An American Worker in London
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Travel Arrangements
It's always been challenging making travel reservations for US-based travel, and I remember having to do it for 8 months on the project in White Plains, New York. For each trip, which usually lasted 10 days in New York and 5 days in California (or in transit thereto), I had to manage one round-trip airline trip, between one and three auto reservations, one set of hotel bookings, and some occasional changes for all of those if my schedule changed. The only difficulty with the above, however, stemmed from setting aside the time early enough to get favorable prices from the airline and auto rental companies, since seasonable variations would have an impact on the rates. On occasion, weather impacted the flights and I would have an unexpected delay, and when that occurred, it would be impossible to book a replacement flight early enough to get to the client location on time. That only happened twice during all last winter while working in New York, but when it did, my delays were several days in length, and I didn't obtain preferred flight schedules in those cases.
Now that I am working on a London project, the travel arrangements are even more difficult. This time, however, it's primarily because I am forced to work through the parent company's travel agent in Minnesota. Don't get me wrong -- this agent is highly experienced and knows how to make things happen that the average traveler can't do. From time to time, she arranges low prices for the flights I want, for example, but overall, she doesn't do anything tremendously special.
My first two London trips were scheduled last September, and they mostly went off without a hitch. I got the seats I wanted, the flights were non-stop Virgin Atlantic from Los Angeles to London Heathrow, and not counting the $900 pilferage on the first flight, things have gone pretty well so far. I am scheduled to leave London on Saturday, December 20th, along with most other US-based consultants returning to the States for Christmas. And like most of us, I would be expected to return for work in advance of the January 5th start date next year.
That left the next round trip to arrange. Knowing that less than a month remained before January 5th, I E-mailed the travel agent Monday, suggesting an outbound flight Saturday, January 3rd, and a return flight a month later, Thursday, February 5th. Having heard nothing for 24 hours, I called her today to verify that she could arrange for this flight, when she told me it had already been taken care of before Thanksgiving! This was news to me.
And there were four problems with this. First, she had been told by the parent company to book my flight on the correct outbound day, but with the wrong return day. This meant that I would be expected to return to the US after 3 weeks at the client site. Second, she had already charged my credit card $670 for the ticket without my approval. Third, they had booked a connecting flight through San Francisco, with a very bad schedule, so that I would leave San Francisco at noon on Saturday and arrive in London at 7:00 AM the next morning. Not much of a "red-eye" flight if it starts at mid-day. (And much worse than my usual and preferred red-eye flight from Los Angeles, which leaves at 9:00 PM and arrives at noon the next day, giving me half a chance at night time sleep.) Fourth, by arriving so early on a Sunday morning, I would have a very difficult time getting into my room early that morning, and could spend half the day wandering the streets or sitting in the hotel lobby if the room wasn't ready. Even if I paid for the room the night before (and didn't sleep there) it would be possible -- even probable -- that it would not be cleaned and ready, due to shortage of weekend housekeeping staff. It had already occurred to me before at this hotel.
After calling the parent company, and inquiring further, I learned that they had decided -- without asking me -- to place me on a 3-week return cycle. And that was because most of their consultants expected to go home that frequently, if not more often. However, most of them live either on the east coast or in the mid-west. I'm the only one from California, where the travel time and jet lag are the worst. I explained to the office travel arranger that it was going to be difficult to make the return trip on the dates they had ticketed, and strongly encouraged her to check with me before charging my credit card for trips that I may not be willing to take!
Miraculously, they located a cheaper flight from Los Angeles to London, non-stop, late night departure, with a return on the date I wanted. All I had to do was complain about their presumption to make travel arrangements without consulting me!
So with this, I am hoping they got the message that I will not travel home "every three weeks" because they decide it's a good idea or because it's standard company policy for their international consultants. I hope they understand that I won't be happy if they charge my credit card for flights without obtaining my approval first. And I hope I can get them to treat me with a little more maturity than their 25-year-old new hires that don't know any better.
International travel isn't that difficult. Staying here on weekends and for many weeks on end is tolerable, and I always tell people that if you have to work in a foreign country, this is one of the best. But making the trips between work and home should not be any more unreasonable or unpleasant than it already is.
