For business travelers, what do you do if your business trip is impacted by a delay, missed connection, missing or damaged baggage, etc.?

Or do you build enough slack time in the schedules (e.g. arriving a day earlier) to handle most delays?

My experience is that the airline looks after me. I don't bother with slack time. If I am delayed--particularly overseas, I just get a hotel room. I seldom check bags, so I don't have a problem in that department.

Arriving a day early on a business trip! You must be kidding. My time (and likely that of most other business travellers) is worth more than that.

Hi Kiwi Flyer:

For me, it is related to the relative value of the business trip. If it is a top level meeting where we are discussing the potential close of a multi-million dollar project/take over, etc., involving multiple personal from multiple organizations, high level customer contacts, several attorneys, M&A folks, PR people, etc., yes, I get there a day early, practice my presentation on site, make sure the PC projector works, etc. Now if you have others to take care of these details for you...which I do not have the luxury of ...I guess I would arrive just like you apparently do---just time to take limo from airport to meeting site.

I guess this would be a very low level techie point of view: It's the airline's problem! If it is absolutely crucial that I'm in x by y then its a management problem. Either way, I concentrate/worry about only those things I can actually influence.

Depends on the trip.

If it's normal project work, which we can get done a day later or at another time if we don't meet as scheduled - if I'm delayed, I'm delayed, and we'll deal with it.

If the world will end if I'm not in their president's outer office by 9 am Tuesday, I'll make sure that Plan B, Plan C and perhaps Plan D will all get me there in time.

There is no general rule.

Well, in my case, it is just the opposite. My time is valuable, but the time of my clients is even more valuable. Since my work normally involves day-long meetings of 10 or more people, there is no way that I can say that my time is more valuable than all of theirs put together (not to mention trying to reschedule a full free day for multiple people). Given that my travel times are normally in excess of 10 hours, and often in excess of 15, with multiple flights, I always build in at least a day of slack on my way out. . .and it isn't like I can't work at my destination. This also allows me to get a sense of the city/country that I am going to which is important in my work.

Clients have to understand that sh*t happens.

That said, depending on the length of the trip...sometimes I prefer a day early (for my own sanity)...but otherwise, I like to cut it as close as possible since I hate traveling for biz.

I was asking more in terms of missing the business that you expected to be able to do at your destination if you had gotten there on time.

That's never happened. In the industry I am in, it's never an issue.

My clients understand that, but they also expect me to mitigate the risk that sh*t will affect them. In many cases, arriving late would render the trip pointless, and require a rescheduling to a different day/week/month altogether. Obviously, if a snowstorm in Frankfurt or a flood in the Netherlands closes the airport for multiple days on end, well, that's a minimal enough risk that I am willing to take it. A less minimal risk is that my flight into FRA is delayed 2 - 3 hours, resulting in missing my onward connection, which is a once a day flight. I prefer enough slack that even if I get the next flight a day later, I will get there late but not at the point where my trip no longer has meaning.

It really depends on the kind of business you are in and what kind of potential delays you are talking about.

I don't even know you, but I do know that your time is more valuable than the time of your clients. Or it should be.

Actually if you are providing good customer service he/she is exactly right. The client's time is more important.

I personally fly from a small airport and usually have limited choices of flights and end up going the day before, as a cancelled flight leaves me trapped.

Depends on how far I'm going. For an international trip, I won't plan on arriving the night before a big meeting. I'll get in a couple of days early, getting acclimated, etc. Local trips will always be at worst the night before, maybe the morning before.

that's a very generous travel policy (unless you are self-employed) to spend a full day for travel domestically! i'm always on the 6am flight out and frequently same day return (if only going out for 1 or 2 meetings, with nothing scheduled the next day). even when it's LA trips (from NY), most of my colleagues fly redeye back and then straight to full day of work...i think i'm in the wrong job!