For Business Travelers
This page offers information, some tips and tricks and a bit of opinion, especially for business travelers. To help you with jet lag prevention, to ease the trip and more.
If you would like to share a good travel practice with the rest of the world, or tell us about a must-have-been-there spot in Edmonton, a business traveler haven in X'ian, or your worst travel experience ever, just let us know through the Contact Form.



Jet Lag Research: Viagra
Many minds, many opinions. What works best to avoid jet lag? Light therapy, diet, pills or what? The latest research says Viagra may help ease the effects of jet lag.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that not eating during an intercontinental flight may fend off jet lag. Not eating for 16 hours, it seems, tricks one's body clock into the new time zone.
Interesting stuff, but the researchers have not looked at jet lag holistically. Had they done so they would realize that there is more that there is more to jet lag.

In my eBook No More Jet Lag I do away with all the electronic gadgets, meditation, diets, drugs (including Viagra) and more.
You can download this simple and entertaining eBook for only US$ 5.50 through the Product page. Meanwhile, a 2006 study by scientist Chris Idzikowski confirms the negative, even hazardous effects of jet lag. 
He calls on commercial airlines to better inform or educate passengers about jet lag.


What Airlines do about Jet Lag
Bigger and better planes roll out of the aircraft factories all the time. They take us on longer distances without refueling. It's awe inspiring and amazing.
But what are the airlines doing to help passengers cope with jet lag?
Usually nothing, unfortunately. 
Nowadays all airlines urge passengers to exercise during the flight. But that is essentially to prevent DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis), not jet lag. 
Maybe because one can die from DVT, but not from jet lag.

What airline crews should do to help prevent or at least reduce jet lag for themselves and passengers is changing their 'keep the window shades down, please' policy. 
Window shades should be raised when the sun comes up. More details on that can be found in my book No More Jet Lag.


Flying with Infants and Toddlers
One topic airlines rarely discuss is flying with infants and toddlers. Yet, not a single flight takes off without at least a few very young passengers on board. Their parents often take it for granted that children experience a long trip like adults do. But of course they don't. Children perceive everything differently.
Infants may cry during the boarding process, but more often than not they fall asleep once the plane takes to the skies. 
An often helpful way to keep your infant happy during takeoff and initial climb with all its noise and changes in air pressure is to keep the milk bottle at hand and to feed the little one.

Toddlers, on the other hand, may upset fellow passengers with crying and whining. The trick is that under 5 year olds need to be prepared for the trip. Moms and Dads can best start this process several days before the trip, explaining what it means to be sitting for a long time, eating, drinking, playing and maybe sleeping again in the plane.
Make it exciting and adventurous. 
Securing a window seat for the child will help it change its attention from the cabin interior to the passing clouds outside.

While children may enjoy the long flight, most of the burden usually is on their Moms and Dads. There is a lot of baby food and nappies to bring on board. The stroller has to come as well and, of course we need clothes and toys and blankets. 
In an effort to increase comfort Moms and Dads need to question each and every item they want to bring as cabin baggage. Is it really needed? Who is going to carry it all? Can it be stowed safely? Can you rely on the assistance of cabin staff and ground staff?



Wikipedia
See what Wikipedia says about jet lag.



In flight Wifi
Life will be better in flight soon. Continental and United have announced plans to introduce wifi on all their aircraft between 2012 and 2015.


Travel apps
For frequently flying flyers this could be a very useful and free app: OnTheFy published by ITA Software for iPhone and Android smartphones. The app makes it fast and fun for travelers to compare options across airlines, dates, and alternate cities/airports. The app lets you quickly and easily find available flights with optimal fares.



Addiction
Many of us who have to travel for a living eventually may eventually hate those trips. But did you realize that the trips we hate, are addictive at the same time? It's for the same reason why athletes can't stop torturing their bodies to achieve better and better results. 
It's simply the adrenalin rush, the tension that comes with all the preparations, the calculated risks, the mild stress about flying to an unfamiliar situation.



Fear of Flying
Jet lag has nothing to do with the fear to soar through the skies on wings of metal. The fear to fly has many causes. Fearless-flight.com gives an excellent explanation and suggests different treatments. It's all free. Other sites excel in offering DVD or online courses. For example: 

• www.head-cleaners.com, 

• www.fearofflying.com and 

• www.panicportal.com. 

• www.fofc.com (Fear of Flying Clinic)

• www.airsafe.com (lots of information, not only about fear of flying)

• www.airfraid.com (UK based site)

• Breezes' article on travel anxiety New!

One of the reasons why some passengers are afraid to fly is that they don't trust the aircraft nor its driver. So, if all else fails, why not take control and be in charge? All from the safety of your living room. Go to your computer shop and buy one of the flight simulator games and learn to fly your own aircraft and to understand how everything works. 
Not a gamer, but live in the UK? Then fly the almost real thing at iPilot.
Silly? It's worth a try, isn't it?

And now, for the not so faint hearted (when it comes to flying), here are a few amateur video clips that may make you say "wow", "is this for real?", "Nooo..!!" and more.
Sit back and watch:

A not so smooth landing at the old Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong
The Tail Story,



Breaking up is hard to do
Like the once popular song says: breaking up is hard to do. Not only in one's personal life, but also when planning a long trip. 
Sure, a  business trip, no matter how frequently one flies is a big investment in time and money. It is also taxing on the traveler's well-being.
That's why it is a very good practice to break up a long intercontinental flight in strategically planned segments. Allow your CEO, Sales Manager and other staff some rest and recuperation during the trip. 
From a medical point it makes perfect sense to allow, or even tell the business traveler to limit flight sectors to not more than, say 15 hours of flying time. For example, when flying from Europe to Australia or vice versa, make an overnight stop in Singapore or Dubai, preferably even a 24 hour stop.



No Transit Facilities
Caribbean holiday destination Aruba has no transit facilities in its international airport. 
All transit passengers have to go through Immigration, claim their luggage, pay US$ 2 for a luggage trolley, clear Customs and rush to the departure hall to check in for the connecting flight.
Unfortunately staff are not really friendly, Customs regulations are applied inconsistently, and security personnel is rude.



UK Traffic Congestion
It can be a real challenge to arrive at the airport before your flight takes off. UK travelers can beat the odds with Frixo Road Traffic Reports a free service giving you live traffic news and information.



World's best airlines 2011
According to Skytrax 2011 passenger surveys the world's best airlines are:

1. Qatar Airlines, 
2. Singapore Airlines, 
3. Asiana Airlines, 
4. Cathay Pacific, 
5. Thai Airways

Historic aircraft order
Ask Boeing and they will likely admit that Indonesia's budget carrier Lion Air is the company's darling customer. In 2009 Lion Air became launch customer for the new B737-900ER. This year Lion Air singed another deal, the largest commercial aircraft order in history for 201 of the 737MAX and 29 of the 737-900ER NG. The initial deal is worth a whopping US$ 21.7 billion.


Flight on satellite
Air France is showing its passengers satellite views of the countries, cities and terrain they are flying over, thanks to a new partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).

The French airline receives satellite images of varying resolutions from ESA on CD-ROMs and uses them to create a program lasting the full length of each flight on its services from Paris to Bangalore,Delhi, Mumbaii and Singapore.

Lost Baggage
It can happen to each of us; waiting in vain for our suitcases or backpack at the carrousel. Now what? Filing a claim at the Lost Luggage counter is the very first step. Then hope and pray your stuff will be traced and delivered later. Fortunately, worldwide, 98% of all lost luggage is retrieved.
The main causes for luggage going astray fall into two major categories: tight connections and late check-in.
Several entrepreneurs have developed solutions to improve the chances of finding lost luggage. Independent Traveller offers good advice. GlobalBagTag offers a 24/7 online retrieval service. 
If all else fails you might want to see if you can buy your lost items: Unclaimed Baggage, as the name suggests sells the contents of unclaimed baggage. Looking for a cheap laptop, Dior high heels, a parachute? No kidding, they might actually have it.

All airlines together managed to (temporarily) lose 30 million pieces of luggage out of a total of 3 billion pieces of luggage that were flown all across the world at a cost of US$ 2.5 billion. The major causes of this problem, says SITA Inc. are tight transfers, airport congestion, security checks, but most of all the growing number of passengers (no, whose fault is that?).

Sometimes, baggage arrives on time, but its owner goes missing. Now, that is a problem.



The other side
Ever wondered why cabin staff begin to move meal trolleys down the aisle just as you want to go to the toilet? The cabin staff have their take on that situation. And on much more. Enjoy their stories, learn and adapt.



Mobile phones and Jet Lag
Following the gradual introduction of cellular telephone use in flight a 85 percent majority of passengers interviewed by Forrester Research say they are opposed to the use of voice calls and VOIP in flight. 



Embassy Woes
Enough is enough. Let's put it on the table, Fellow Travelers. Although Embassies have nothing to do with Jet Lag at all, in many parts of the world they create a lot of anxiety.
Have you noticed how rude many Consular Staff behave, regardless of the country they represent? How they deny visa applicants any human dignity and seem to view aspiring visitors to their countries as terrorists, drug dealers and illegal immigrants until proven innocent?

With all the legitimate concern to refuse entry to criminal individuals and the growing paranoia about what criminals and terrorists are, Embassies treat us on what we may call Anti Customer Service.
There is no need to name names as rude behavior is almost common. 
Unfortunately there are only very few exceptions.

The tourist promotion efforts of the nations' airlines and tourist industry, advertising the country for its beauty and friendly inhabitants become laughing matter with the behavior of its first line of representatives.

It would be a big help if Consular Staff would at least explain, with some respect, their counties' decision to refuse a visa and to reimburse the visa application fees, which are spiraling out of control as we speak.

This sounds like an excellent topic for Airlines, Airline Organizations, Air Passenger Associations such as IAPA, and Associations of Travel Agents to take a serious look at.

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