Business Travel: It’s Not Always So Great
I’ve traveled quite a bit over the last couple of months, and it hasn’t been all roses every time. But, that’s what I get for traveling so much I suppose. Sometimes things happen while traveling that you just have to laugh about (because there’s really nothing else you can do).
**Please ignore the black spots in some of the photos…my iPhone suffers from something that apparently many do…there are specs of dust in my camera**
At the end of February I had the pleasure of going to Phoenix, AZ to do a ride along with my Phoenix rep. This trip went very well, thankfully. And I got to meet one of my best friends I went to college with face-to-face (college was online)…after almost 10 years of knowing her!!
At the beginning of March I attended an Entrepreneurship Pathways workshop in Fresno, CA. I was honored to have been recommended for and able to attend this amazing workshop! I teach an Small Business Entrepreneurship class at my local junior college and our head of the business department recommended I attend. I met some really amazing individuals and I learned a great deal about small business, entrepreneurship, and really great ways to present information in my class!
Okay, here’s where my travels started taking a turn for the worst. The second week of March I was supposed to go to Houston and then Dallas, TX. However, instead, I ended up in Albuquerque, NM and then San Francisco, CA! You’re probably looking at a map of the U.S. in your head, and you are very correct, neither of those are anywhere near Houston or Dallas.
It all started when I was trying to fly out of Ontario, CA. First, the plane was (somehow) overfilled by 4,000 lbs of fuel. Not a great start! Then, there was a delay due to weather in Houston. This was supposed to be a direct flight from Ontario to Houston. Someone at the airlines felt that it was a great idea to fly us into Albuquerque, NM to refuel so we can fly into the east side of Houston, around the storm. I knew I should have just canceled the trip, but I really wanted to salvage the trip, so I went.
We were supposed to stay on the runway, refuel, get our new flight plans and then head out to Houston. That didn’t happen. They decided to let us deplane while they got everything ready for our continuing flight. As we were deplaning they let us know that there was a delay due to weather. Then the flight was canceled altogether due to weather in Houston. Okay, no big deal. I could salvage the trip if they could get me to Dallas that night or the next morning. Nope. Didn’t happen.
So, instead, I told them to just get me back to Ontario, CA so I could go home. The whole trip was a complete bust.
The next morning I was set to fly to San Francisco, CA to sit in the airport due to a 5 hour layover. No bit deal, I could get tons of work done (which I did).
Then, we were delayed because one of our pilots called in sick. Luckily, the delay was only a little over an hour before they got approval for one of the passengers (a pilot who was flying home) to co-pilot the plane. I was excited! I was going to get home!
Then, a storm rolled into San Francisco and I was really worried that we would be delayed…again.
We were finally able to fly out and head home!
My next trip was to Orange County, CA, thankfully because I didn’t have to fly anywhere!!
My last trip was to Miami, FL. And while I did have some challenges with flight delays, planes not being assigned to the flight, change of gates, missing my connecting flight due to delays, having unexpected layovers, etc…it wasn’t nearly as bad as the non-trip to Houston!
That’s all for now…I have quite a bit more travel planned for the rest of the year. I’m hoping and praying that my travels go much more smoothly going forward!