Posts tagged business travel
What the experts are saying about smarter business travel..does it really help
May 13th
On an regular basis articles appear about smarter business travel but very little of the advice seems to help. You can take your personal GPS so that you don’t get lost once you are on the ground and on your way to a client meeting, or pack carefully and wear slip on shoes to get through security more quickly, but none of this will help you when the plane is delayed and you are going to miss your meeting. Not everyone us the option to fly privately but if you looked at the cost savings you could fly “semi-privately” – that is share the private jet with others. Doing this would allow business travelers to finally have control over there schedules and probably less time on the road because the travel would be more efficient. Being a member of jet-it-together.com is a great way to connect with others for sharing jet trips. If you are part of a company that has an intranet you may be able to work with your corporate travel manager or HR to create a place to post travel plans as well as information about sharing private jet options. This way employees can communicate with one another to figure out whether or not they could share a private jet trip. Another option is to connect through TripIt on LinkedIn to find out people’s travel plans and see if you could fly together privately.
Bad weather and cancelled flights, again
Mar 14th
Again, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are being pelted by driving rain and wind and the commercial airlines are cancelling flights. This is what should be done to keep everyone safe but how do we figure out when we are really going to get on a delayed/cancelled flight? Everytime I call an airline for information I have to push a million buttons to not get the answer I want or I am placed on hold for a very long time. Plus, the web sites don’t have accurate information. Flying privately may cost more, www.jet-it-together.com, but I do have a customer service group that I can talk to who gives me real information and actually calls me with trip status.
Private Jet Travel On The Rise
Feb 23rd
Today’s New York Times, 2/22/09, has an interesting article by Joe Sharkey in the Business Section. In his weekly column Mr. Sharkey writes about private business travel being on the rise. This is definitely worth reading. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/business/23road.html.
After the reaction to the CEOs traveling on private jets to Washington, D.C.,many companies pulled back on private jet travel. This combined with the downward turn in the market saw a slide in private jet use for business travel. Mr. Sharkey points out that many people who hadn’t traveled on commercial jets for years were forced to do so and ultimately were very unhappy with the experience. No surprise there. Now these same travelers are going back to private jet travel but are looking for a less expensive way to do it. That is where Jet-It-Together comes in. People want to travel privately for less and are flexible on how they will do it. This could prove very interesting.
Sharing Private Jets: Price and Service Matter
Jan 27th
Last November “The Plane Conversations” blog highlighted how the private jet industry should take a few lessons from Southwest Airlines. After reading the entry and others comments, I must say that Jet-It-Together is definitely going in the direction that the blog highlights. Foremost are the following factors: price, simplicity, and reliable service.
Jet-It-Together keeps the pricing structure simple. When you go to “Plan a Trip” on http://www.jet-it-together.com/flight_plan22.aspx and in put your itinerary you receive an estimated price based on 4 people sharing a jet. This allows you to know the ballpark cost that you will be working with. If more members join the price will go down. And, if a member decides that he wants to charter the entire jet for himself that can be done as well.
We want our members to enjoy traveling with us and to tell their friends and colleagues about the service. The more people that are members the easier it is to find travelers to share trips. Our customer service is high touch and we want to know what people think about our service.
Time/Value Travel Ratio
Jan 23rd
I was on my way back from Albuquerque to Boston one April and had a four hour layover in Dallas as part of the itinerary. I knew what I was getting into when I purchased the ticket but this was the best flight I could get for this specific trip. There were no direct flights and weighing time, money and route, I took this option. I was completely at the airlines mercy. I did have a choice of a very cheap flight that made three stops but passed on that.
After I had finished checking email, making calls and having a meal, I sat down at the gate and began my wait. This particular day I took a very Zen approach to traveling. I gave into having to wait. I started thinking about how much time I had spent getting to and from airports and waiting in airports from the beginning of the year to that day in mid-April. My total time came out to 88 hours – more than 3 ½ days. I couldn’t get over how ridiculous this was. Then I read online at Forbes.com the value of flying privately for senior executives. Although, I don’t make the salary of the executives that Zach Greenberg used as an example, I could clearly understand and accept the time/travel value ratio.
From Forbes.com:
Take two high-level executives making a combined $4 million annual salary and bonus. Per day of work, they are paid roughly $8,500 each, after subtracting weekends and vacation days. Taking a mid-range commercial flight would probably mean they could attend meetings or visit factories in just one city, because of check-in lines and airline delays.
A small private jet would cost $1,800 an hour, but it would allow them to visit sites in three different cities. Ten hours of the jet, at $18,000, is a little more than half of the two days’ pay they’d use up taking three days instead of one to get to those cities. Moreover, time is the most perishable asset of all, and now they could spend those days doing something else.
www.jet-it-together.com
