Then again I paid $200 vs $2500...

When I was a small boy growing up I dreamed of traveling to exotic locations (anywhere seemed exotic compared to Omaha!), flying around the world, seeing all of the amazing sights that I read about.

Well, I have been lucky enough to get to travel as part of my job and in my previous job and a decent percentage of that was International Travel. This included Hong Kong, Paris, London, Barcelona, mainland China, and others...All of my friends,family, wife and kids would say, "You are sooo lucky, I wish my job would send me to 'X'."

Here is the a little known secret, known only to business travelers...Business travel sucks!

Here is what I saw on my first FOUR trips to Paris: The Airport, the train, a hotel room, a conference room at an office building, a train, and airplane...That's it! Never even saw the Eiffel Tower! Maybe if you are lucky you may get a good meal out of it. This is also balanced by no sleep, sometimes goofy local issues like when/where to tip, countries love/hate with American's, people calling you and needing to be available to them on their time zone which could be +/-8 hours from yours.

If Jesus was born this Christmas there is a good chance that the three wise men would be stuck in Chicago O'Hare.

This is really Ronald Reagan's fault :)

Reagan de-regulated the airlines which meant they could charge whatever they wanted for a flight. People were freaked out. Prices were going to go through the roof, little towns around American would be bypassed.

Didn't happen

Today you can fly cross country for $200, if you plan it out right. This is way cheaper than Greyhound used to be. In fact Southwest is the new-millennium Greyhound.

But how does this ties to Business Travel, oh King Whiner?

When the airlines were regulated and the prices really high, people only traveled by plane because it was imperative, or they were rich. (Not to mention people didn't try to blow-up planes with their shoe either) This meant every airline was judged and selected based on service, not price. If the cabins on Eastern sucked, people would take a flight on United for the same price with nicer cabins. Bad food??? I will never fly them again!!!

So at the end of the day I am tired and grouchy from being packed into a Buddy Holly Express flight with the guy from Deliverance drooling on me while the Stewardess...sorry Flight Safety Attendants, whine about giving me a peanut and thimble full of Sprite on a 4 hour flight.

Then again I paid $200 vs $2500 :)...