I am the sales director of a plastic surgery supply company (my wife is the GM).
I am away from my home in BNE pretty much every week, mainly in SYD & Mel, but also a bit of AKL and CHC....
I have been doing this sort of travel for a number of years now and am well used to it.
I use all of the info I find on here and FT to make my life easier.
I do travel in my own time due to the short notice of some of my work, and I dont really mind doing that, except that I really hate the 4 am starts some days. :shock:
My "worst/best" year was 2006, when i did 140 + flights in one year, with about half of them being to Asia/Europe/USA.
I got to Explat in AA and kept that until Feb 2008.
I am sitting at sapphire now and will get to about 70-80 flights (mainly DOM) this year.
In the last 2 years I have had 1 x F return to JFK, 1 x F return to HKG, 1 x F return to BKK, 4 x J returns to AKL/WLG all on award points from AA.
They are the compensation for the early starts and the weekend conferences.
I am a Hilton Gold, a Marriott Plat, a PC gold AMB, and a Hyatt Plat.
I do lots of hotel nights, and try to stick to 2-3 major chains.
I like the extra recognition as a regular.
My wife is not bothered by me being away, but we talk many times every day due to work.
Not a bad life, but I don't have kids, have a stake in the company and love doing this work...