I thought I’d start a regular Tuesday column on a subject that is near and dear to my P&L: travel. When I looked closely at my costs over the past few years, I realized that our firm’s travel-related expenses comprised a material percentage of our costs. Even though I run a small business, I know that travel costs — and headaches — often scale directly with company size (adjusting for industry differences, of course). I remember my days at FreeMarkets when, after a particularly bad experience with United, I learned how complicated the travel spending (and rebate game) was. The experience began with being stranded (with Premier Executive status, mind you) after missing an 11:00 PM connection because of a late flight, and being told that I’d have to spend the night on an airport bench unless I wanted to splurge for a hotel at my own expense. On principle, I told the agent that I was finished forever with United if they would not even offer accommodation after refusing to hold the next flight another 5 minutes (we saw it leaving as we pulled into the gate next to it).
At that point, two colleagues and I marched to a rental-car provider, jumped into a mid-size as quickly as we could, and drove through the night to arrive back at the office before sunrise. I then let United have it, starting with a letter to a number of co-workers, relating my experience (and United’s response)…
