Newsletter

The Seat Beat – Part 1 of 3

For business travelers, a good airline seat can make the difference between being productive and comfortable or being behind in your work with an aching back. But despite best efforts, it can be very hard to parse through information available online to understand the differences in the seating options available. Our UNIGLOBE Travel expert start a 3-piece series to clear through the clutter by providing some clarity on airline cabins and seats.

Click here to understanding the seat measurements and terminology.

Getting There from Here

Every year, OAG (an airline industry company that aggregates flight schedule data) releases its report of the worlds top city pairs. Our favorite visual compilation of that data comes from Visual Capitalist.

The busiest route involving the US is San Francisco to Los Angeles with just over 35,000 flights annually, on five airlines (Alaska, American, Delta, Southwest, United). This ranked 9th globally with less than half of the 79,000 flights between Seoul and the Korean resort island of Jeju (served by seven airlines!) which was in 1st place.

All this talk of busiest routes got us wondering about those routes that don’t have non-stop connections. Looking within North America, our data shows that the busiest airports without regular non-stop flights between them are Charlotte (12th busiest in North America) and Vancouver (24th busiest in North America).

Travel Like a Local

For many of us, our business travel schedule is rushed and compact. We leave little time between flights, meetings and other commitments – and spend our downtime in a hotel room catching up on emails that have been piling up while we were in transit.

In many cases, we are so focussed on optimizing our agenda and minimizing our time away from family that we forget to enjoy the destinations themselves. While the purpose of the trip may be for work, it doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy ourselves.

Accept the fact that you are away from home life for a few days and try to find ways to explore the destination and see life from another perspective. Rather than going to biggest tourist attractions, hop a subway to a neighbourhood away from the business district and go for a walk. Forget five-star dinning and look for a local diner or café to grab a bite while you watch life.

This simple change of perspective will allow you to destress from your day, but will also help you understand the local people and culture better – all of which will help you perform better at work.