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Backpacker to Business Class Part 1: The Flying

by Keith on June 13, 2011 · 3 comments

I have just returned from my second RTW (round-the-world) trip in as many years.   The first took me to 18 countries on 5 continents, took over 9 months to complete, cost me $31,124 (my half of the total) and was done as a self-funded backpacker.  I just completed the second RTW trip as a business traveler.  This time, the route took me east, over Northern Europe to Singapore, on to San Francisco, before the final eastern leg back to Philadelphia on June 12th.  The trip took just over 2 weeks and will cost Johnson & Johnson a shade over $10,000 for me to attend a key regional meeting and an industry conference.  To compare and contrast the two experiences, I will publish a series of upcoming posts about what was better, worse and just different between traveling as a backpacker and as a business traveler.  Let’s get things kicked off with one of the biggest differences, flying business class.

While we did get a couple of nice upgrades on our backpacking trip, including an upgrade to economy-plus on the United flight from Chicago to Munich and the very clutch business class upgrade on Korea Air from Sydney to Seoul,

we were mostly back in economy.   This was not too bad as most of the flights we took on the backpacking trip were less than 5 hours.   Just enough time to read a magazine, write a blog post and maybe have a meal, as most international airlines, even the budget ones, still serve meals on flights of only an hour or two.

That is a huge contrast with my recent 18.5 hour flight on Singapore Airlines direct from Newark, NJ to Singapore, the longest direct flight in the world.

The entire plane is business class, with lay flat beds, personal entertainment systems and meals of seared tuna and fresh bread served on real china.

And while the amenities and services on the plane were a huge benefit, and made being in the air for that long not only tolerable, but downright enjoyable, it was the benefits in the airport that made the most difference in my flying experience.  It all starts with the check-in.  As I was traveling for business, I had a suitcase for luggage rather than my Osprey backpack, and there was no additional charge for checked bags (I am sure it is covered in the $6,500 ticket cost). I was then directed to the business class lounge which had complementary wifi, beer, wine, and small bites before boarding.

The flight was long, but covered the nearly 10,000 miles in astonishing comfort and speed.  One of the key benefits of this long flight is that Singapore Air is a Star Alliance member, resulting in me achieving Silver status on US Air from this one flight.  With Silver status I was able to get a free upgrade to domestic first class for the final flight back to Philadelphia, which allowed me to complete the entire trip in business/first class.   And as Amy remarked when we quickly checked our luggage ahead of a very, very, long, bleary-eyed and irritated looking economy class check-in line at 5:15am in the San Francisco airport, “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it sure does get you a whole lot of convenience.”  Not to mention a free bloody mary or two on the flight home.    What do you think, is business class worth the dedication to slavishly flying one airline?

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Patience is What I Found Traveling The World

by Keith on December 15, 2010 · 7 comments

A very common question that I get in interviews or even casual conversation about our trip is, “What was the most important thing you learned while traveling?”  This is a great question, much better than “What was your favorite place?”  But I get the sense that my answer is not always satisfying for people.  Maybe it’s a little too soft.  Patience, after all, is not as exciting as learning Mandarin, but it was the most important.  Let me illustrate why.

One of the first things you learn when you travel abroad is that the rest of the world, especially the developing part of it, is in much less of a hurry than we typically are in the Western world.  And getting upset about a difficult situation will never, ever help things.  While daily life can often seem hectic, as the streets of Vietnam do, people are less likely to be multi-tasking their way through their day.  More than once, Amy and I benefited from the kindness of strangers taking the time to assist us with directions, often walking us all the way to our destination.   After 16 years in a highly competitive school and professional work environment, this all seemed a little strange.  I was quite used to multitasking  all the time. iPhone in my right hand, Blackberry in the left hand, participating in a conference call,  all while riding a train to yet another meeting in New York City was the norm.  All of it seemed so important and critical, and if anything slowed me down or presented itself as a roadblock it was quickly dealt with and I moved on.  Well, it is not so easy to deal with an overheated broken down bus in the middle of Turkey when you have a plane to catch in 3 hours.

In fact, if you remain calm and ask for some advice on how to deal with the situation instead of quickly jumping to what you think is the solution (which for me in that instance was the inclination to get off the crippled bus and grab a taxi) you can learn that what you think you know isn’t really that useful at all.  Thanks to Amy helping me find my patience, we spoke with another passenger who told us that with the rush hour traffic a taxi was actually a very bad idea, but that jumping on the train at the next stop would get us to the airport in short order.  As it turns out, if we had not solicited that advice we would have surely been sitting in a taxi, stuck in traffic and spending another day in Istanbul instead of Cairo.

So while we have rather quickly readapted to our fast-paced, frenetic lives in the States, I do feel that I have retained a small part of the patience and ability to recognize what I can affect, and when my energy is better spent elsewhere.  This post reminds me vaguely of the 80/20 rule I learned while at Wharton.  That is 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.  The key is to take the time to recognize what is the 20% of effort that is making the difference.   Slowing down, remaining present and questioning my initial reactions has allowed me to incorporate this idea more effectively into my life.  Just one of the many benefits of investing the time we took for this trip, because after all it was an investment in our most valuable assets, us.

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Pedestrians Eating

by Keith on October 4, 2010 · 0 comments

Food and walking. If I was going to sum up our year traveling with the two activities we did the most of, these would be at the top of the list.  A good chunk of the walking was undertaken as a way to find the food.  So when we arrived in Portland and saw on TripAdvisor that the #1 attraction, of the 316 listed, was an epicurean walking food tour, I was in with both feet, and of course my stomach.

Getting Started
The tour, which is run by Portland Walking Tours, started at 2pm in the mezzanine lobby of the Heathman Hotel.  After Herb, our guide, gathered up the group, we headed downstairs to the first floor retail chocolate shop, Cacao, where we were each provided a sample of European-style drinking chocolate.  The drink was vaguely reminiscent of the discontinued Starbucks Chantico.  Along with the drink we were provided information by the store manager about the origins of chocolate and the different growing regions for chocolate around the world.

Oil and Vinegar Mixed Together
The second stop, while not quite as sweet, was equally tasty.  And since I have more of a savory than a sweet palate, Benessere Olive Oils and Balsamic Vinegars offered a great chance to sample fruity and aromatic olive oils from all regions and balsamic vinegars made from a wide variety of fruit combinations.

The silver canisters allowed for easy tasting and if you like what you sampled all you had to do was fill an empty glass bottle, cork it and bring it the register.

Pretentious Coffee
After a quick stop at the Flying Elephant Deli to sample their tremendous tomato-orange bisque, we headed over to Public Domain to have a cup ‘o joe.  This was not any old coffee though, this was a cup ‘o Esmeralda Special Mario Carnaval, the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for over $120/lb. The beans come from a coffee plant known as “Geisha” that originated in Ethiopia in the 1930′s, with some of the seeds making their way over to Panama in the 1960′s. But it wasn’t until Daniel Peterson took over La Hacienda in 1996 that the beans were segregated from the rest of the plants on the farm.  My final verdict on the coffee was that it was okay, nowhere near worth the price tag, and while I appreciate people that take their food seriously, the pretension at Public Domain was way over the top for me.  Check out how serious the barista is.

Good Beer World HQ
The tour then wound its way from a spice shop to a Greek food truck, and then to my most anticipated stop: the Tap Room.  There we had 4oz samples of 3 delicious local beers.  I was very much looking forward to the micro-brews in Portland, because in 2008, Portland had 30 microbreweries located within the city limits, more than any city in the world.  That’s right, I was in the good beer capital of the WORLD!   Doesn’t get much better than that.

Culinary Communism
Despite being rather full and having just enjoyed a couple of very tasty beers, we still had three more stops.  The first was a sandwich shop in Chinatown for a traditional cubano of sliced pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.  Perhaps communism is the cultural connection?  No time to solve that riddle – we were off to the next stop at the Oyster Bar for a small but sweet Tillamook oyster on the half shell.

Sweet Ending
And finally the tour drew to a close with a sweet ending at VooDoo Donuts, home of the Bacon Maple Bar, which is a raised yeast doughnut with maple frosting and 2 slices of bacon on top!  While we sadly did not get to try one, our dozen sampler did offer a good variety of the unique combinations that has made VooDoo famous.

In Summary
I highly recommend this tour if you are in Portland and have any interest in food.  There is a reason they are #1 on TripAdvisor.  The tour was jammed packed with 10 stops in all.  Each one offered a great taste of the cuisine that makes Portland so special.  And our guide was humorous, had a genuine passion for his hometown and regularly went out of his way to make sure all of the guests had a great experience.

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