Sun employee & fanatical motorcyclist Mike Belch's Weblog Biker Mike's Weblog

I have just returned from two business trips. One was a week in San Francisco, the other a week in Warsaw. In both cases my travel was made more bearable by competing in The Travelympics. "The what?" I hear you say.

My colleague John Prentice introduced me to Travelympics. Think of it like the Olympic decathalon where you compete over several events, except instead of running, shooting and throwing you do things like check-in, passport control, boarding and baggage claim. It is every bit as competitive as the real Olympics except it happens every week for the seasoned business traveller rather than every four years.

My two trips this month were very different. In the first I got a Travelympics gold medal. The second was almost did-not-finish.

My San Francisco trip went really well. I dropped off my rental car at London, having faced no traffic jams on the 135 mile journey from home (+5 points) and sat down on the shuttle bus to discover I was the only passenger and was to be taken directly to my departure terminal (+5 points). Walking across the terminal I got held up by a huge family group blocking the way with a trolley full of cases and boxes (-5 points). There was no queue at the checkin (+5 points) and I managed to secure an exit seat (+10 points). Having a frequent flyer gold card I get to use the Fast Track security lane (+5 points) and get access to Virgin Atlantic's excellent lounge at Heathrow and I managed to get a seat in my favourite area of the lounge by the windows (+2 points). Following a nice breakfast and a massage (+5 points) I walked down to the departure gate and, due to my gold status, get to walk to the very front of the boarding queue (+2 points). When I handed over my boarding pass the machine beeps as it passes through and the lady writes a new seat number on my boarding card - a free upgrade to Upper Class (+20 points). On the flight I get another massage (+2 points). The rest of the journey was uneventful other than I losing 10 points by picking the wrong passport queue in the immigration hall at San Francisco airport. This was however offset by a points gain due to Avis upgrading my rental car.

Contrast this with my trip to Poland. My taxi was late (-5 points). My flight was with KLM with whom I have no frequent flyer status so I was forced to join the normal, crowded check-in queues (-5 points). My check-in queue is held up for 15 minutes by an old couple one of whom is being denied boarding because her passport has expired. I chose not to jump lines so I waited for the whole time. In the meantime other people who were behind me in the queue had changed lines and checked in (-10 points). The airport terminal was crowded at 5:30am and is full of people going to sunny places on holiday. I was forced to join the end of a huge boarding queue (-5 points) and then get held up even further when the bus that takes us out to the aircraft (-5 points for not having a jetway) is full and I had to wait for the next one. We are then denied boarding for 20 minutes because the aircraft's external generator isn't working (-20 points). Eventually we boarded and I was delighted to see I had been given an exit seat without asking for it (+15 points). We landed late in Amsterdam due to the technical problems and restricted landing slots, so I was forced to run across the terminal to get to my connecting flight (-10 points). I made the Warsaw flight. Just. I was delighted to see that my colleague, who was joining me at Amsterdam for the Warsaw trip, had reserved me an aisle seat next to him (+10 points). However, there was no space in the overhead bins for my briefcase so I was forced to stow it several rows away (-5 points).

I won't go into the rest of the trip other than to say that on my flight from Amsterdam back to Bristol today I was the last to go through the boarding gate yet I was the first to board the aircraft as I chose the perfect place to stand on the transfer bus. I pulled off the same trick at Bristol so I was first into the passport control and first into the baggage reclaim hall where my bag was immediately opposite me on the belt. It made a 3:30am wake up call in the hotel this morning seem almost worth it!

So there you have it. Travelympics - the competitive pursuit of travelling in style, without interruption or hitch. It is a great way to celebrate those delightful times when things go right with business travel.