7 Common Emotions of Travel

British Airways commissioned a study to determine the habits of airline travelers.

Photo Credit: British Airways

The results of the study, completed by Ipsos MoRI, uncovered that travelers go through 7 different emotions when they fly.

The emotions are:

• Enjoyment
• Conviviality
• Belonging
• Security
• Control
• Empowerment
• Vitality 

The study goes on to say there is a pattern to the emotions. The first phase being CONTROL, which starts at home and continues through security. Soon it moves to EMPOWERMENT, knowing that you have to get to the gate at a specific time and you know how to get there. On board the plane, SECURITY and BELONGING take over due to a smile from the crew and the routine safety announcements.  

While in the air, ENJOYMENT AND CONVIVIAL behaviors come into force.  "There is a distinct theme of suspending normal life for fliers with many of them admitting to breaking their own norms and indulging in
calorific food, drinking alcohol first thing in the morning and watching three films in a row 'because they can'." Somewhere in the flight, the final feeling VITALITY kicks in. Its the excitement of the vacation or family that awaits you at the end of the flight.

Personally, these are all emotions that I feel during flying. For me control starts when leaving public transportation at the airport. Get my paper ticket, dump the water in my water bottle and head to TSA-Prechek. While boarding, I know when I need to board and that the window seat in the last row of the airplane is mine. A major sigh of relief overcomes me, when the airline door closes. Flying on an airplane gives me a ton of enjoyment and I always drink a Sprite, but I never drink soda normally on the ground. Excitement occurs midway throughout the flight with the end in sight.

The question is what is British Airways going to do with this information? Improve the on-board product? Make getting to the gate easier? Information is great, but its only words if you don't act on it.

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5 Ways to Adjust to A New Time Zone

I spent most of the weekend trying to plan my trip to Australia for the fall. One of the biggest pitfalls of traveling to Australia or New Zealand is that you lose almost two days traveling there. Midnight (12am) on the East Coast is 3pm in Sydney, almost 15 hours ahead.

www.worldtimezone.com 

Typically, when I travel, I am not effected by the difference in time. My body adjusts with minimal interference. That was until I traveled to Tokyo. While in Tokyo, I was fine, but when I got home my body took a week to readjust. Sleeping at 5pm and working at 1am was the norm. FYI, Tokyo is 2 hours ahead of Sydney.

A few month's ago, Men's Health had a great piece on 5 Ways to Adjust to A New Time Zone. Unfortunately, I can't find an online version. Luckily I ripped it out of the magazine.

1. Plane Time is Sleep Time

Nap as much as you can on board in both directions. Don't try to eat bad food or watch bad movies. Sit by the window so seatmates don't bother you. Use and eye mask and noise-canceling headphones. Wheels up, eyes closed.


2. Drink Up

Stay hydrated. That means no alcohol, which will only make you dehydrated and groggy and rob you of relaxing sleep. You don't want to land hungover without the bonus of having earned it with a wild night out.


3. Make the First Day Work

Assume local time immediately and fight to stay awake as long as you can.  The longer you make it, the easier the transition.


4. Step away from the bed.

If you're in your hotel and it's not close to nighttime. Never sit on the bed. If you do, you're done.


5. Return home right

Force yourself onto your normal schedule. The longer you allow yourself to stay in another time zone, the longer you miss out on life at home.


I am going to try these when I travel to Australia. Will they work? I'll report back.

Do you have any tips to beat adjustments to time?

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JetBlue Maybe One of My New Airlines

I have a confession to make, I know nothing about JetBlue. Never flown with them. Don't have a TrueBlue account. Never even used JetBlue.com. But JetBlue might be my new go to airlines.

JetBlue announced some of the new cities they will be flying to from their new Reagan National slots. One of those new destination is Hartford, Connecticut (BDL).

Hartford/Springfield Bradley Airport is my "home" airport. Non-stop flights from Washington, DC to Hartford are rare and expensive. Southwest flies from Baltimore to Hartford, United from Dulles and US Airways from National. The addition of JetBlue should bring down the price of the route. There will be two roundtrip each day:

To Hartford (BDL):

To Washington National (DCA)

To say I am excited is an understatement. While this is great for me to get home, its even better for my family and friends to visit me. Gasp! I might have opened Pandora's box with this post.

Hartford isn't the only destination JetBlue announced this week from DCA. The other two are Charleston, SC and Nassau, Bahamas. I have always wanted to visit Charleston, SC. Maybe another trip on JetBlue is needed.

I am liking the results of the merger so far!

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A New Place To Store Points

An email early this week got me thinking. The email from eMiles highlighted that you can earn 3 points per $1 spent at Groupon.

You can earn points/miles at a wide variety of hotels and airlines. According to Evreward.com, a great website to compare earning rates at a wide range of companies, Groupon can earn you the following points/miles/cash back:

However, each of these places only earns points/miles/cashback with one airline or hotel. No real freedom to move points to where you need them. Chase Ultimate Rewards portal will also pay 3 points per $1 for Groupon as well:

With Ultimate Rewards points, you can transfer to a wide range of partners:

However, even Ultimate Rewards has a downside. First, you are limited to the number of partners to transfer to. Second, you can transfer only in 1,000 points increments. What if there was something similar to Ultimate Rewards, but with more transfer partners. That's where eMiles might come in.

In addition to Groupon, eMiles has the following stores that you can earn points with:

       

While not a ton of stores, it does provide a wide range of popular shops. The real benefits is the eMiles has a wide range of transfer partners staring at 500 miles.

             

 

I am not sold on eMiles being my new points depository. It takes a very long time to earn 500 miles. However, I am going to try buying online through their portal, because it might be a great way to transfer points to non-Chse partners. The downside is that it takes weeks for the points/miles to points. Whereas, Ultimate Rewards is nearly instant.

Anyways, just something swirling in my head.

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Bringing Back The Romance of Flying

Skift.com is reporting that American Airlines is putting out a new advertising campaign for their new A321. The plane flies between Los Angles and New York offering Coach, Business and First Class cabins. 

 

The advertisements bring back the glamour once felt while flying. "The ads put images of current stars Neil Patrick Harris and Julianna Margulies alongside images of yest year darlings Grace Kelly and Gregory Peck."

Last year, I wrote about my experience flying American Airlines first class from Tokyo to Chicago. I called the post "A Blast From The Past," as the experience reminded me of another time of flying. From the hard product to the food to the wine tastings, it reminded me a different time. Not one thing made the trip great. Rather lots of small great things made the trip special.

Back 60+ years ago, flying wasn't something that the average American did. In 2014, flying is so common that almost everyone can do it. Hey, I flew to San Francisco for Lunch.On top of that, people are price driven on tickets forcing airlines to scale back offerings. Flying just isn't special anymore.

American is trying to bring back that magic to flying. Yes, this magic will only be for a small segment of the flying population ie first and business class passengers. Regardless of who its for, the move is a step in the right direction.  Its the small things that make or break an experience. Airlines need to remember that.

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Book Now and Worry Later

One of the most important lessons learn in this community is to book now and worry later. In the travel world, fare and hotel mistakes happen all the time. The problem is that these mistakes happen quickly and last a few hours if not minutes.

To grab some of the best deals, you need to be at the right places at the right time. But more importantly, you need to book quickly. Think about it to long, the deal might be gone.

Early in February, a deal appeared for 1 night at the Williamsburg, VA Hampton Inn for $10 via Bookingcom. Yes $10.

The catch was that the deal was only good for Thanksgiving Weekend. I decided to book a room, because I am a big fan of the Williamsburg Outlets. Am I going to be in the Virginia for Thanksgiving? Who Knows? I booked it anyways. Worse that happen is that I lost $10.

A few days ago, Booking.com contact me with the following email:

The $10 rate was a mistake. No shit. And the hotel normally charges $129, but are willing to give me a rate of $116. That's nice. I told them to cancel the reservation.

Am I bummed about not getting the deal? No. Would it have been cool to get a $10 night? Yes, but in the scheme of things it isn't important. You win some in this game and you lose some in this game. The key is to celebrate the wins and not get upset at the ones that don't work out. With the new 24 hour cancellation rule on airfares, you have nothing to lose in booking that $100 flight to Hawaii. Book the flight, talk to the boss tomorrow, and cancel if he/she doesn't give you time off.

Book Now and Worry Later! It will save you time, frustration and may work out in the end.

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Wanna Travel The World Free? Become a Member of Congress

I love when my two favorite hobbies, travel and politics, collide.

USA Today is reporting that Members of Congress took $3.6 million worth of free trips.

According to a USA Today analysis of Political MoneyLine data, "493 trips were taken in 2013, up from 402 in 2012, an election year. Lawmakers typically cut down on privately funded travel during the campaign season."

In 2007, Congress tweaked their ethics rules by forbidding privately funded travel by corporate interests and lobbyists and limiting it to nonprofits and educational groups. Regardless of who is paying for these trips, these groups want something from these lawmakers in exchange from these trips.

The number one (1) destination for lawmakers to travel was Israel. "The biggest sponsor remains a foundation affiliated with the influential pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC. The group holds its annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., next week. AIPAC's foundation funded 77 trips, totaling nearly $1.4 million in value, records show. By contrast, a more moderate pro-Israel group, the J Street Education Fund, sponsored four trips."

Don't think that only members of Congress go on these trip. According to the same analysis, " family members - mostly spouses- went along for the ride on more than 40% of the trips."

The member of Congress with the most expensive itinerary goes to Democratic Representative John Garamendi from California. Rep. Garamendis and his wife, Patricia, took a $40,000 trip to South Sudan and Tanzania, organized by the aid group CARE and underwritten by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Garamendi, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said the trip helped him gain a better sense of foreign assistance work in both countries.

"Why take a trip funded by a private group? Garamendi said it spares taxpayers the cost of expensive travel and gives him more flexibility than official congressional trips, which he described as "highly structured.

'I don't like to be a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed fertilizer,'  he said."

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