Okay, perhaps the story is a little comical (or at least to me). I was reading USA Today the other day and the article was entitled, "Air delays are worst at some big business-travel destinations". Okay, so here was the funny thing about that: I not only was at the airport – you guessed it. My flight was delayed. No surprise – it happens to all of us. If you travel often, you have had tremendous delays and probably have some very funny and interesting stories. As I was looking at the best and worst on time arrivals I really began to chuckle. The reason was, I only flew into the top 10 on time areas once last year. Only one time! As opposed to flying into the bottom ten probably every three weeks. Today the real question is, what do you do when you have delays:
- Do you read a book?
- Run around the airport?
- Listen to music?
- Watch a movie?
- Ride the tram?
- Call your parents?
- Catch up with friends?
- Make new friends?
For me I try to catch up on my reading. I usually have lots of articles in my briefcase and find the delays a good way to catch up. I also try and keep in touch with industry contacts and have a list of people to call.
- What do you do?
- Do you have a routine for delays?
I look forward to reading your comments.
Fee Sepahi says:
Ha, Ha, if i don’t end up being divereted and sleeping in Phoenix, from a direct flight to San Diego from Philadelphia, I will have or buy a book to read, after I’ve caught up with emails.
Fee
Jeff Adler says:
I assume I will be delayed, and arrive at the airport prepared to work. Most trips I have to build in such a large buffer for traffic and security that I end up with a lot of time at the gate anyway. If I get delayed, I just have more time to get work done.
One pleasant exception was the recent AMA Market Research Conference in Palm Springs. There are not a lot of flights out of the Palm Springs airport, so I found several colleagues were all taking a flight to Dallas (most in order to catch connections). It rarely rains in Palm Springs, so the gates have outdoor seating. We sat around, snacked, chatted, and generally enjoyed soaking up a last few moments of time in the sun.
John Castellano says:
I have a Presidents club membership, so generally I grab a spicy bloody Mary, open my computer and catch up on email, brush up on a presentation or do some research. If a delay is particularly long and its after business hours or a weekend I might start making some phone calls to catch up with family/friends.
Melanie says:
After I breeze through my Blackberry, I read. I almost always have a good book with me. It’s a good excuse to not work at all for a few minutes.
Jeffrey Lorber says:
Usually in this order:
1) Check in with the office
2) Eat
3) Plug in I-pod
4) Read book
5) Fall asleep
6) Miss flight
Ed Sugar says:
Didn’t you have a similar post to this a few years ago?
Anyway, like Mr. Lorber, her eis my list
1. Head to club
2. Eat
3. Plug in MP3 player
4. Check e-mails
5. Surf the web
6. Take a Valium
7. People watch