The Chaotic Traveler

A theme emerges from business travel coverage so far this week: chaos and uncertainty make for unpredictable times.

Here's Joe Sharkey in the New York Times on Monday:

Nobody -- not us business travelers, not the online bookers, not the airlines themselves -- really knows what lies ahead. We are in uncharted waters as airlines cut capacity and try to raise cash with scattershot fare sales as weak demand persists. And once in a while, the airlines suddenly try to raise fares -- then hastily retreat like those Monty Python knights fleeing the enemy castle battlements yelling, "Run away! Run away!"

Here's my colleague Joe Brancaelli in Portfolio today:

This is the best time in a decade to get a deal. Long haul or short, budget digs or palatial stays, leisure and business travel prices have reached comparative, historic lows.

In other words, time to watch your back. If you think buying travel is tricky when prices are high, you have no idea how complicated life on the road can be when prices are falling. The travel industry doesn't lower prices graciously or transparently. There are always trapdoors, tricks, and an endless parade of extras that can needlessly inflate your fares and room rates.

Marilyn Adams writes in USA Today:

The recession and resulting falloff in business travel are taking a particular toll on second-tier business airports such as Cleveland, San Antonio and Hartford, Conn. Large airlines have reduced flights and switched to smaller planes since fall. Others have pulled out or shut down.

What this all means for travelers, especially the road warriors who the airlines and the hotels wish would get out there in bigger numbers, is that the time is right to make a sales call or do a meet-and-greet in a big city (as well as to book that summer vacation with the family). But if your business is focused on small communities, your travel plans are likely to be more complicated and more expensive.

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