“Woody Hunt forgot his ID as he was heading out to a business trip. He
realized this once he got to bag-check line! The realization came after looking in his pocket and not seeing the ID. Where could the ID be? He left it in his mountain-biking backpack and couldn't think of why he would have taken it out of his wallet. ... His flight was leaving in 45 mins. So what did he do? He called his wife who was working at the kids' school. She had to leave the school with both children, go home, get ID and drive to the airport. ... Woody ran to the curb, grabbed ID through the car window and ran for it. ... Flight was conveniently delayed an hour and was just boarding when he arrived. Super lucky!!”
-- submitted by a colleague of Woody Hunt, founder, Woody’s Books http://woboinc.com/
“I had to fly up to Seattle for a last minute business trip. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, but I was sure that it would be dark, dreary, raining - it's Seattle, after all. Well, I arrived on June 20th, longest day of the year, and Seattle just happens to be having a sunny spell. The hotel my client put me in was oh-so-hip and didn't have any curtains, to let in all the natural light. Well, there was PLENTY of it. ALL NIGHT LONG. It's so bright on June 20th each year they have a night-time golf tournament. And the sun started to come up at like 4AM. I know, because I was trying to drown it out with a pillow.”
-- anonymous
“The absolutely worst trip was last November when organizing a conference
for The Small Business Web.
1. My flight was cancelled due to weather.
2. Rerouted, I was puked on by a baby next to me on the flight.
3. I was an hour late for my meeting. I took a $100 cab but he didn't take
credit card.
4. I came down with the worst head cold of my life. I could not even move
without my head exploding in pain. I missed a big meeting sleeping in my
hotel.
5. No rest for the wicked: I was the main conference organizer for The
Small Business Web Summit. I had to rise, find some Tylenol, get my signs
printed, and then go and run a two-day event. With no voice.
“I survived though through shear perseverance and tenacity. It only took me
3 weeks to recover! And all my industry partners now joke I was a lot nicer
when I couldn't talk.”
-- Sunir Shah, Olark live chat http://www.olark.com/
“I was trying to get to NYC for my job in Minneapolis and I had to be at an event early the next morning. My flight would have put me into LaGuardia with enough time to meet some important contacts for dinner. Storms between Minneapolis and NYC delayed flights and I was bumped hour after hour until I finally was able to get a flight into Newark that got me in at 2:30 a.m. I caught a cab to my hotel in midtown where, dead tired, I grabbed the key and headed up to my room. When I
opened the door, all I saw was a lamp lit in the living room and two people sitting in my room, watching television.”
-- Dan Callahan, St. Louis
“Woody Hunt forgot his ID as he was heading out to a business trip. He
realized this once he got to bag-check line! The realization came after looking in his pocket and not seeing the ID. Where could the ID be? He left it in his mountain-biking backpack and couldn't think of why he would have taken it out of his wallet. ... His flight was leaving in 45 mins. So what did he do? He called his wife who was working at the kids' school. She had to leave the school with both children, go home, get ID and drive to the airport. ... Woody ran to the curb, grabbed ID through the car window and ran for it. ... Flight was conveniently delayed an hour and was just boarding when he arrived. Super lucky!!”
-- submitted by a colleague of Woody Hunt, founder, Woody’s Books http://woboinc.com/
“My worst business trip occurred in the mid-1980s, when I was manager of employee communications worldwide for a Fortune 200 based in New York City by day, and pursuing an MBA in Marketing part-time in the evening. I traveled about 25% of the time for my job, and sometimes even went to class with my suitcase in hand, ready to leave early to catch the next plane to wherever.
“That day was very hectic and for whatever reason, I hadn't had a chance to eat anything except for perhaps a muffin and coffee at breakfast. Boarding the plane – no food as it was a short “no frills” flight by small commuter plane – I thought I would just get something to eat at the hotel. Except the hotel was a motel which didn't have a restaurant and the entire small upstate New York town was ‘asleep/closed down’ when I arrived around 10 pm. The only ‘food’ to be had was vending machine quality – candy bars, potato chips and soda – which I devoured to silence the hunger pains … and got the worst stomach ache ever!”
-- Samuella Becker, TigressPR
“I was scheduled as the keynote speaker for a conference in Nashville. I flew in the night before. To save the conference money, I took a flight connecting in Houston. There had been flight cancelations that day and the plane was oversold. Every passenger was required by the airline to hand over their carry ons, and assured they would be waiting. With reluctance, I gave up my overnight bag.
“The flight left late. There was a further delay in Houston. By the time I arrived in Nashville, it was after midnight. I arrived. My overnight bag didn't. Since I was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt, this was a problem.
“By the time the airline acknowledged it lost the bag, it was 1:00 a.m. The rental car company I reserved a car with was closed. Fortunately, Hertz was still open and I grabbed a car from them, eager to get to my room and figure out what I was going to wear in the morning.
“The convention was at the Opryland, which is one of the most massive hotels in the world. Incredibly, they were oversold. There were no rooms. The
reservations clerk appeared nervous that I would be upset. Instead, I started laughing. What else could go wrong?
“The clerk tried to spin this as good news by declaring that my room for the evening would be free. at the Embassy Suites. I explained that I wasn't paying for the room anyway, so this was no bonus, but what I really wanted was to see if he could get one of the hotel stores to open up for me. I explained why.
“The clerk said it was impossible to get a store opened before 10:00 a.m. I told him my keynote was at 8:00 a.m. He told me to wait and took off. A few minutes later he emerged with a rack of the dark polyester jackets the reservations staff wore. I tried them on until I found one to fit. Reservations clerk jacket in hand, I took off for the Embassy Suites.
The Embassy Suites was one of those hotels you can see from the highway, but can't get there. This was before GPS. I wandered around and finally found the hotel. I checked in and got the directions to the nearest Wal-Mart, which I knew was open 24/7.
At the Wal-Mart, I walked through the store, buying a toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, single pairs of polyester socks, underwear, polyester slacks, polyester shirt, a belt, and a polyester tie. In the checkout line, I handed the clerk my American Express card. She looked at the card, looked at the stuff I was buying, and looked me from head to toe and back. I was pretty rumpled and scruffy looking by this point. ‘Have you got any identification,’ she practically spit at me. Again, all I could do was laugh.
“The next morning, I made it to the Opryland, gave a great speech in my polyester socks, polyester slacks, polyester shirt, polyester tie, and borrowed polyester reservations clerk jacket. Moreover, I was able to open with a great story about overcoming obstacles.”
-- Matt Michel, CEO, The Service Roundtable
“My worst nightmare horror story occurred in the 1990s when I was returning from Frankfurt Germany to Charlotte, NC. In three-week stints, we worked 12-14 hours per day four days a week and at least nine on Fridays, and then headed off to explore the Continent. As always, I was dead tired when I boarded the USAirways 767 for the flight home.
“... I proceeded to sit down, and after my seat-mate came, I buckled in and fell asleep. ... So I'm asleep and after they turn off the ‘stay in your seat’ light, a
German doctor sitting several rows in front of me apparently jumped up and opened the overhead bin above my head. His heavy, brass-cornered leather
briefcase fell out, hit me on the face, broke my glasses, cut my face next to my eye and woke me up! (In that order!) I put my hands to my face and
when I took them away I realized my glasses were gone and my hand was covered in blood.
“The doctor called for the attendant to bring a bag of ice. He sat on the arm of my seat for 45 minutes holding the ice on my face. ... When we reached Philadelphia, the weather was bad and they kept delaying our flight to Charlotte. When I figured out that we weren't going to fly, I went to the line to get a hotel for the night and the line was so long, that I figured out it would be 2:00 a.m. when I reached the front of the line, so I went to an empty gate area, pulled the seats out from the wall and put my luggage against the wall. Laid down and went sound to sleep. ... This is only one of the many reasons I detest the Philadelphia airport.”
-- anonymous
