Plane Personality

If you’ve read much of this blog you’ve probably noticed I travel a lot lately for my job. Considering I hate flying and love sleeping in my own bed, it’s odd that I usually enjoy the travel.

Today en route from Orlando to Sacramento I had a thought while eavesdropping on other passengers – What does your travel personality say about you?

More specifically, does the way you plan your trips reflect your personality?

Before you start commenting on my insanity, give me a few more minutes to state my argument (then feel free to counter or disagree). When I plan travel I start with the end game – where I want to be and when I need to be there. So if I’m teaching a class or attending a meeting I use that as my starting time.

What this type of approach often does is have me up at 4am to catch early flights or landing at midnight. This wouldn’t be a problem if I was a morning person or needed little sleep but alas, I really like sleep. Consequently I’m often a very cranky and unproductive traveler.

The passenger a few rows in front of me uses a different approach, I believe. From his ultra efficient work ethic on the morning flight (and what I was able to overhear), his approach is more about travel time. You see, this type of traveler cares about spending as little time actually travelling as possible. These efficient travelers always find the nonstop flight to their destination, even if it means leaving a day early. They also tend to stay in hotels convenient to the airport instead of to their destination. I’ll call this the get in, get it done and have as little contact with the travelling masses as possible. You find frequent business travelers method.

The third group of travel planners is the comfortable and convenient type. These are the travelers who never fly before noon or on Mondays during high volume. They disregard price in deference to their own convenience. They probably don’t care about frequent flyer points or airline loyalty as longs as they find a schedule that works for their life. You can recognize them as the relaxed travelers calmly flipping the pages of a magazine and sipping water before boarding.

Personally I’d love to be in the third group. While I like to travel and see new places, I’m getting a little tired of being on the road at 4am. The worst part is it is totally my own fault. So I wonder am I just a glutton for punishment? Am I avoiding self-awareness? Can I change?

I don’t know the answers but I do know that I miss the days when travel agents handled this crap (I know, I used to be one) and now I have to deal with my own personality complicating my life.