Road warriors, this is the show for you. We've got fantastic business travel tips. You're not going to want to miss them.

Join us now for this episode of the inside BS show. Hey, now I'm Dave Lorenzo and I'm here with Nikki G. Today, we've got some great business travel tips for you. You know, Nikki G, I travel all over the United States.

I travel 70 plus nights a year. Uh, actually even more than that. I give 70 plus talks a year.

So probably two nights per talk on the road, at least 120 nights a year on the road. And people are always asking me, Hey, give us some tips. Give us some shortcuts.

So I've got a few, you've traveled all over the place. I know you've got a few too. So let's jump into it.

Let me give everybody my first great business travel tip. And this is for all you cheapskates out there. Don't be cheap.

Get an airline club membership. Now, if you're an American express card holder, you can get an American express club membership. They have the centurion club and just about every airport.

I fly American pretty much everywhere. Cause I'm like 15 minutes from Miami international airport and American in all the major cities has their admirals club. Here's why this is so important.

Okay. These days, as we record this air travel is a mess. You don't know if your flight's going to take off.

You don't know what's going to happen. So you're going to spend time in an airport. If you want to be productive while you're in the airport, having an airline club membership or some type of airport club membership is essential because you get wifi, you get food, there's booze there.

You want to have a couple of drinks. The drinks are free. If you get there well drinks, the food is usually decent.

In fact, in the American airlines clubs, the food is actually pretty good. So you can get what they have in their little buffet or you can get what you want to order off of the menu. But productivity is the thing that I love about it.

There's always a spot like a, either a cubicle or a separate work area. You can plug your computer in the newer clubs have little like phone booths where you can go in and use your cell phone in a quiet environment. I've done zoom meetings from there.

I've pitched clients or perspective clients from there. I've taken contentious phone calls. I've talked to family and friends from there.

I am super productive in the airlines clubs and I love it. And here's like a Dave Lorenzo insider tip. If you spend a lot of time in any one club in particular, for me, I go to New York, Chicago, and obviously Miami.

I spend a lot of time in all those places. Find out who the manager is. Introduce yourself to the manager.

The time after you come into the club, bring the manager a gift, introduce yourself to the people who are at the podium, who check you in, what you're going to find happens is more often than not, if there's an upgraded experience, even if you're not entitled to the upgraded experience, you get it. I'll tell you a story about a relationship I had with a woman named Eileen Miller. And I'll tell you that story at the end of the show.

But that came about because I did exactly what I just mentioned. I made friends with the people in the airline club, by the way, in the hospitality industry, that's like a super secret shortcut tip, wherever you go. Most frequently make friends with the people who are there because it will pay off for you in the long run.

What do you think Nikki G? I think that's a great tip, Dave. And if you aren't someone who has access to the Admiral club, or maybe you don't have an American express card, there's other options, I know such as priority pass. So there's ones where you can use them to access multiple lounges.

It is a must. If you've ever spent any time with the unwashed masses at a gate, you know, you don't want to be there now. It's exactly right.

Trying to find some place to plug in your laptop and trying to find a quiet seat to have your phone conversation in for a business matter. It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist.

Just charging your phone, like finding an outlet to charge your phone. If you've been on a plane and you were using your device to watch a movie on the plane, your battery's running low, you need a place to charge your phone. You're not going to find it at the gate because seven other people have their stuff plugged into the plugs there.

So the it's, it's worth, I mean, it's like 500 bucks a year at the most. It's absolutely worth it. If you travel more than 10 times a year, you're talking about 50 bucks every time you go to the airport.

Come on, not a big deal. Definitely worth the investment. Hey, Nikki G, did you know you can also get our show as an audio podcast? Of course I know you can get the show as an audio podcast.

I'm on it. But does our audience? I don't know. So those of you who are watching on YouTube, you can find us wherever you get your podcast with just search up the inside BS show with the Godfather and Nikki G and you'll find us right there.

Click the follow button so that you never miss a show. Now there's a couple of reasons why you're going to want to do that. Nikki G tell them what the first reason is.

You get to ask us questions that is exclusive to our podcast listeners. Yeah. We only answer listener questions on the audio version of the podcast.

We don't do it on video. So if you want to hear what everyone's thinking, or if you want to ask us a question, you got to download the audio podcast. The second reason.

And my favorite reason is because you can take us with you. You can have a little Nikki G in your pocket while you're working out in the gym, washing the dishes or walking the dog. I love me some Nikki G in my pocket when I'm walking the dogs.

I don't know about you, Nicola, but that's one of my favorite things to do. Absolutely. Take us with you.

After you watch this episode here on YouTube, go to wherever you get your podcast, click the follow button so we can go with you on your journey and you can ask us questions. We will see you or more like hear you there. All right.

So for me, tip number two is fully refundable backup flights. Let me tell you, this was something that I used to do a hundred years ago. When I first started traveling and given speeches places, I was always nervous, worried if my flight would be canceled.

So I booked the cheapest flight I could find. And then on a different airline at a later time, I would book a fully refundable backup flight. And then when my first flight is on the tarmac, getting ready to take off, and I'm sure it's going to take off.

I canceled the fully refundable backup flight, get my money back. And the reason you do that is because if your original flight gets canceled, you've got a backup on another airline. So you know, you're going to get where you need to be.

If you're somebody who gets paid because of who you are. So you're like Nikki G you're a litigator and you got to be in a different city for a case and you have to make the argument. You can't miss that flight, or you can't afford for that flight to be canceled without a backup.

If you're like me and you're getting paid, you know, a bunch of money to give a speech somewhere, and you're the person who has to give the speech, you can't afford to miss your flight. You can't afford to not show up. The people have already paid you, you got to be there.

So here's the, here's the way that I do it. What I do first and foremost is whether the client makes me use their service or makes me book my travel on my own, I'll book the most reasonable flight that I can find to the city. Um, and I book it with the major airline that goes from wherever I am to wherever I'm going.

And because it's Miami again, 90% of the time it's American airlines. So I booked the most reasonable flight on American airlines that I can find. Then I say to myself, okay, if this flight gets canceled because of a mechanical issue, I can get on another American flight, but if it gets canceled because Americans computers go down or there's weather in Miami, I'm going to need a fully refundable backup flight.

So what I do then is I book a fully refundable backup flight at least five hours later in the day and whenever I can from an alternate airport. So if there's a, you know, a security issue at Miami international, my backup flight is booked from Fort Lauderdale. I drive the hour, I drive 45 minutes, whatever it is, and I'm on a different flight and I book it on a different airline.

So if Americans computers go down or their computers are hacked, I'm on a Delta flight out of Fort Lauderdale, five hours or more later in the day. I do that on the way out because the client is counting on me getting there. I don't do it on the way home because candidly, you know, getting home, I don't have the burden of dealing with the client's expectations and you know, a couple of times you may forget to cancel the flight or you're rushed and you know, you got to fight with the airline to, to cancel and get you, get your money back later on.

So I only do it on the way out, but the fully refundable backup flight is a must when the client is counting on you being somewhere at a specific time. The keys to that again, different airline. And if there's an alternative airport from an alternative airport, New York City, if I'm, if my main flight is out of LaGuardia, my backup is out of Newark or JFK, you know, Boston generally it's like Logan and your backup flight has to be out of Logan.

But if you can get like a flight six hours later, you can do maybe Hartford or potentially Portland, Maine, but Portland, Maine is sketchy. You get the idea. Fully refundable backup flight must always, if you're on your way out or if you've got to get home and there's a special event at home, do it on your way home as well.

Your thoughts, Nikola? Absolutely. It's a must. Um, sometimes there may not be a later flight.

So my suggestion there is just go earlier. If it is important enough to you, you better make sure you have a way to get there and a plan in place if that flight does not take off. So I love that option of the later flight.

If there's, if there isn't one after that book, an earlier one, use that other one the same day as your fully refundable flight or know what you are going to do. If the flight you are taking is not going to, it won't take off. So you have options to look at other airports.

You have options to maybe even drive to another airport or do something else to get there. Um, sometimes places are logistically difficult to get to, right? We've all experienced that. And those are the most difficult where there may only be one flight out a day.

Again, my recommendation there is just go a day early. Otherwise you have to have this planned out in advance. You're going to have to do some work.

I get it. It's a little annoying, but it will save you in the long run when it matters the most, you know, and you bring up a good point too. I do, uh, in some locations when there's a big event.

So if I'm going to give a speech for, uh, like the American Bar Association annual conference, let's say I not only have a backup flight, but I also get a backup rental car because you know what happens, they sell out of rental cars and they, you have the reservation, but they don't have enough cars or people don't return enough cars. So backup rental car, different car company, there's, there's no penalty to not using a backup rental car reservation. So if they overbook, you're all set.

Um, the other thing I would say, and this is not, this is related to this tip is if you're going to a city you've never been to before, double check with somebody who's in the city about the availability of Uber and Lyft hotel concierge is a good person to double check with. Okay. Because there are some cities, Toledo is a great example.

I flew to Detroit. There's no airport in Toledo. Had to drive an hour from Detroit to Toledo, no rental cars available.

I was booking months in advance, no rental cars available because of a big event, a graduation in Ann Arbor, couldn't get a rental car in Detroit. And I said, well, when I get to the airport, I'll just get an Uber, no Ubers that wanted to go to Detroit. So I needed to make sure that I had a car service available to take me there.

And then in Toledo, Uber doesn't exist. It hasn't gotten there yet, or they're not, they're anti Uber. They're still a horse and buggy or whatever.

So if you're going somewhere and you're relying on Uber, you're relying on Lyft, you're relying on relying on some ride share app, call the hotel front desk. If it's a small hotel and say, Hey, does Uber exist down there? Can I get an Uber from your hotel? If you're staying in a big hotel, call the hotel concierge. They'll be able to tell you for sure whether you can get an Uber or a Lyft.

Don't just assume that Uber and Lyft is everywhere. For example, Wichita, I'm going to Wichita next week. I've been to Wichita before.

You can get an Uber in Wichita. So you can get an Uber in Wichita, but you can't get an Uber in Toledo. Go figure.

Um, okay. Tip number three. This is one of my favorites.

I call it seat stalking. So I try to, um, I try to book upfront as often as I can business class or first class, and I do this for three reasons. First reason I do it is for my own comfort.

I want to be more comfortable. I want to get, you know, whether you like the food or not, food is food. You get food, you get free drinks.

You sit next to somebody who could do business with you. I got my job at Gallup because I sat next to the right person in first class on a plane, definitely worth paying the extra price for me. Right.

I also do it because if I'm speaking at an event, I just got paid a boatload of money to speak at that event. I can't be sitting in the middle seat next to somebody who is in the audience. It totally destroys my brand.

It destroys my reputation. It destroys my credibility as an expert in my field to be sitting in the middle seat next to somebody that I was just speaking to at an event. So those are the reasons why I always like to book upfront.

If you don't book upfront, here's what you can do, or you're counting on an upgrade, here's what you can do. Number one, if you want to get the best seat possible, book the biggest aircraft possible. All the aircraft, all the airline booking services will allow you to see the aircraft that you're flying on.

Triple sevens, seven, six sevens, or seven, eight sevens have usually three different cabins. Now, whether they offer three different types of service or not, doesn't matter. The first two cabins, the seats are going to be wider.

They're going to be spaced out more. And what you'll find is many of the airlines these days, if they've eliminated first class, they have business class and economy, the upgraded economy, the more legroom seats or the economy plus or economy extra seats are the seats that used to be business class. So instead of having three across, they may have two across.

If you have airline status, whether you're the second tier or the third tier, usually the airlines have four tiers of status, you get that upgraded economy seat for free. So what you should do is select the seat as closest to the front of the aircraft as possible, and then from time to time, put a reminder on your calendar, go through all your trips and just stalk to see if those seats that are up front with the more legroom are available and pop in and select one of those seats that is real time booking. Now the, the airlines will withhold the last two rows and then withhold the exit rows to be assigned like the day of your flight, everything else is wide open.

So you can seat stock as far out in advance as you want to get as close to the front as you can so that you can pick those better seats. I have great success in doing this. When, for example, my client will only pay for economy class and I'm counting on an upgrade from my status.

I can pick one of those extra legroom seats by seat stalking and selecting it. Now, if you want a real pro tip, go to seatgeek.com, seatgeek.com. They have every aircraft layout. They have the best seats and the worst seats.

You can decide which seat you want. And sometimes you're screwed. I mean, sometimes you're flying in like an ERJ, which is a really tiny plane and every seat sucks.

Go on SeatGeek and they'll tell you, look, if you sit over the wing, it's really loud, you won't be able to sleep, or you won't be able to watch a movie. If you sit up front in this seat, at least it'll be quieter. I, for people who travel all the time, where you're sitting on a plane makes all the difference in the world.

So I'm a huge fan of seat stalking. I love seat stalking for when I can't either fly up front because of the client or there's just no seats available. And these days, because there's fewer flights, because there's fewer pilots, a lot of times you can't even get a seat up front, even if you wanted to pay for it.

Nikki G, your thoughts. Oh, absolutely. Seat stalking is a must.

Most of us who are traveling for business want to be doing work while we're on the plane, or we want to be having a conversation with someone else that we think is traveling for business to give us an opportunity to make a new relationship. So seat stalking allows us to do that. I will add this.

If you are forced to book your travel late in the game, so you don't have the whole array of seats open to you, you usually can, when you get to the gate, go early, go up to the person at the gate, be friendly, form a relationship, ask if they've got anything that they can possibly put you in where you can have a seat that's a little bit more quiet, even if it's an exit row, maybe it's somewhere close to the front. Usually you'll get lucky. I've gotten lucky more times than I thought I would just asking.

So don't be afraid to ask, but it's certainly another way to try to get there if you're in a time crunch. Oh, and that leads me to my next tip. So the fourth tip is how to get an upgrade in a hotel, but I'll tell you a story about how it works on an airline, right? So we're a whole family, 17 of us went to the Dominican Republic this past Thanksgiving for my niece's first birthday.

Like in our family, a one-year-old's birthday is a huge deal, so we all went to the Dominican Republic and we're coming home and six of the folks who were with us flew back to New York. Everybody else is flying here to Miami. And I go online before we're coming home and I see all first class, 19 seats in first, 20 seats in first class, 19 of the 20 seats are open.

I'm definitely getting an upgrade. Sure enough, like 72 hours ahead of time, I get upgraded. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I can at least get the four people in my family upgraded with me.

When I get to the airport, I get to the airport in the U S always, always, always. I can get at least my wife, but almost always my wife and kids upgraded, especially when they have 19 available seats, right? I go to the check-in counter at American in the DR. Nope. We're not going to do it.

If you're willing to pay, you can upgrade. I'm like, how much is it going to be? And they're like, how many people? And I said, the four people in my family and they were like $7,500. So I'm like, you're out of your mind.

7,500 bucks. I'll take cancel my upgrade. I'll go sit in the back with them.

And by the way, 238 seats on the plane, like 65 of the seats were taken. So each of us could have had our own row on the plane, 20 seats up front, 19 available. I go to the gate thinking a kind word and a smile with the gate agent works everywhere.

I go to the gate. I smile. Hi, how you doing? Uh, listen, I'm traveling with my family.

We're tired. We're going home. It's a short flight, two hours.

Would you mind giving the three people who are with me a courtesy upgrade? Uh, no, I'm sorry. We can't do that. Okay.

Can I use points to upgrade? No, I'm sorry. The only way you can do it is to pay. And I said, yeah, they said that at the front, you know, if it's a couple hundred bucks, I'll pay how much again? Like $7,500 ridiculous.

I'm like, like, and now I'm kind of aggravated, right? Cause I fly a ton with this airline. So I'm getting on the plane and as soon as we get on the plane, uh, we're like the third or fourth people to board. I see the flight attendant in the galley and I know who she is and her name is Kiki and I'm like Kiki and she's like, Hey, what's going on? She's a Miami based flight attendant.

Had her on a flight to Chicago the week before. I'm like, everything's great. And so she's, she's like, where, where, where are you sitting? And I'm like 12.

Hey, she's like, why are you sitting in 12? And I'm like, well, I got an upgrade, but I'm traveling with 11 other people. You know, we couldn't, even my family, there's four of my family. We couldn't get an upgrade.

She's like, what? And I'm like, yeah, she's like, who'd you ask? I'm like, I asked up front. I asked at the gate. Uh, they wouldn't do it.

She's like, okay. She's like, tell me what row you guys are in. I'm like, we're in 12.

She's like, and the rest of your family, I'm like, they're right behind us. She's like, we'll see about that. So we, uh, we pushed back from the gate.

We take off we're above 10,000 feet. Back comes Kiki grabs my family and the 11 other people we were with. And we all moved up to first class.

Why? Because I had had a conversation with Kiki multiple times because we had been on many different flights together. She knew me and I knew her and she was happy to do it. She was the purser on the flight.

She was in first class. There was one person in first class. So she had nothing to do.

So she brought us up and she was happy to hang out with us, hang out with my kids, hang out with my two nieces. It was a great time. So if you want to get an upgrade in a hotel, this, this isn't, it's more common in hotels than it is on planes.

You travel to the same city all the time. You probably check in close to the same time all the time. Introduce yourself to the people who are working the front desk.

Ask who the manager on duty is. Introduce yourself to the manager on duty. If you're going out for dinner, order a couple of appetizers, bring them back and give them to the people at the front desk in the hotel.

The next time you go to that property, call one of those people, let them know that you're coming, tell them that you really liked the room you had the last time, but you would prefer to be on a, in a corner room on that floor or, Hey, listen, if you've got a sweet upgrade available, I would love it. They will take care of you every single time. I go to the same hotels.

And by the way, this is another tip instead of being cheap and looking for the best hotel rate, stay in the same hotel every time, even if it's a little bit more expensive, because if you know the people who are at the front desk, the front desk clerks have the ability to upgrade your room. They will do it. If they like you, you don't have to, there's a, there's an old trick that people used to use years ago where they put like a $20 bill in their passport.

Or, you know, if you really want a suite, you put a hundred dollar bill in the passport, you hand your passport to the clerk and they get the a hundred dollar bill. I mean, that's cheesy and it really doesn't work anymore. You're more likely to get the desk clerk going.

What am I supposed to do with this? Making you look like a complete jerk, right? Don't do that. Be a human. Be kind, be nice to the folks at the front desk, introduce yourself, use their name, get to know them, buy them an appetizer.

When you go out to dinner, you'll be amazed at how far that gets you. The next time you come back, it works every time being a human being and treating the people that you see over and over again, like human beings. It works every time I go to New York once a month, I go to Chicago once a month.

I stay in the same hotel. I have in my notes who the desk clerks are that work at the front desk. I call them in advance, tell them I'm coming.

They give me a great room. I take care of them. Works every time.

Nikki G. Works every time. That's a great story. I I've heard it before, but I like when you tell it about the airline and upgrading the entire family.

It's really about relationships, folks. It is about building relationships anywhere. And it goes a long way.

It really does. I've had the same experience when traveling, particularly with getting to a hotel early in advance, right? You're there five hours before check-in. What are you going to do? And a lot of us need to work.

We have to get things done. And so I've been in that situation and I'm very friendly with whoever is working, who is able to assist in getting a room and I always let them know if it's possible, something opens up. Just let me know.

I'm going to go sit over here. Mind my business, do some work in the corner and find a quiet place. And what do you know? I, you know, this happened recently.

I was expecting an hour. I think they told me, don't worry. We'll try to get you in early.

And that'll be probably an hour. It was 15 minutes. I was in a room already settled in, ready to go.

And it also works with the housekeeping team. If you need extra towels or you want your room to be the first one cleaned in the morning, go out in the hall, walk down the hall, ask the housekeeper, if she's the person cleaning your room or he's the person cleaning your room, if it's not them, ask them to tell you who the person cleaning your room is. Give them five bucks.

Your room will be the first one cleaned every day. You'll get extra soap. You'll get extra towels.

You won't have to ask for anything. Be a human being. It works every time.

Works every time. All right. My tip number five.

And this is about doing zoom meetings when you're on the road, right? Everybody's on zoom these days. I travel with two computers. I have one computer that I just use zoom for zoom because I'm a freak about that.

I don't want my data exposed. I have another computer that I don't even connect to the internet when I'm traveling in a hotel. But if you want to be super sharp with your zoom, this is available on Amazon.

I'm holding up. If you're listening, I'm holding up a tripod. It is a mini tripod.

It's about the legs are about four inches long, but they expand to be about 12 inches long. And at the top of it is a little bracket that holds your cell phone. You can take your cell phone and stick it in there.

It's detachable. It fits in every briefcase. You can use it as a selfie stick, or you can put it on a table and use it to do zoom meetings and pro tip.

Turn your phone sideways. And people will not know that you're using a phone to do zoom. If you keep it like this, like you're, you know, shooting, uh, shooting something on Instagram, everybody's going to know that you're looking at them through a mailbox.

Uh, don't do that. Do it sideways and use the mini tripod. This tripod is super small and it expands.

It can fit in your briefcase and you know what else it's good for. You're in a car and you're driving and you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing. You're in a FaceTime call or a zoom call on the phone.

You can stick it in the cup holder and it actually stands up in the cup holder works really well for your GPS too, when you're driving this tripod, we'll put a link in the, uh, in the show notes to get it on Amazon. It won't be an affiliate link. Cause I don't even know how to set that up.

This, I have one that's a little bit more expensive. It's metal and it's adjustable so that it can really be like a selfie stick, but you can get a plastic one. That's like 30 bucks and it will save your life.

And if you're in a meeting and you want to record yourself speaking in the meeting, you put it right on the table. You can record yourself speaking. You want to do a set.

You want to take a selfie. You expand the leg and hold it out this tripod for zoom. Uh, those of you who are listening, just go down in the show notes.

I'll put a link to it on Amazon. You can get it. But if you're watching on YouTube, this tripod is the one I have is metal.

It's like 50 bucks. I've used it for five or six years. It's gold.

It is absolutely gold. I swear by it. I don't leave home without it because it makes my life so much easier.

Nikki G I know you're a big selfie FaceTime person on the road. What do you, what do you use to, for your oversized, incredibly heavy Otterbox laden Android phone? Uh, I don't zoom on my phone. I always travel with a laptop.

That's a personal preference. There's always something I have got to open my laptop and attend to, so I always have a laptop. Um, but I will say my, my one tip to add to this list is travel light.

Always, always, always carry on. Most of you know this, but I have seen it where I'm traveling with someone, business colleague, and they show up and they have a bag to check, check in. Check in.

Are you crazy? What happens if you get there and the bag doesn't get there? What will you be presenting it? At some point in, for most of us might've had one run in where you didn't have the right article of clothing and you're running to the nearest Ross or DJ max to find whatever you can before the meeting. But most of that is preventable. You show up with a carry on bag.

So, you know, your luggage is with you. It will not get lost. You have what you need when you get to your destination and you always carry an extra shirt.

Don't need an extra suit because that might take up too much space, but always have that extra shirt. I can tell you how many times I have had something roll into the next day and was very thankful that I had the extra shirt and didn't have to show up in the same one. Well, and extra, extra underwear, but most, most importantly, an extra pair of socks.

So here's your, if you're traveling somewhere and you're going and it's raining or you're going someplace and it's snowing, the one thing you can't handle, I, at least I can't handle is having wet feet all day. So I, in my briefcase, I always have an extra pair of socks because I step in a puddle, you know, something happens and I need an extra pair of socks for me. That's just like one of my personal preferences is that I always have an extra pair of socks.

I also keep my, I mean, I was sharing tips. We might as well. I keep the extra pair of underwear and socks in my briefcase.

And then my carry, my second carry on bag has all the rest of my clothes. Why do I do that? Sometimes you get separated from your carry on bag. So, you know, you never can tell what can happen.

Uh, your carry on bag gets put in row 16 and you're in row four and some knucklehead takes your carry on by accident. Now you got no underwear for the next day. So I always keep the extra, uh, the extra, you know, that stuff.

Uh, I keep that in a pocket in my briefcase also medicine. Okay. Let's say you take cholesterol medication or blood pressure medication, diabetes medication, an EpiPen, definitely Tylenol always in your briefcase because your briefcase goes under the seat.

You're not going to have to get up and get it. And then a sweater. Oh my God.

Put a sweat or a pullover, right? Uh, I have a, I have a three quarters zip pullover that I love goes right in the briefcase so that if it's freezing and there's turbulence and I'm going to get yelled at for getting up, I don't have to get up and go into my carry on to get my sweater. It's right there in my briefcase. I mean, we're going to do, we're going to do another one of these shows because there's like a thousand tips.

Let me close with this. Um, you know, the talk, we talk about being a human all the time. Um, you know, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna bore Nicola because she's, I think at least heard this story once before.

When my uncle passed away a number of years ago, uh, I, I flew, it was Thanksgiving weekend and my family didn't come with me. I flew up to the funeral in New York by myself and I was dressed in a suit after the funeral and I'm coming home and I'm in JFK and I'm at the airport. It's a 2013, 2014.

And, um, I, I wasn't flying that much at the time, so I wasn't a member of the admirals club, but I said to the woman at the counter, can I please buy a day pass? I want to change out of my suit. I like to change in, I like to fly in jeans and a t-shirt. I just, I'm more comfortable doing that.

Um, and she says, I'm sorry, but we, uh, you know, we don't have any day passes available, uh, because the lounge is under construction. And I said, um, you know, do me a favor. Uh, by the way, I walked up and I said, hi, how are you? And she said, I'm fine.

How are you? I said, I'm great because I'm going home. This is how the conversation started. Uh, so then I say to her, listen, I'm coming from a funeral.

I just want to change out of this suit and I don't want to go into the, you know, the bathroom with the condition that airport bathrooms are in. Can I please just, I'll just come in and change and I'll leave. I promise.

I'll just, I can, I'll leave my bag here with you. So, you know, I'll come in, I'll come in and change and leave. And she says no.

And I turn to walk away and she says, I bet you're not great now. I mean, she actually said that to me. Um, and so I looked at her and I smiled and I held up my phone and I took a picture of her with her name tag.

And, uh, I changed in the really crappy public airport bathroom and I fumed my whole way home. I got home and I put American airlines on blast on Twitter. I have like 12,000 plus people who are, who follow me on Twitter.

I have 11,000 people who follow me on Instagram, Facebook, you name it. I put this person and American airlines on blast and I tagged American customer service. I tagged the CEO of American airlines.

Next day I get a call from a woman named Eileen Miller. This is at JFK in New York. And so I get a call from Eileen Miller and she says, I'm so sorry that happened to you.

She said, I saw the woman in the picture. I know who she is. She said, we're going to take care of the problem.

She said, the next time you come to New York, I want you to call me. Um, this is my cell phone number. Save it in your phone.

So I say, all right, fine. This is nice. Thank you so much.

She's like, what can I do for you? I'm like, I can't do anything for me. I'm not traveling that much, whatever. So I then get a client that forces me to travel.

Like three months later, I get a client that forces me to travel every month. So I'm like, okay, Eileen Miller, let's see what you got. So I call her.

I show up at JFK. When I get off my plane at the gate, Eileen Miller is there with somebody else. The person takes my bags.

She's like, if you have time, I'd like to give you a tour of the brand new lounge construction was finished here at JFK. I'm like, I don't have time. Um, she's like, when is your flight back? She takes my flight number.

She says, text me when you're on your way to the airport. They walk me to a cab. I get in the cab.

I'm like, Hmm, that was nice. So I go to the airport, text Eileen Miller. She shows up at the curb again, somebody with my bag.

They take me to a private place to check in. Just me check in by myself, go to the front of the line in security. She escorts me to the flagship lounge where they have seated dining, where I dine by myself in a restaurant.

And then I get what's called a Cadillac ramp transfer. So when my, when my flight is ready to board, they come and get me. They take me outside onto the tarmac, drive me in a Cadillac to the gate.

I walk back inside. They stop boarding. So Dave Lorenzo can get on the plane and she said, I'm seated.

And I go to give her a tip. She's like, I can't take a tip from you. I'm a manager.

And she's like, every time you come to New York, you text me and this is what will happen. I went with my kids. I went with my family.

Every single time I called her, my son and I went to, uh, I found out she was a Yankee fan. We developed a great relationship. I went to dinner with her, uh, outside of the airport.

I found out she was a Yankee fan. My son and I had playoff tickets. We went to the Yankees playoff game with her and her husband.

All of this happened because, and by the way, I got VIP treatment everywhere I went because she would make a phone call ahead of time. All of this happened because I developed a relationship with her. So moral of the story, be a human.

When you travel, it will have a huge impact, huge impact on your travel experience. Nikki G what are your final thoughts today? Final thoughts are, it is all about relationships. It is about relationships, whatever you are doing.

It's a great way to think about it. Whether you're interacting with someone who is helping you with your flight arrangements, or you are at a networking event and you're trying to meet somebody new, it's about building relationships. A hundred percent, a hundred percent.

All right. We appreciate our relationship with you. Thank you for joining us for this business travel tip show.

My name is Dave Lorenzo. We're here every day with the inside BS show. Her name is Nikki G and we will see you tomorrow.

Until then, here's hoping you make a great living and live a great life.