i hate business travel

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Just How Bad Is Business Travel for Your Health? Here’s the Data.

• Andrew Rundle

It can increase your risk of anxiety, depression, obesity, and alcohol dependence.

How does frequent business travel effect workers’ health? Research shows a strong correlation between the frequency of business travel and a wide range of physical and behavioral health risks. Compared to those who spent one to six nights a month away from home for business travel, for example, those who spent 14 or more nights away from home per month had significantly higher body mass index scores and were significantly more likely to report the following: poor self-rated health; clinical symptoms of anxiety, depression and alcohol dependence; no physical activity or exercise; smoking; and trouble sleeping. The odds of being obese were 92% higher for those who traveled 21 or more nights per month compared to those who traveled only one to six nights per month, and this ultra-traveling group also had higher diastolic blood pressure and lower high density lipoprotein (the good cholesterol).

Checking into a hotel for a conference several years ago, I asked the receptionist where I could get some dinner. There was no restaurant in the hotel, I was told; my only options were ordering delivery from a fast-casual chain or a pizza joint. I went with the pizza, but my lack of choices was annoying — so much so that, when I got home, I started looking into the data on health and travel for work.

• AR Andrew Rundle is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Mailman School of Public Health. His research focuses on the risks for, and consequences of, sedentary lifestyles and obesity.

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Is This the End of Business Travel As We Know It?

As America hurtles toward a post-pandemic future, some pre-2020 customs won’t survive the transition. Chief among those up for re-evaluation: business travel. On the latest Pivot podcast , Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher discuss whether the corporate-funded journeys of the past make sense anymore.

Kara Swisher : Air travel is surging this week. Over the weekend, TSA officers screened the highest number of passengers on a single day since March 15th of last year. The reduction in travel hit airlines hard —US airlines lost more than $35 billion combined. On the other hand, a smattering of colleges like Yale University are canceling spring break this year in an effort to keep students from traveling to hotspots like Miami Beach. What’s going on, Scott? What do you think is going to happen now?

Scott Galloway : It’s both super exciting, and also we don’t want to acknowledge this, it’s also frightening. Duke just canceled classes — they have an outbreak there.

Swisher : This is what Dr. Fauci said would happen — little outbreaks.

Galloway : We don’t want to acknowledge this, but this is why it’s so important that we get vaccinated. I see it as a race between vaccinations and variants. Viruses are incredibly impressive pathogens, organisms — I don’t know what the correct term is. And you can bet that this virus is working overtime to try and figure out a way to get around these vaccines.

Swisher : Yep.

Galloway : And when we have people traveling and we create more opportunities for asymptomatic carriers, you’re kind of… I don’t want to say you’re arming the variants. But I think this is a very nervous time, because if you want to see a crash that would affect everybody, if all of a sudden there’s an outbreak of a variant that appears to …

Swisher : That resists the vaccine.

Galloway : That is when shit gets real for us. I mean, it’s already gotten really real, it’s a half a million deaths. But all of a sudden it looks like, wow, we could go from half a million deaths to five million, and the economy won’t have any Kevlar against that. So look, I’m a glass half empty kind of guy. I think it’s exciting that people are traveling. It’s a good sign that people want to get out. There’s no doubt about it, this is going to be the roaring 20s if we continue …

Swisher : Yeah, agreed. What would be interesting to see is if US airlines actually changed their practices, like in terms of how they behave and operate their businesses. Also, I just talked to Airbnb’s Brian Chesky for Sway coming up. He has pivoted his business, obviously. But that business will go right up. They’re seeing an upsurge in traveling, he said. Not internationally yet, but in the country.

Galloway : I mean, I love Airbnb, but it’s going to change. We’re just going to change in so many ways. We’re going to return to travel, but I think we’re going to travel differently.

Swisher : He said he wasn’t focused on business travel at all. He said it’s over.

Galloway : Oh, business travel is going to get crushed. I have several friends who do nothing but circle the planet raising money from sovereign wealth funds. And they say they’ll still go to Canada to meet with Ottawa teachers —they’ll still go golf or whatever. But they’ll go once a quarter instead of more frequently. I mean, they’re just off planes.

Because everybody has learned new technologies and is comfortable. I think travel is going to be reconfigured. I think people are going to spend as much money, but they’re going to crowd it around leisure, travel, and consumption, and travel with their families.

Swisher : That is precisely what Brian said. He said he doesn’t think business travel is going to come back like it was. He talked about Airbnb’s own headquarters, that they have these beautiful headquarters. And he’s like, I rethink everything now. Not that he’s not going to make it available if people want to go in. But it’s going to be a much different strategy. At the same time, he feels like most of the investments his company makes should be in consumer travel. But they’re not going back into airlines. Remember, they had an airline plot going on.

Galloway : A lot of airlines will go bankrupt, and they’ll be reconfigured. Airlines in the United States have gone bankrupt, or they call it restructuring, I think 62 times since the turn of the millennium. Airlines are famous for going bankrupt. And guess what? That’s fine, because it’ll give another set of investors a chance to come in and try and reconfigure and make airlines more resilient to these types of shocks.

Swisher : Of course at the same time, the fact that travel is down means emissions are down, obviously. When I talked to Bill Gates , he talked about green fuel, essentially. Fuel that’s made with less emissions. And it’s much more expensive, it has a real premium on it. They’re not really going to invest in that, right?

Galloway : Well, it’s two different issues there, how airlines reinvent themselves. But I think it’s a big question for society and for all of us as individuals, as it relates to our professional and our personal lives, our relationships, our behaviors. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. And what I say to my kids and my students is “Ask yourself, what are you going to leave behind?” I mean, there were parts of the country where emissions were down 20, 30, 40%. And the question becomes, well, might that be something we want to hold on to even post-pandemic? And what would be required to do that? It’s an exciting moment to say, how do we leave emissions behind? I also think it’s a really interesting exercise to say, what about my relationships with my children, my spouse, my parents, my friends, my coworkers was better, and what was worse? And which relationships or behaviors do I leave behind?

Swisher : With my baby, my young daughter, I would have been traveling quite a bit. And I have to say, I want to travel more intentionally. I hate to use that word because I hate that word. But- You know, just more intentionally. Do I have to do this? No. Can I do it online? Yes. That kind of thing. I think it’s turned out to be just fine. And the kind of stupid trips where you travel somewhere. I mean, Farhad Manjoo had a piece about this . He traveled one place to get in an argument with someone for an interview, and it didn’t even work. And he came back and he was like, it was a waste of money, time, and emissions. When he could have done it in a much different way.

Galloway : I track everything I do pretty meticulously. And my first business, Prophet Brand Strategy, my biggest client was Audi. And I used to commute every week from San Francisco to Munich, and then get in a car and drive to Ingolstadt, Germany. Such that I could spend one or two days with the CMO of Audi trying to figure out what Audi’s purpose was, as a brand. And I was commuting back and forth to Germany.

Swisher : Is that a 10 hour flight? Right?

Galloway : No, like 11. Consulting is a young woman’s game, it’s a terrible lifestyle. Anyway, in 2019 I did 41 speaking gigs. And for 25 of them I had to travel. And when I looked at the amount of money and amount of miles, I spent somewhere between $75,000 and $125,000 — or my clients spent that — on just my travel. And in 2021, I will do somewhere between 70 and 80 speaking gigs, and I’m not traveling. And I’m going to cut that entirely out of my life. If I can’t go into my studio, turn on Zoom, then I don’t do it. I’m not going to the Radisson in Scottsdale.

And when you think about what that means, not only is it a destruction in business travel, but I also  think it’s a real opportunity for mothers and fathers to spend more time with their kids. Right? It’s like, okay, I might give up a little bit of income, but I save a lot of money, save a lot of emissions. And where do you reinvest that capital? Do you reinvest it in remote technology? Do you reinvest it in your family? Do you reinvest it in making more money? What’s interesting about it is that digitization will have a negative impact on the speaker circuit, which I’m technically on. There’s sort of Tier A, and then there’s-

Swisher : I’m familiar.

Galloway : There’s Tier A that gets about $60,000 to $200,000 for a speaking gig, and then there’s Tier B. And Tier B is about  $20,000 to $40,000, and there’s a lot more of those folks. Those folks are getting crushed because, by going remotely, you take your prices way down, and so you can get Tier A for what used to be Tier B prices, and they’re soaking up everything because they can do two or three gigs a week, versus just one. So with digitization, there’s big winners, and Tier B gets crushed, and you’re just seeing it everywhere.

Swisher : Guess what? You just moved into Tier A this week. You moved into Tier A.

Galloway : HBO star . That’s right.

Swisher : All right, Tier A minus, I would say.

Pivot is produced by Rebecca Sananes. 

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

• kara swisher
• scott galloway

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Focus: How business travel may never be the same again

• Lufthansa sees business demand rise within Europe
• U.S. spending seen at 65-80% pre-pandemic level by Q4 2022
• Firms consider cost, environment and employee wellbeing
• Client meetings seen as most essential in person

COUNTING THE COST

Greener travel, client care.

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Additional reporting by Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt, Michael Shields in Zurich, Claudia Cristoferi in Milan; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle

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Family of Pole killed in Gaza should get compensation from Israel, Poland says

Israel should apologise and pay compensation to the family of a Polish national who was among seven aid workers killed in an airstrike in Gaza, Poland's prime minister and president said on Thursday.

A senior Hamas leader said on Thursday that Egypt had put forward a ceasefire proposal to end the conflict in Gaza, but that it did not include anything new.

I Don't Want To Travel

Author, Farmer, Falconer

If you want to feel out of place tell your friends you don’t want to travel. The looks you’ll receive in return will run the gamut from shock and disgust to quiet pity. Admitting this is pretty much declaring ignorance and isolationism. It’s tripping down the stairs while crawling back into your doomsday bunker. Good, self-actualized people travel. If they don’t, they want to.

Somehow getting on a plane and going far away became the highest form of purchasable enlightenment. To experience real life is to experience it somewhere else. As a homesteader I chose the opposite. I haven’t left this farm for a single night in over five years, but I think my experiences have been just as life changing as the inkiest passport.

To love travel is to love the feeling of being uncomfortable in a controlled environment. It’s a very expensive roller coaster ride. You board the plane knowing that maybe some new experiences will slide out of your comfort zone, but they are still choices you made. We’ve all seen the Instagram feeds of zip lines, SCUBA dives, long hikes, and drinks on the beach. Whatever the itinerary it’s understood there’s a safe hotel room booked, plenty of cash set aside for meals, and soon they’ll be home again to explain how the temperature of beer served in restaurants varies based on country.

I see these pictures and feel no sense of envy or desire. I always saw travel as something anyone can do with enough money, time, and the wits to book a flight. By its nature travel is flirting. There is no commitment to the destination, only pleasure. Guest is a title travelers learn to accept. That word makes me cringe.

If travel is being recreationally uncomfortable in a controlled environment ― I chose the opposite. I’ve spent half a decade being cozy in a very volatile environment. I nested hard on a few acres on the side of a mountain. I run a four-season livestock farm alone.

“If travel is being recreationally uncomfortable in a controlled environment -- I chose the opposite.”

Imagine taking yourself out of your regular career and landing on a mountain farm with a flock of sheep. You have lambs to raise, a horse to ride, pigs to butcher, poultry to sell, vegetables to grow, honey to harvest. All without a spouse, children, or family members. It’s just you and the network of fellow farmers and friends you managed to cultivate. Now throw in hobbies like falconry, fly fishing, river swimming, archery, home brewing and the fiddle. Welcome to your new jobcation! Now don’t leave for 20 seasons and see what kind of person you turned into after all that. Beer temperatures vary based on exhaustion levels.

Both sides sound romantic and unrealistic to most people. Few can afford the time or money to travel the world or buy Heidi’s Grandfather’s place on the side of a mountain and get rid of their cell phone. The traveler and the homesteader are two sides of the same escape fantasy. Rivendell or the Shire? Do you want to relax around a different culture without responsibility or dig into your own so deep you’re weeding your tomatoes for fun?

I see how people could assume my farm is a cage. Some bluntly call it that to my face, which is a funny thing to hear from grown humans who will get in trouble with another adult if they aren’t sitting in a particular chair on Monday morning...

I don’t want to work a job I tolerate just to afford two weeks of entertained distraction from the previous fifty. If that means choosing this life that doesn’t allow travel, so be it. This place feeds me, needs me, and keeps me learning from mistakes while celebrating constant resourcefulness. It taught me what I am capable of and how strong I can be.

My vacations instead come two hours at a time every day. I can leave my computer to ride my horse up mountain trails or gear up for a hunt with my hawk . I can choose to take a ten mile run across the landscape I know as well as the sidewalks I strolled to school on as a child. I can nap in a hammock, pour a drink, or watch a movie. Not as sexy as a story about band I loved in a Dublin bar, but tangible every single day. I chose commitment over flirtation. I am not a guest.

“Travel if you want to. Don't travel if your couch makes you happier. No one is winning if they're chasing someone else's idea of happiness even if they were tricked into thinking it was their own”

Travel if you want to. Don’t travel if your couch and a Game of Thrones marathon makes you happier. No one is winning if they’re chasing someone else’s idea of happiness even if they were tricked into thinking it was their own.

The truth is you can’t buy enlightenment from a travel agent or harvest it from vegetables in your own backyard. We grow slowly over time. It doesn’t matter if you’re in an Ashram or Akron ― becoming a better person is putting in the work of getting older. For some it’s raising babies. For others it’s taking up politics, art, athletic endeavor or public service. Finding what you want out of life and working to keep it is the trick, without being sold any fantasy as salvation. You can’t speed up life lessons by changing your coordinates or refusing to chart them in the first place. But you can feel happiness if you learn how to eventually read your own damn compass.

Mine points to here.

Jenna Woginrich farms in upstate New York and blogs regularly at Barnheart.com

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Economy airline tickets are more expensive, but business class has actually gotten cheaper

It’s true – airfares are going up, but not as much as the price of other goods and services .

“While airfare has risen in nominal terms in (the) U.S. and Europe, consumers will appreciate that the increases are less than other consumables,” Jeremy Bowen, CEO of aviation analytics company Cirium, said in a statement. “Cirium’s data teams will continue to monitor the impact on fares of increased capacity in the market, despite challenges related to the availability of aircraft, be it due to groundings, engine issues, or supply chain constraints.”

According to Cirium’s data, the average domestic airfare in the U.S. was $179.25 in 2023, 9% more than in 2019.

Cirium said it compared those figures to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation data, which showed overall inflation at 19% in the same period.

Transatlantic airfare was also up in 2023, at $435.17 for a one-way economy ticket, compared to $381.08 in 2019, a 14% increase – still below inflation.

Cruising Altitude: I will fight for overhead space on a plane, but I shouldn't have to

Premium tickets have actually gone down in relative terms across the Atlantic. In 2023, a business class ticket was 3% cheaper on average than it was in 2019.

Business travel has been slower to recover post-pandemic than leisure, which may mean some airlines are discounting their business class tickets to help fill the cabins.

For travelers, the price adjustments mean flying in any cabin is a relatively good deal, since prices in other sectors of the economy are rising more quickly.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected]

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Jail Cells? Morgues? Your Cruise Ship Has Some Surprises for You.

Here are five unexpected features on ships, some of which you hopefully won’t discover on your own.

By Ceylan Yeğinsu

Cruise ships have hidden features that many passengers, particularly first-timers, don’t know about. Some ships are as big as small cities, and while it’s relatively easy to familiarize yourself with a seemingly endless number of amenities — water parks, tattoo parlors, multiple restaurants — there is also an entire ecosystem, often below passenger decks, that is shrouded in mystery.

Here are five things that cruisers may not know about cruise ships:

There’s a morgue …

Cruise ships carry millions of passengers each year, and it is not uncommon for deaths to occur on board. Most vessels are required to have a morgue and additional body bags in the event of an emergency.

The morgue, usually a small stainless steel refrigerated room on the ship’s lowest deck, accommodates between two to 10 bodies, depending on the size of the vessel. When a passenger or crew member dies, officials on the ship will notify the authorities on shore and a medical team will assess the body and move it to the morgue, where it is kept until arrangements are made for repatriation. In most cases, the body will be removed at the next port of call, but sometimes will remain on board until the end of the voyage.

…and a jail

There are no police officers on cruise ships, but most vessels have small jails known as the brig, and unruly passengers could find themselves locked up if the ship’s security team determines that they have violated the cruise line’s code of conduct.

The brig, usually a bare-bones room with a bed and bathroom facilities, does not have iron bars like a traditional jail cell. It is used to detain guests who commit serious crimes like assault or possession of illegal substances. Drunk and disorderly passengers may be put under “cabin arrest,” meaning they cannot leave their cabin without a security escort.

Depending on the circumstances, most passengers put in the brig will stay there until they can be handed over to law enforcement officials.

Many ships don’t have a Deck 13

Many cruise ships do not have a Deck 13 because of the widespread superstition in Western culture that the number is unlucky. Ships with a Deck 13 typically use it for public areas, not cabins.

Some ships, like Royal Caribbean’s Quantum class vessels, have a Deck 13 because the vessels are used mainly for the company’s market in Asia, where the number is not considered unlucky. MSC ships also have a Deck 13, but not a Deck 17, because the cruise line’s founder is Italian and 17 is considered unlucky in Italy.

Cruise lines entertain other superstitions, like appointing godmothers to bless new vessels and ensure the safety of passengers and crew. They also hold naming ceremonies in which a bottle of champagne is smashed against the hull of a new ship for good luck. If the bottle fails to break, the vessel will, according to superstition, have bad luck. These days, cruise lines use mechanical devices to ensure that does not happen.

Hidden pools and facilities for the crew

There are typically more than 1,000 crew members on board large cruise ships, and while they spend most of their time serving passengers, there are several areas on the lower decks designated for them to unwind.

The facilities vary from ship to ship, but there are usually small pools in the ship’s bow exclusively for crew members, as well as restaurants, bars and recreational areas like game rooms and gyms. The designated bar, a central social hub for employees after they have finished their shifts, often hosts live music and events in the evening.

Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, has an entire “neighborhood” dedicated to its 2,300 crew members, with a clubhouse that has massage chairs and virtual balconies — large screens that show real-time views from outside — as well as a restaurant with portholes looking out to the ocean.

Most ships host A.A. meetings

With all-inclusive beverage packages and countless bars, cruise ships can be a tough environment for guests in recovery. Many cruise lines offer daily Alcoholics Anonymous meetings that are usually scheduled as “Friends of Bill W.,” a reference to William Wilson, who co-founded the A.A. program in 1935.

The meetings are usually held in a quiet place like the library, where guests can feel comfortable and maintain their anonymity. They are also open to other support group members, like Women for Sobriety and Narcotics Anonymous.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Ceylan Yeginsu is a travel reporter for The Times who frequently writes about the cruise industry and Europe, where she is based. More about Ceylan Yeğinsu

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 Cruise Ship Surprises: Here are five unexpected features on ships , some of which you hopefully won’t discover on your own.

 Icon of the Seas: Our reporter joined thousands of passengers on the inaugural sailing of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas . The most surprising thing she found? Some actual peace and quiet .

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Dipping Their Toes: Younger generations of travelers are venturing onto ships for the first time . Many are saving money.

Cult Cruisers: These devoted cruise fanatics, most of them retirees, have one main goal: to almost never touch dry land .

I spent a day as a 'Truthsayer' on Truth Social — it was a bizarre mix of conspiracy theories and Biden hate

• The company behind Truth Social went public last week.
• The move has boosted Donald Trump's wealth, but many think the media company is overvalued. 
• I spent a day on the social-media platform to find out what goes on there.

The company behind Donald Trump's far-right social-media platform, Truth Social, made its stock-market debut last week.

Truth Social's parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group, merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp. and began trading under the ticker DJT on Tuesday. The company's market valuation hit as much as $13 billion on one measure , with small investors powering the surge.

The deal has made Trump a whole lot richer , but several experts warned the company is hugely overvalued .

I decided to take a daylong visit to its core platform, Truth Social, to see what goes on.

Trump's 'Truthsayers'

I signed up without a problem and was welcomed as a "Truthsayer."

After opening the app, I was greeted with the platform's "Trending Topics" of the day — #Truth, #NBC, #MAGA, and #Trump2024. Before even getting to my main feed, I had an idea of what I might be in for.

The layout of Truth Social is pretty standard: The main feed follows a similar structure to Elon Musk's X. My feeds were split into three tabs: Following, For You, and Groups.

My For You page was dominated by far-right influencers, including Libs of TikTok, and Trump himself. It was also littered with posts, memes, and videos supporting the former president.

Like most platforms, Truth Social was populated by the big stories of the week, including the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore . However, some "Truthsayers" had more unique takes on the tragic event.

Related stories

"Is there a better encapsulation of Biden's America," one Truther mused in a post that shared a video of a ship colliding with the bridge.

Conspiracy theories

Another key feature of my For You feed was fierce hatred of President Joe Biden.

I clocked at least 10 anti-Biden posts in my first few minutes scrolling the app.

"Today is March 28th, and Joe Biden is the WORST president in US history," one user posted without much context.

"Biden, certified imbecile," another read, along with a link to the conservative news and politics site RedState.

Most of the content on Truth Social is highly political, and my feed was littered with fellow "Truthsayers" spouting conspiracy theories. Almost all the news articles shared by users were from conservative outlets like the Washington Examiner.

News events, such as the collapse of the Baltimore bridge, were often used as springboards for political commentary. One user linked the bridge — along with recent aviation issues — to the debate around the problems supposedly caused by DEI policies.

Amateur production

Truth Social is still a relatively new platform — and it shows. First launched in February 2022, it's been facing financial and regulatory issues for most of its existence.

According to Similarweb, a web-traffic research firm, it had about 5 million active members in February, CBS News reported.

The platform still feels like an amateur production compared to its more established rivals. It's got a busy layout and is overpopulated with sponsored ads.

In short, I won't be running back.

Unless you have a burning desire to fill your days with conservative political content and conspiracy theories, Truth Social might not be the social-media platform for you.

Watch: OPINION: Media activist shares how Musk could change Twitter

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