It takes a big surprise to unsettle business travelers who’ve learned to live without such accessories as nail clippers and manicure scissors (a prohibition the TSA has finally rescinded). And so they felt unnerved at first at the shocking idea of a bomb-in-a-bottle assembled aloft on a transatlantic jetliner. Such a scheme hatched in London and Pakistan comes close to triggering a personal red alert, especially for frequent travelers on the international circuit—and particularly ones flying between London and the States. With the terrorist plot making a mess of Heathrow and forcing U.S. business travelers to change flight plans, American and United gave customers the option of rescheduling without penalty up to September 1. British Airways set a similar deadline of December 1. “What’s next?” most frequent business flyers are asking—and wondering whether terrorists are more imaginative than the best sci-fi fiction writers. Bottle Embargo. Yet, after the initial shock, business travelers reacted to the bomb plot with amazing nonchalance. Just don’t be stupid and take bottles along—beverages, shampoo and toothpaste—in your carry-on. Period. Otherwise, through the thick of tougher in-flight baggage regulations, the flying public acted as though they had been there before—chastened by earlier security crackdowns and prepared to shift with the winds of changing decrees from security agencies. While British authorities initially put an embargo on taking electronic devices like laptops, cells and BlackBerries on board, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made it clear that American corporate travelers could continue to carry those nearly indispensable business tools. As they come up against one of the year’s worst travel weekends—Labor Day—when kids head back to school and the fall business season begins, corporate travel veterans are better prepared for security chaos at airports than ever before. How? Road Austerity. Business travelers long ago learned that less is more when deciding what belongings to take on a trip. Call it minimalist travel. The back-and-forth switching from large jets to regionals has taught flyers to use the smaller planes as the guide for what to pack. On balance, the less there is to inspect, the faster and easier it is to get through security—and find room to store bags. Ironically, the new emphasis on carrying smaller bags—and keeping their contents down—has already helped move passengers through security faster and shortened lines at some airports. Duplicate Belongings. One of the best strategies to be copied is to keep a duplicate set of clothes and accessories at a destination you frequently visit. In a variation on that idea in the 1980s, regional vice presidents and key sales managers covering the Pacific Rim would keep a corporate room—or suite—in the Marriott and other hotels in Hong Kong with a well-chosen basic wardrobe and use the crown colony as a springboard for traveling lean with only an overnight bag to Manila, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and even farthest-away Singapore on sales calls. The idea makes as much sense if you’re on a regular commute between an American city and, say, London or Brussels or Frankfurt where you’re involved in a deal or a project. So far, Hyatt and Ritz-Carlton have warmed to the leave-it-behind strategy, and most other full-service and luxury hotels would work out such an arrangement. De-Stressing. Most seasoned business travelers who believe stress can be a killer practice patience. They know the value of a stiff upper-lip response, exercising the amazing control of a British queue when faced with bomb threats. So, if there really are long lines, pull out a paperback to read or play your favorites on your iPod, as psychologists who study stress recommend. Constantly watching the clock is a ticket to distress when stuck in a gridlocked line. Selective Packing. In forward planning—and that’s an imperative these days—you have to sort out the important from the nice-but-unnecessary. “What am I taking that could be bought on the road—in a pinch?” It’s as simple a packing decision as taking two washable, wrinkle-free shirts for a four-day trip instead of the one-shirt-per-day traditional rule. Your BlackBerry is a critical tool to have along, as its myriad fans can attest. It stores all sorts of names, numbers and thoughts that might otherwise require jotting down and filling space in your luggage with notebooks and other paraphernalia. Check vs. Carry-on. In the wake of the London threat to blow up commercial transatlantic jetliners, the big decision is what flies in checked baggage or in your carry-on. The answer is a total reversal of what fast-track business travelers like: putting everything you really need in a carry-on to bypass baggage claim and get to a rental-car counter quickly. Now the drill is to minimize what’s in your carry-on and maximize checked material and articles—or by clever selection (and a duplicate set of clothes at your destination) eliminate any checked baggage, particularly sensible on short trips. As Kip Hawley, assistant secretary of homeland security, advises, “De-clutter your bag. Leave the liquids at home. Drink them.” The only wrench is to allow extra time to get to your first appointment after you’ve landed to compensate for lost time in baggage claim. Baggage Deliveries. With the main goal to avoid long lines and tougher security, companies that offer pickup-and-delivery baggage service are understandably popular, especially after warnings about not carrying any kind of bottle (cosmetic as well as alcoholic and soft-drink) aboard. Among the many services available, all relatively expensive but in some cases worth the money if you need something important shipped: luggagefree.com, luggageforward.com, virtualbellhop.com, baggagedirect.com, and sevenseasworldwide.com Google to find other entrepreneurial delivery services, but double check their reliability, often determined by word-of-mouth recommendations. Airports As Offices. Even after screening to find bottles and explosives becomes more routine, most smart business travelers will add a margin of error in getting to airports early. (Making close connections is another matter.) In the post-bottled-explosive period, experienced flyers are making sure they can productively use airports as offices—in concourses, public lounges or airline clubs. Alternative Tactics. With no sign that terrorism will go away, business travelers are clearly reexamining transportation alternatives that cut commercial airlines out of their travel scenarios. A small percentage of travelers have already switched to travel by car for shorter 200- to 300-mile trips. The AAA says shorter trips are somewhat more popular this year, despite sky-high gas prices, and one component of the spike is business travel. Another growing substitute for flying commercial is the upscale version of the everyday conference call—namely, teleconferencing. The struggling mini-TV industry has finally refined transmissions so with setups here and in, say, London, you almost feel everyone is in the same room—though actually 3,000 miles apart. Yet to many corporate critics, teleconferencing still seems cumbersome and—despite price reductions—costly. The Air Taxi Option. For queasy business travelers, the real answer to the ongoing terrorist threat is to get around in air taxis, a breed that is about to enter its trial phase, driven by its biggest promoter, Eclipse Aviation. Linked with taxi-operator DayJet, Eclipse’s four-to-six-passenger lightweight planes could buzz around the skies, mostly serving smaller cities and towns and out-of-the-way office clusters. The fleet would be particularly attractive to a project team that has to visit various sites. Yet tiny planes, though less tangled up with security, are expensive. Some jet time cards sell for as low as $3,000 an hour. But the charge on the meter—so to speak—is pretty stiff. To understand why it’s a good deal, as air taxi promoters claim, requires a lot of explaining with prices unbundled and compared to scheduled commercial flights. “Time is money” is the main rationale for signing onto the microjet life aloft. There’s also the not-so-silly complaint that the Eclipse doesn’t have a lavatory because all its flights would be mostly less than an hour. Rival Magnum Jet, a sleeper that just surfaced in the air taxi competition, has a plane with a lavatory, and that fact is a big part of its sales pitch. But all of this won’t play out until next year and on into 2008. By then, another critical terrorist threat may have altered the strategies that business travelers feel works best for them.
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