Not Everyone's a Travel Pro
Aug. 29th, 2023 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOn my quickie business trip yesterday I was reminded that not everyone's a travel pro. It's natural to project to a certain degree, assuming that "others are like me" including when it comes to being able to book travel on a simple business trip they agreed to attend. While that's generally true for people who've worked in enterprise sales for years, where travel is part of our job, not everyone's in that role. One of our engineering execs whom I traveled with, "Doc", is not.
Doc was kind of lost a few weeks ago when I suggested that he could fly out and back the same day to visit this client. I gave him the approximate times for the flights and he was confused; he couldn't figure out which flights to take. When I sent him a link to my booking in the company travel portal he figured it out. Apparently he needed to see all the info... or maybe there was a "Copy this reservation" button.
Doc had trouble again at the airport. He wasn't checked in. He couldn't figure out how to do it on his phone. He tried a self-service kiosk at the airport but couldn't figure that out, either. I tried to help him but he was such a wreck at it it wasn't working. We flagged down an airline employee who did it for him.
I'm not sharing this to shame anybody. Navigating booking engines and airports quickly is a skill I built years ago. I learned it because I needed to do it a lot. I mean, I learned fast, but part of what's made it second nature is that repetition. For somebody who's only ever flown maybe a few times a year it's not that surprising they're kind of clumsy at it. And that's okay.
Doc was kind of lost a few weeks ago when I suggested that he could fly out and back the same day to visit this client. I gave him the approximate times for the flights and he was confused; he couldn't figure out which flights to take. When I sent him a link to my booking in the company travel portal he figured it out. Apparently he needed to see all the info... or maybe there was a "Copy this reservation" button.
Doc had trouble again at the airport. He wasn't checked in. He couldn't figure out how to do it on his phone. He tried a self-service kiosk at the airport but couldn't figure that out, either. I tried to help him but he was such a wreck at it it wasn't working. We flagged down an airline employee who did it for him.
I'm not sharing this to shame anybody. Navigating booking engines and airports quickly is a skill I built years ago. I learned it because I needed to do it a lot. I mean, I learned fast, but part of what's made it second nature is that repetition. For somebody who's only ever flown maybe a few times a year it's not that surprising they're kind of clumsy at it. And that's okay.
