Tips for the Business Traveler's Companion

Your significant other comes home and announces that the company has scheduled yet another week-long meeting next spring. It's … it's where? Can I go? Pretty please, can I go? I'll pay my own way! Welcome to the life of the business Traveler and the business traveler's Companion. (NOTE: To avoid charges of sexism and political incorrectness, there are two roles: Traveler and Companion. You know who is who and what gender to assign each role.)

I'll be blunt here, Companion. If you aren't comfortable sightseeing alone, lunching alone, and playing second fiddle to the corporation for the duration of the meeting, don't go. At best you won't enjoy the trip. At worst you might turn a boring business trip into an exciting marital crisis.

Rules to Remember for Companions:

• This is not a vacation for both of you. Traveler is working to earn this trip.
  


• Schedule a couple of extra days before or after the meetings, if it is possible, so you and Traveler can share some of the local fun.
  


• Don't be offended if Traveler says "I can't tell you about the meeting, it's confidential".
  


• Be prepared to entertain yourself during the day.
  


• Don't expect meetings to end on time. If you reserve dinner half an hour across town for an hour after the meetings supposedly end, it's not going to happen.
  


• Be prepared to eat with other Travelers and their Companions, and be entertained by shop talk during dinner.
  


• This is not a chance to rekindle anything. A quiet dinner near the hotel and a snuggly night is about all you can expect.
  


• Don't expect to go dining and dancing in posh places after the meetings are over. Nine hours of meetings leaves the typical Traveler brain dead.
  


• If you realize the trip was a bad idea, don't expect other Companions to attend your pity party in the hotel bar.
  

Destination Planning for Companions
Do a fast reality check on the Traveler's destination. If it's a place you wouldn't want to go on a real vacation, you probably won't like it any better as a Companion.  If it means a 19 hour flight each direction crammed into tourist class (one way) for 2-days on the ground, it's probably not worth it