Off to Phoenix. Then Vegas.

Phoenix/Vegas Trip log #1
SJC airport - Mon, 2 Oct 2023. 7:30am

I'm off to Phoenix then Vegas for a 4 day business trip. This morning I'm flying to Phoenix, then meeting with a customer for a few hours starting around noon, then back to the airport. It's kind of like that day trip to Phoenix I did 5 weeks ago, but instead of rubber-banding home I'm sling-shotting to Las Vegas. I'll be in Vegas through Thursday for a trade show.

One good thing about this trip compared to last time is the 8:20am scheduled departure. I set my alarm for 6am... versus last time, when I was up at 4:45am for a 7am departure. Still, I was walking to the corner to meet my driver before dawn. The sun rose sometime en route to the airport.

At the moment it looks like my flight is running 10-15 minutes late. That's annoying... but also predictable. And because it's predictable (it's common) I planned my schedule with room for up to 30 minutes of delays. Meanwhile my sales colleague, Mike, has been dealt a 90 minute delay on his flight. Ugh. That could jeopardize the flow of our meeting with the customer in Phoenix.

Back at the Airport, On to Vegas

Phoenix/Vegas Trip log #2
PHX airport - Mon, 2 Oct 2023. 4:15pm

I'm back at the airport today, this time for my onward flight to Las Vegas. My morning flight took off almost on time and actually landed early despite starting boarding 15 minutes late. The crew really rushed to get us all aboard— with an almost full flight. I lucked into having one of the flight's empty middle seats next to me.

Our meeting today with the client in Phoenix went well. We didn't get through everything we wanted at the level of depth we wanted, but we delivered the message clearly: we've got a lot of new stuff they've wanted for a while. We've earned the right to talk to more people. We'll get the finer details of the message across subsequently.

The client gave us some flak about how long it took us to get these new capabilities. I was glad we had a company executive with us to deliver our message— and hear theirs. In the past company execs have been dismissive of the challenges we in the field face with customers dissatisfied with out progress. No, it's not the sales team they're dissatisfied with, it's the product.

We debriefed on that in the car ride to the airport and over a round of drinks at an airport bar. It was good stuff. As were the 1½ tall glasses of beer I drank. I ordered a beer, thinking it'd be a small glass, then the bartender brought me a huge glass that wasn't full, apologized, and brought me another huge glass, full.

So now I'm aboard the flight to Vegas, waiting for takeoff. After this morning's flight being nearly full, this one has almost 100 seats empty. Everyone gets an empty middle seat in their row; some get the whole row to themselves. It's too bad flying isn't like this more often.

Edited to add: Oh, another nice thing about this trip is it was 85° at the high in Phoenix today. That's much more manageable than the 115° high of my last day-trip here!