Business travelers are jerks

I follow a business travel group on LinkedIN.  There are many posts that ask opinions on how other travelers act or how the industries treat travelers.  In my never to be humble opinion the average business traveler is a self-centered, egotistical jerk that thinks every other traveler should conform to their way of thinking/traveling.

A few of my greater annoyances with travelers (focusing mostly on airline travel) are presented:

1. Children are people and have every right to travel on airplanes.
• Some business travelers get extremely annoyed at small children that act like small children.  They complain about seats being kicked, screaming toddlers and babies, incessant questions, or being touched by children.  When asked the traveler doesn't blame the child but blames the parent for not controlling the child.
2. There is a finite amount of space for carry-on luggage and personal items.  Deal with it.
• The airline staff tries to get people to put their personal item under the seat in front of them to allow as much space as possible in the overhead bins for roller bags.  So the frequent travelers feel that people that put multiple items in the overhead bin are breaking a rule.  To some this is an affront that deserves condemnation.
3. Delays and problems occur in travel and sooner or later you will experience a problem if you travel enough.  So quit getting angry with the nice person helping you.
• Business travelers feel like their problem is the most important and industry staff must help them regardless of the cost to the airline. They raise their voices, point fingers, demand concessions, and fail to realize the person is doing everything to help the customer.

I can empathize with customers experiencing situations you do not enjoy.  For my part, I get annoyed at all the people that crowd the entry way when boarding the plane.  I will nicely ask people in front of me if they are boarding when it's my turn and if they aren't I will comment snarkily, "Then get out of the way".

However, when most situations come up like the ones mentioned earlier, I maintain an emotional calm.  I do so because:

1. Children, parents, and everyone in general are going to act in the manner they feel is appropriate.  I can't control them, I can only control myself.  I wish others would learn this and have a healthier reaction to people that are allowed to act however they choose.
2. Airplane space is getting more crowded.  The carriers are adding more seats limiting legroom and the additional passengers means additional carry-on baggage.  Unless an actual rule is implemented about storage requirements we will deal with people acting differently than we think is appropriate.  None of us get to decide what behavior is appropriate for everyone.
3.  A person helping me is not the one causing problems, on the contrary, they're the one helping me remedy a problem.  I tend to be grateful for people trying to help me.

The over arching idea: Control your own emotions since you can't control other people's actions.

Bumped to a new airline

Occasionally delays occur that require the airline you booked with to change your flight to another airline entirely.  Last week, I flew to Philadelphia and had the last flights of the evening.  My flight delay would get me to my connection in Detroit 6 minutes before my connection took off and there were no other flights into Philadelphia on Delta available that night.  Therefore, I was booked on an American Airlines flight.

I am not crying about this change.  I could justify a whiny post because I was delayed, I had to connect in Chicago, and got only 4 hours sleep before I had to present technical data the next day to 2 highly valuable customers.  What I want to share are what you can possibly expect based on my experience.

If you had first class seats you probably won't get them on the next flight.  This is typically a risk even if getting moved to another flight in the same airline.  I would also be prepared for a middle seat because you are getting onto the new flight very late.

You can still get mileage on your loyalty account.  Simply ask for the credited mileage and the staff can estimate what you would normally receive.  You will not get credit for any segments flown but this is better than nothing.

Schedule changes for other reservations are your responsibility.  If you have a rental car reservation and hotel reservation you will need to connect with those groups to avoid losing your reservation or incurring a penalty.  A simple call to the company customer service group will help.  As you can imagine, they are pretty used to these issues.

All in all, I am happy with how things went.  It could have gone much worse.