October 13, 2011

Top 4 Tips to Avoid the Business Traveler Belly Bulge

Anyone who travels for business knows that it is not all caviar and executive hotel suites. FromStaying Health On The Road long security checkpoint lines, delayed flights, hours cramped into airline seats and jet lag, business travel can be tough. Here is another challenge for road warriors – the scale. As recently reported by the Wall Street Journal, people who travel for business are:

  • 92% more likely to be obese than counter parts who travel less frequently
  • have higher diastolic blood pressure
  • have lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (the 'good cholesterol')
  • have high or very high stress levels
  • experience sleep deprivation, sleep disruption or insomnia

 We’ve rounded up the top 4 tips to help business travelers stay healthy on the road:

 

#1. Raise Your Heart Rate

  • When you are determined to squeeze everything into a carry-on it can be easy to justify leaving your workout clothes at home, but this is no longer an excuse to avoid exercising.

  • I like this minute and a half video from everwell.com demonstrating a quick workout to do in your hotel room

  • This is a great series of quick YouTube™ videos showing a number of different workout options for your hotel room.

 

#2. Stay Ahead of the Hunger

When your famished, it’s easy to dive into a fried meal. Carry almonds with you to help curb your hunger while you find a healthy meal. Almonds pack easily, fill you up and are a great source of protein.

Tap into the UrbanSpoon app to find a great place to eat at your destination while you are killing time at the airport. Having a healthy meal identified before you land can help you avoid falling into the fast food trap.

 

#3. Drink Water From the Tap – Really!

A water bottle with built in filtration is a great investment (or gift) for a road warrior. You can empty it out to go through security and then refill it with any tap water: on the plane, in the hotel room, etc. As someone who has succumbed to the temptation of the $10 bottle of water in my hotel room, I can attest to how hard it is to find drinkable water at 1 am.
 


#4. Pass on the PeopleMovers

Every extra step counts. When walking through the airport take the stairs, instead of the escalator, skip the people movers and kill time by walking the terminal. Taking the stairs to your hotel room is a great way to burn calories and often provides interesting glimpses of your hotel “behind the scenes”.

 

How do you stay healthy on the road? Leave a comment and let us know.

October 3, 2011

It's Here - Change Your Flight Online While Your Trip is In Progress and Other Goodies

As unveiled in last week's post, we are thrilled to deliver on two popular requests from Egencia travelers:

1. Change a Ticket Online For Your Trip In Progress
Being able to change your ticket online from the road allows you to easily adjust to the changing nature of business travel. Let's say you are in San Francisco meeting with a client and realize that you need to spend an extra day. You can quickly go online with Egencia and push out your flight home by one day. You saved time and your company saved on agent assisted fees. It's a win win for everyone.

You can change your ticket online up to two hours before departure time. We integrated with all airline carriers that allow this option. Check out the full list of supported carriers and step by step instructions in this one page overview on en route online exchanges(PDF) or this video.

2. Find the Right Flight Faster with Handy Filters
When travelers were requesting flight search filters that were already in place we knew that we needed a new flight search results interface to help you find them more easily. We've revamped your flight search results layout to help you quickly identify:

  • the number of tickets left on a nearly full flight (this one is new)
  • an overview of airline carriers and available prices
  • the cheapest time of day to fly
  • if an alternate airport makes sense

Watch the new flight search video.

Let us know what you think of these new tools. 

September 27, 2011

Change Your Ticket Online From the Road and Other Handy New Tools

We've listened to your feedback and are excited to announce two new features to make your business travel with Egencia smoother. We couldn't do anything about the cramped legroom or long lines at security but we think you'll enjoy these new tools nonetheless.

1. Change a Ticket Online For Your Trip In Progress
Being able to change your ticket online from the road allows you to easily adjust to the changing nature of business travel. Let's say you are in San Francisco meeting with a client and realize that you need to spend an extra day. You can quickly go online with Egencia and push out your flight home by one day. You saved time and your company saved on agent assisted fees. It's a win win for everyone.

You can change your ticket online up to two hours before departure time. We integrated with all airline carriers that allow this option. Check out the full list of supported carriers and step by step instructions in this one page overview on en route online exchanges.

2. Find the Right Flight Faster with Handy Filters
When travelers were requesting flight search filters that were already in place we knew that we needed a new flight search results interface to help you find them more easily. We've revamped your flight search results layout to help you quickly identify:

  • the number of seats left on a nearly full flight (this one is new)
  • an overview of airline carriers and available prices
  • the cheapest time of day to fly
  • if an alternate airport makes sense

Catch a sneak peek at the new look in this one page overview.

We are planning to push these new tools live on Thursday night, September 29th.

 

 

September 17, 2009

iPhone App: Work Snug as a Bug in Rug

Here's a soon-to-be iPhone application that may just get me to donate my tracfone and 67 remaining minutes of air time to charity. It's called WorkSnug, and the app incorporates the wonderful world of Augmented Reality (a place I spend a lot of time) to show great places to work when you're on the town or on the road.

Augmented Reality is technology that allows the iPhone user to see the world around them with relevant information superimposed over the image. So you point your iPhone at the coffee shop and the ap highlights the good, the bad and the ugly of said coffee shop and if it's a suitable place to set up shop and finish that expense report (or not).

 

April 10, 2009

TSA Puts in Place a Redress Protocol

Just for clarification based on the prior post (about body imaging scanners), this is about a security redress not re-dress. 

If you have a beef, concern, or inquiry, or seek resolution about difficulties you've experienced during your travel screening, the Department of Homeland Security has launched the Travel Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) as a single point of contact.

Who Should use DHS TRIP?

Look here for full details. 

Passengers who feel they have been unfairly or incorrectly:

  • denied or delayed airline boarding,
  • denied or delayed entry into and exit from the U.S. at a port of entry border checkpoint
  • continuously referred to additional (secondary) screening

Take a look at One-Stop Travelers' Redress

February 19, 2009

FAA Maps Out Real-Time Airport Status

 Where are the Delays?

Check out the FAA's Real-Time Airport Status Map

FAA airport delay map

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has a helpful travel tool on its FAA Web site: the real-time airport status page. Airport status is relayed via color-coding and brief updates: green, good; yellow, ummmm cautionary; and red and black...better get a good book or check an Amtrak schedule. airport delaysThe

Flight Delay Information - Air Traffic Control System Command Center

http://www.fly.faa.gov/index.html 

You can check for air traffic delays by using the posted map or drop-down text box. What makes this site particularly unique as well as valuable is the in-depth and up-to-the-minute accuracy of its delay information.

 

February 13, 2009

Webinar: Tune-Up Your Travel Program For Cost-Savings

corp trav webinar 

Calling All Corporate Travel Managers!

Join Egencia for On Online Webinar.

My compadres in the realm of account management at Egencia are hosting a best practices online seminar to talk about ways to improve your corporate travel program's performance. I thought there might be some would-be wunderkinds of corp travel who may like to attend.

The online session is designed to help Travel Managers by showcasing quick, practical and actionable best practices based on input from hundreds of other travel mangers.

Here's the scoop. For this session, they'll focus on how to adjust your travel program to optimize your travel spend, which includes:

  • Leveraging reporting to identify missed savings
  • Engaging your travelers with cost-savings tactics
  • Analyzing your travel policy for savings
  • Acing your next negotiated rate agreement discussion

This live online presentation will take place on Thursday, February 19:
10 a.m. Pacific | 11 a.m. Mountain | Noon Central | 1 p.m. Eastern
Registration is complimentary to Travel Managerw with this invitation

Register Here.

 

February 5, 2009

Directing Complaints About Air Travel

When Good Airlines Do Bad Things

traveler sleeping traveler complaintsSo the airline representative responded to your complaint with all the verve, empathy, and interest of a teen working at the mall--preoccupied stare, punctuated eye-rolling and gum-snapping notwithstanding. Better try Plan B: talk to Uncle Sam; he’ll listen (and in this case take notes).

If you don't get anywhere with the airline, you can turn to the Department of Transportation (DOT), where each month it publishes statistics based on consumer feedback and airline performance. The DOT then ranks airlines from best to worst—a list the airlines say they take very seriously.

If you have Complaints About Air Travel for issues such as canceled or delayed flights, on-time baggage delivery, and ticket refunds, comments should be directed to the Department’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division  . You can also view the annual Air Travel Consumer Reports for specific airline rankings.

February 3, 2009

Airline Baggage Fee Chart: Who's Charging What

Keeping Track of a Tangle of Luggage Fees and Policies

Baggage fees and policies, they are a changin'. And being the full-service blog that we are, I've posted the latest link to our one-stop baggage reference chart for domestic carriers.

Within the chart, you'll find first and second baggage fees and links to each airline's baggage policy.  (Tip: traveling lightly will serve your wallet well.)

 

U.S. Airlines Checked Luggage Fees & Policy Links 

 

Here's a partial screenshot of what you'll see:

baggage fees by airlines