to choose from if you want something from the top.
• last but not least are few things for rest. You need a good neck pillow. I love mine from Tempur-Pedic. Yes, it’s much more expensive than its competitors but you’ll feel the difference. Also take an mp3 player and don’t forget to take a book.

Rule number five. Prepare for the flight.

I’ll just give a few useful links on the realm.

• Consult with the community. Flyertalk is definitely number one. You’ll find answers to any your possible questions and it’s very friendly atmosphere there.
• Choose your flight intelligently. I bought a program that in real time shows what seats are available on every route and every class. Once this software brought me home 24 hours earlier I that I planned. I tried to catch an earlier flight than I had a ticket to. But the flight was fully booked and the air company didn’t want to put me even on a waiting list. I was continuously requesting seats availability for that flight with the software and all of a sudden one place appeared! An instant later I called the company and grabbed the seat.
• Most companies allow you to choose a seat on a booked flight. Find what seat to choose you can at SeatGuru.
• Maps. If you can’t afford a car navigator system there are good online route planners. For USA you can try Yahoo! or Google. And for Europe it's map24
• Last one is don’t be surprised by local sockets waiting you in your destination country. Here is a thorough reference for all possible electricity sockets on earth.

Have a nice flight!