A lot of CEOs are secretive around how they travel for business, so it can be difficult to get an idea of how a top CEO would get around – from their airport lounges to whether they use a private jet.
So, here are some tips on travel with importance and comfort – both of which are important your perception as much as they are your own experience.
Charter a business jet
To charter a business jet is to make a real statement. Even better is that it’s not as exclusive and expensive as it used to be, but people still perceive it as being the epitome of exclusive VIP travel. However, it’s not just the privacy and ability to walk around like you own the place, it’s also the most functional way to travel in our Covid-laden world.
Whilst it’s undoubtedly unfair in societal terms, chartered jets get special treatment. Arriving at the airport can mean avoiding the lengthy queues and even sometimes Covid protocol. You won’t have to arrive 2+ hours before your flight to be on the safe side, things can be much more immediate. Landing is also easier, mitigating the usual lengthy passport queues and such.
You can prepare for the flight as described in the FAQ here, as well as get a quote to see the rough prices.
Making time for inspiration
A more unusual tip, but highly important, is to leave room for some inspiration upon your travels. It’s all well and good heading to every meeting and achieving your goals of the trip, but by leaving some extra space in your schedule, you can spend some time for other networking activities or peripheral events – or even just indulge the culture of your environment.
Travel can provide us with a new perspective, and these are the things that separates a top CEO trip from an ordinary one. Even just some downtime in a different culture can be a source of new ideas and inspiration – not everything has to be effective and traditionally productive. It’s in the moments of quiet that we can self-reflect on ourselves and the business.
Plan your WiFi availability
It’s important to know before leaving to plan your WiFi availability. This means knowing if your transport will have WiFi, for example, and blocking this time out if so. You should for work that doesn’t require WiFi in these moments instead of improvising that. You could use these moments as your downtime too, but often it’s more useful to get some basic tasks done as it won’t be valuable downtime on a busy, loud plane.
It’s important to have devices that can operate without the internet (our dependency on the internet is becoming too reliant), and it may be worth buying a new SIM Card for data in the new area you’re travelling in.
Final Word
It takes time to get good at business travel, as you begin to pick up on the best ways to get around, what airport lounges are good to use, and how to plan your time. Your choice of transport can often become the most important part of the trip, because this is the area that’s most likely to go wrong, be cancelled or delayed, have an unreliable internet connection, or simply be extremely distracting. Hopefully, despite the pandemic and remote work, business travel remains strong.