BC Business
Business travel tipsCreating a business travel plan isn't as simple as it used to be.
When putting together your business travel checklist, the first item should be a smartphone. But that’s not all the canny corporate traveller should pack. With business air travel in full rebound – increasing by at least 5 per cent this year according to estimates by the Global Business Travel Association, which projects another 6.4 per cent increase for 2012 – it just keeps getting busier and more crowded for regular sky warriors.
Business travel tipsCreating a business travel plan isn’t as simple as it used to be.
With business air travel in full rebound – increasing by at least 5 per cent this year according to estimates by the Global Business Travel Association, which projects another 6.4 per cent increase for 2012 – it just keeps getting busier and more crowded for regular sky warriors.
At international business travel hubs from Atlanta to Frankfurt, business-class lounges are jammed with long line-ups for the complimentary coffee and empty croissant basket. With even casual travellers exploiting frequent flyer upgrade programs, it’s time for corporate travel aces to add the latest technological innovations to the checklist.
First, if you’re a business traveller who’s not yet joined the world of smartphones – what are you waiting for? Go buy one. With an increasing list of convenient travel services and features available only to smartphone owners, these devices are now compulsory tools for business travel. As more airlines offer electronic boarding passes – which place a barcode on your smartphone screen that you can breezily wave at your next boarding gate – your iPhone, BlackBerry or Android PDA is quickly becoming an indispensable device for business air travel.
As well, the number of helpful business air travel apps and maps – navigation tools that will help you get from gate to gate, corporate travel itinerary apps such as Tripit (which collates all your important confirmations and schedules into one handy document), currency exchange converters, language translators, tips on restaurants and hotels – grows by the thousands every day.
More appear every day, but these are some of the current stars to add to the checklist:
– Tripit: the free version collects all your travel info – confirmation, flight and gate numbers, reservations, and everything else you need to execute your trip smoothly, into one digital document. The pro version even alerts you to cancellations and provides you with tips like instant alternate flight options.
– MyTSA: Travelling to or through the U.S.? This handy app offers up-to-date information on what’s permissible on-board and which security gates are backed up beyond hope.
– GateGuru: Lost in Heathrow? This free app provides airport maps with a host of useful details – including the nearest acceptable restaurant, bookstore, coffee spot. Need to know if there’s a newsstand past the security gate? Gate Guru will help you plan ahead.
– Take Me To My Car: Congratulations! You’re back home. Now where the hell did you park your car? This free iPhone app helps you get to your wheels with no fuss.
Smartphones aside, you can ensure that you have Internet connection almost anywhere with the growing availability of portable hotspots, or MiFi devices – such as the Virgin Mobile MiFi or the Novatel MiFi 2200. These light, pocket-friendly devices can be connected to a mobile phone to let you set up multiple Wi-Fi devices, letting them connect wherever you find yourself without having to pay local access fees or wander in search of free Wi-Fi.
If you still find yourself hunting for free Wi-Fi, be sure to bookmark the WiFi Freespot Directory for a crowd-sourced collection of internationally available free hotspots. Be sure, though, to make absolutely sure that the service you are accessing is in fact free, since some pay providers masquerade as free services.
Experienced business travellers know the key to smart business travel packing is to plan for carry-on only. Every airline seems to have different luggage rules these days – especially the short-haul carriers often used by business travellers, who derive the bulk of their fee revenue from checked baggage charges. With a digital luggage scale like the Balanzza, you can ensure that your luggage weighs exactly what it needs to get onboard without you paying any pricey surcharges.
And make sure you’re aren’t weighing yourself down with old-school bags: there’s a brave new world of high-tech luggage out there, made from advanced, lightweight materials that will reduce your load, like Rimowa’s polycarbonate Salsa Air line, or Tumi’s ruggedly featherlight ABS/polycarbonate cases. There are even self-powered bags, like the Classic Power-Assisted line put out by Live Luggage, which feature motorized wheels to assist you on steep inclines. Worried about the security of your precious documents and/or underwear? Check out the Heys USA BioCase, which operates using biometric fingerscans. You can store up to eight individuals’ fingerprints – and they’ll be the only people with a hope of opening your case.
You can also keep tabs on your fancy new luggage with new tech such as the Anytrack GPS-100, a tiny GPS device that discreetly clips to your bags and allows you to track it should it end up in Helsinki while you’re in Albuquerque. Someday, the very latest luggage may well be able to travel for you, and seal the deal all on its own, but until then, these sleek devices will have to do.
So now you’re in your destination city, with an hour to make the meeting. Take the stress out of navigation with some of the new portable GPS systems, such as the Asus R300, a slim, square device that slips into your pocket – or can be mounted on the dashboard of a rented car – and provides instant, accurate directions in pedestrian, bike or public transport modes. It’s full service, as well, with photo, music and video playback when you need distraction on your commute.
Offering 12,000 pre-programmed phrases and 450,000 stored words, 12 languages including Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, English, German and Russian, the Speaking Global Translator from Franklin lets you enter phrases for instant translation to and from your native tongue. Non-Roman-script languages are also displayed phonetically. This is just one of a wide range of high-tech Franklin translation tools, ranging from the i-Pen, which speaks phrases from an accompanying phrasebook, to the more hefty 16-language Global Phrasebook Translator.
If you take any of these business travel tips to heart, this is probably the most important one: keep your data safe and secure no matter where you happen to be. If the worst comes to the worst, KeepItSafe.com ensures that the vital data you need, for work, medical emergencies, identity proof and travel is instantly available over the Internet, yet shielded from prying eyes behind military-level encryption. Upload scans of your passport, credit card info, insurance policies and flight details – and even if someone does somehow get their hands on the files, encryption ensures those files are unreadable by anyone but you. Standard Online Safe Deposit boxes are free, but have space limitations. Premium boxes cost a yearly fee, but offer more storage space and other options.