TIL: I’m a REALLY Picky Traveler

I had no idea how picky I am about traveling until the person on the other end of the phone said, “Our travel agent will book your travel for you.”

GASP!

What??!!

I’m going back east next month for a trip that I’m not paying for (it’s not work-related) and the people who are bringing me there are handling all of my travel details: air travel, hotel, ground transportation, etc. Sure, I feel like a semi-important person all of a sudden, but I cannot stand the loss of control over how I get from here to there.

I’ve been on the phone and traded a couple emails with the people making the travel arrangements (they’re extremely nice and helpful!) and this is what I’ve been trying to get across without making myself out to be a complete jerk:

• I prefer aisle seats on airplanes.
• I like to sit as far to the front of the cabin as possible on planes, but not in the very first row.
• I’m a night owl, so flights that leave before 7 am PT are a pain in the arse.
• Worse, I’m a west coast night owl, so flights leaving from the east coast before 10 am are a pain in the arse.
• I’ve missed enough flights in my time to fear layovers of less than an hour, and less than 90 minutes at bigger airports.
• Plus, flights from east to west are slower due to headwinds, so I prefer longer layovers when traveling in that direction.
• I like Alaska and Delta the best for weekday travel, especially cross-country, because they both have a lot of flights with Wi-Fi, which means I can put in a semi-normal day of work while I travel.
• At hotels, I like rooms that are on higher floors because I like the views (and because they’re often quiter than lower floors).
• More importantly, I like rooms that are as far away from the elevators as possible so that I dont have to hear all the late-night foot traffic.

See? I’m a picky son-of-a-gun when it comes to travel, aren’t I?

When I’m booking my own stuff, I can control most of that myself. But not on this trip. Details aren’t set in stone yet, so I don’t know how close the trip will be to matching that wishlist above. But I have my fingers crossed for sure.