Author Topic: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations  (Read 5475 times)

MBot

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Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« on: October 17, 2015, 04:58:54 PM »
It never hurts to ask - my husband and I often travel for work and usually travel alone. It can be really hard to both get time off at once. And then the idea of paying for a hotelto take a weekend away just for us is rather wasteful, or a bit of hassle to use other options.

Meanwhile out work often books us into nice hotels when one of us is away. So we thought of seeing if one can "tag along" when the other travels and at least have the travel time and evenings together.

A month ago I had a speaking engagement out of town - they offered to pay my spouse's meals too if they wanted to come. So we had a nice drive, hotel stay, and meals - all covered plus what I made. It was on his off day so he didn't lose work time.  Total work time on that trip was 3 hours and the rest together.

This week he had to travel for a work certification, and while I had to pay for my own meals, they were fine with me coming along and staying in his hotel. I had an extra day off banked from working the Thanksgiving weekend, so I used that. He was at the certification for 7 hours and the rest of the trip was us/travel.

So we've had two nice two-day trips together with the only cost being a couple meals!
 
« Last Edit: October 17, 2015, 05:04:40 PM by MBot »

2ndTimer

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2015, 07:57:28 AM »
We do this every chance we get often adding a night of camping en route.

Seppia

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2015, 08:15:25 AM »
Same here, I travel quite a bit for work and the wife often tags along for the best trips (i.e. South Florida in winter, Colorado in spring, etc)

elaine amj

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2015, 09:58:20 AM »
We also do this every chance we get :)

It does depend on the trip and what our OOP expenses will be. If it is a midweek Tues-Thurs trip that I have to fly to, it is often not worth giving up 3 days vacation + plane ticket to go. But sometimes it is.

Scenario 1:
DH has a business trip coming up that he is driving to. Normally that is a no-brainer for me to tagalong. Unfortunately, it is Mon-Thurs and I am super low on vacation days. So, he will go alone.

Scenario 2:
Last year, I had a business trip from Sunday - Tuesday I had to fly to.He had vacation days to spare. I had a Southwest Companion Pass so he flew for free. On top of that, we shared meals/ate chose cheap Happy Hour apps/got a free upgrade to a Club room (Club lounge baby!) so he rarely had to pay OOP for food. We flew in 1 day early and scheduled our return flight late in the day so we had two full days to ourselves. It was awesome and cost barely anything. I am very careful in what I submit for reimbursement. No one has ever questioned me, but I take the pains to make sure it is reasonable - typically $15 for breakfast, $20 for lunch, $25 for dinner. My receipts only include stuff it would be reasonable for one person to order. Anything we want above that, we pay OOP.

I love work trips :)

TravelJunkyQC

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2015, 07:24:45 AM »
I don't currently travel for work, and when the BF travels it's to camps lost in the Great White North of Canada (environmental engineer) - although his company did buy my place ticket to Yellowknife one summer to visit him. But I remember that as soon as my sister and I were out of the house, my parents did this every chance they got. Any boring trips were ignored by the other, but fun ones (South Korea, Malaysia, Tunesia, France, etc), the other tended to follow and they would take a few days vacation together before or after the «work part». It's a pretty sweet almost-two-for-one deal.

sleepyguy

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2015, 09:31:39 AM »
Before 2 kids we used to do this all the time!  It's great because we can both work remote as well so we didn't have to take any vacation days and still spend evenings/weekends together being tourist in the visiting city.

stephQ

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2015, 01:59:52 PM »
Work "vacations" are awesome. I was able to tag along with DH to Singapore not too long ago for his work trip for a week. When he was at the office during the day I roamed around doing touristy things. We were able to stretch his per diem to cover meals for the both of us too, it was great. I travel frequently for work and was able to earn the Southwest companion pass for this year. DH has been my free companion on over a dozen trips so far (taxes for his free ticket are $5.60/way, which we have to pay). Trying really hard to get it again for next year, we'll see!

elaine amj

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2015, 11:35:07 AM »
Work "vacations" are awesome. I was able to tag along with DH to Singapore not too long ago for his work trip for a week. When he was at the office during the day I roamed around doing touristy things. We were able to stretch his per diem to cover meals for the both of us too, it was great. I travel frequently for work and was able to earn the Southwest companion pass for this year. DH has been my free companion on over a dozen trips so far (taxes for his free ticket are $5.60/way, which we have to pay). Trying really hard to get it again for next year, we'll see!

Love my SW Companion Pass.

Another way to work towards it (if your Southwest CC apps are drying up - darn Chase's new restrictions) is Marriott's Travel Package. It took some finagling, but with careful CC apps (Ritz CC + Marriott CC + Ultimate Rewards transfers), we were able to eventually gather enough points together to get a Travel Package. One week stay plus almost enough points for a Companion Pass :)

mamagoose

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2015, 11:45:33 AM »
Before kids we swung trips to Hawaii and San Francisco for "work vacations". I turned 2 hours of face-time in meetings into a 10-day Hawaiian vacation. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we seized with about 2 weeks advance notice.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #9 on: October 20, 2015, 12:41:02 PM »
My work is always fine with family sharing a hotel room.  But we've never taken advantage of it, because 1) DH would still have to pay airfare and meals, 2) I work all day when I travel for work- so that only leaves evening hours; DH isn't interested in hanging out all day without me.

There is rumor that we may have a work function in Puerto Rico, and DH might take advantage of the paid for hotel room there, but thus far nowhere else has interested him.  Maybe when the kids are older Orlando might; but I can't imagine he wants to do Disney without me.  If we go to Austin again after the baby is born, I might carry him along as a lap baby then hand him off to grandma while I am in meetings, so she gets baby time and I don't have to pay for a flight.  And when I travel to New York, I definitely take advantage of Broadway, so that is a great benefit to me.  But so far "work vacations" haven't worked out for us together.

mm1970

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2015, 01:09:30 PM »
It never hurts to ask - my husband and I often travel for work and usually travel alone. It can be really hard to both get time off at once. And then the idea of paying for a hotelto take a weekend away just for us is rather wasteful, or a bit of hassle to use other options.

Meanwhile out work often books us into nice hotels when one of us is away. So we thought of seeing if one can "tag along" when the other travels and at least have the travel time and evenings together.

A month ago I had a speaking engagement out of town - they offered to pay my spouse's meals too if they wanted to come. So we had a nice drive, hotel stay, and meals - all covered plus what I made. It was on his off day so he didn't lose work time.  Total work time on that trip was 3 hours and the rest together.

This week he had to travel for a work certification, and while I had to pay for my own meals, they were fine with me coming along and staying in his hotel. I had an extra day off banked from working the Thanksgiving weekend, so I used that. He was at the certification for 7 hours and the rest of the trip was us/travel.

So we've had two nice two-day trips together with the only cost being a couple meals!
 
I really really regret that pre-kid, I was such a stupid workaholic that I never did this.  My husband traveled fairly frequently -DC, Florida the main examples.  His boss offered to let me tag along for the price of the flight.  His wife went with him.  I never did.  Dummy.

I used to live in DC and still have many friends there.

Once, post first kid, my spouse had back-to-back trips to DC when he was supposed to arrive home midnight Friday night and leave at 6 am Sunday morning. So he just stayed for 1.5 weeks.  We used miles for my 5 year old and I to fly out for a 4 day weekend.  It was pretty awesome.  The only stress was getting to sit together with the last minute flight.  Oh, and he asked questions from the minute we got to the airport, through the first short flight, the layover, and an hour into the second flight (so, about 5 hours straight), until I held his little face in my hands and said "stop asking questions and go to sleep!"  It was 11:30 pm, and he put his head on my lap and was out.

We enjoyed a weekend in DC - stayed with friends in the area and their kids, saw other old friends, did some sightseeing.  It was great.

CowboyAndIndian

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2015, 01:27:59 PM »
...
My husband traveled fairly frequently -DC, Florida the main examples.  His boss offered to let me tag along for the price of the flight.  His wife went with him.  I never did.  Dummy.
...

Aren't you your husband's wife?

Just could not understand this one.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2015, 02:03:50 PM »
I read that to mean the boss's wife went along.

mm1970

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2015, 02:45:01 PM »
...
My husband traveled fairly frequently -DC, Florida the main examples.  His boss offered to let me tag along for the price of the flight.  His wife went with him.  I never did.  Dummy.
...

Aren't you your husband's wife?

Just could not understand this one.
Sorry, boss's wife!  Husband and boss went on business trip. Boss's wife was along.  I did not go.

stephQ

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2015, 08:47:01 AM »
Work "vacations" are awesome. I was able to tag along with DH to Singapore not too long ago for his work trip for a week. When he was at the office during the day I roamed around doing touristy things. We were able to stretch his per diem to cover meals for the both of us too, it was great. I travel frequently for work and was able to earn the Southwest companion pass for this year. DH has been my free companion on over a dozen trips so far (taxes for his free ticket are $5.60/way, which we have to pay). Trying really hard to get it again for next year, we'll see!

Love my SW Companion Pass.

Another way to work towards it (if your Southwest CC apps are drying up - darn Chase's new restrictions) is Marriott's Travel Package. It took some finagling, but with careful CC apps (Ritz CC + Marriott CC + Ultimate Rewards transfers), we were able to eventually gather enough points together to get a Travel Package. One week stay plus almost enough points for a Companion Pass :)

Very nice, I'll have to check those out!

going2ER

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2015, 08:50:54 AM »
I am so disappointed that I don't get to travel anywhere exciting. However, sometimes my daughter or husband will come with me on my trips. I always drive, so no extra cost there, we have negotiated room rates, no extra cost there, so its just the meals and plus its nice after a long day of meetings to be able to relax with one of them.

Axecleaver

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Re: Work "Vacations" beat no vacations
« Reply #16 on: October 22, 2015, 10:04:52 AM »
We've taken advantage of this in tons of work deployments - but the best one was the year I spent in Honolulu. Company rented an apartment for me downtown, and Mrs Axe got to be a tourist on the island for about nine months of that. She owes me for that one! We paid for the flights and meals for her, but she got to live with me for free.

I never traveled enough with Southwest to qualify for companion passes (100 segments or 110k points in a year), because many of the cities I visited were not served by them.

 

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