As someone who does a fair amount of business travel, I really appreciated the op-ed piece from our friends at Perfect Escape titled, "In Defense of Business Travel". While undoubtedly some level of business travel is excessive or unnecessary, there are times when jumping on a plane for a face-to-face meeting for an important negotiation session or gathering the spread-out troops for an annual get-together is simply good business practice. I've been involved in a number of M&A transaction where both sides hunkered down on our respective positions, only to finally make a breakthrough when we agreed to meet in person. It's easier to act like an obstinate ahole over the telephone.
While it's easy to get upset at the ridiculousness of large bonuses and lavish parties indulged by failing institutions who beg for tax-payer bailout dollars, it's silly to assume that all forms of incentive and marketing costs are unnecessary. Rewarding top performers who add value to a firm with a year-end retreat or taking out prospective customers on a marketing off-site makes sense regardless of the economic environment. Especially for those firms who aren't begging for taxpayer help. And as the author of the op-ed piece points out, business travel spending helps the economy by creating jobs and generating tax revenue.
Of course, I'm probably just bitching because my employer has clamped down on first-class upgrades.
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