Travel Well

There is Travel, there are Travellers and there are Travel Systems.
When you spend a lot of time "En-route", Travel Systems become very important.
My Travel System is designed to:

Deliver me into the presence of Clients in the best possible condition

Stay within the bounds of travel budget

Enable me to have good experiences to enhance my positive attitude

Maximize points balances to enable family travel

The first two points are common sense.
The later two i will explain.

Positive attitude, optimistic outlook and happiness are extremely important traits for a salesperson.
If i'm not having fun while I travel, my attitude suffers as well as my ability to perform.

Maximizing family travel opportunities is part of the trade. Money alone doesn't cover the value of what i miss as a traveling dad. Being able to take the various airline hotel and miscellaneous frequent travel perks and provide interesting experience to my family is what makes it worthwhile.

In the next month i will enjoy my 500th flight since May 2009.

I have figured a few things out.

Exec Summary:- for those whose eyes glaze over when faced with the minutia of Airline Programs

Never Check Luggage

Get Loyal - choose an Airline, Hotel Chain and Car Rental Co

Treat your frontline service people like family - the ones you love

Smooth and comfortable travel requires preparation. The most important thing to prepare is your attitude. All of the agents and service people you encounter have the power to enhance your travel experience. They will treat you as well as you treat them. I have observed some frightful behaviour by people dissatisfied with the "Situation" who feel entitled to tear a strip off whoever is unlucky enough to be doing customer service that instant. It never yields positive results. There is enough information about Air Canada that I will do a separate Blog

Loyalty pays. Call up any customer service department and they will all agree that every customer is important. In the travel industry there is a concept called "Priority".
Whether it is a rental car, a hotel room or an airplane seat, the product is time sensitive and limited. When National Car rental has bookings for 10 Camrys this Monday and only has 8, but there are 4 unrented Infiniti G37s, somebody is getting an upgrade!
How is the rental agent going to decide who gets the sweet ride? You guessed it! "Priority'
Almost every hotel has a loyalty program. Even high end properties like The Waldorf Astoria (Hilton) and The Venetian (Priority Club) You receive points for each stay and the more upscale the property, the more points earned per night, usually 1 to 5 k. When it comes to using these points to book a room there is a similar scale. For instance, to stay at a Holiday Inn Express is 15k a Crowne Plaze 25k and the Intercontinental is 30 to 40k.

There is another dimension besides the points. "Priority"

Hotels reward their loyal customers with additional benefits. Your access to these benefits is directly linked to your Priority Status in the Hotel's Program. This is where the fun starts. How about a free made to order breakfast? Free Parking? Mandatory upgrades to a suite? The club floor? Or the pinnacle of rewards : Free Minibar!! Restocked daily!
Maximizing can be very fun!

Next Blog will be the Game of Airline Points.
Todd

The Flying Tree Farmer Intro....

Greetings,

It all started in the 60's when i showed up on the planet. As a kid I did all the usual things for a boy. Tonka toys, lego, bicycles, snowmobiles, motorcycles.... girls.

I always liked trees alot. I ended up taking over the family nursery after being somewhat educated and socialized at University of Guelph. Many years of growing and usually selling trees ensued. Then in 2003 the emerald ash borer came to dine on my business. The second shoe dropped when markets for trees in the USA disappeared in 2008.

In 2009 I got my first job... Saleperson for Jiffy Products. Now I talk eat and travel across North America. At the same time i visit large and not so large production nurseries and help the people there grow more and better trees. (Yes, i even sell them some stuff to help)

More to follow....