Virtuoso Travel Week by the numbers

After a week of meetings, training opportunities, cocktail receptions and lunches/dinners with suppliers, Virtuoso #TravelWeek is concluding tonight with a closing Gala Dinner at which "Best of the Best" awards will be awarded to travel advisors in a number of categories. Brownell's own Martha Gaughan has been nominated for Most Admired Advisor, and we're all pulling for her.

I left after today's final appointment as I can get back home in California before the Gala and the after-party are done! I'm writing this from the American Express Centurion Lounge at the Las Vegas airport. The above screen flashed (and Handel's Hallelujah Chorus played) at the conclusion of the final appointment at 4:25 p.m. this afternoon. These numbers give a sense of the reach and power of our network:

5,693 total attendees including travel advisors and providers
288,004 four-minute meetings
28,368 ten-minute matched appointments
22,281 room total nights booked at Bellagio, Vdara, and Aria
275,611 square feet of meeting space occupied

Travel Week is exhausting! It's also an immensely valuable opportunity for travel advisors to meet with the hotel reps and tour companies who can create WOW experiences for our clients. For instance, I was able to score a confirmed upgrade for one client at the Four Seasons George V in Paris ... and shop for a one-week stay in a villa with private plunge pool for another. I came back with lots of news, so be watching for my Top Ten List for Travel Week 2017.

This was my twelfth Travel Week, and the chance to re-connect with colleagues and providers is so worthwhile.

copyright  (c)  2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

getting WiFi at the airport

I'm not sure how useful this map is, as most airports have free public WiFi. Sometimes you may have to watch a 30-second video advertisement while signing on. I frankly have no problem trading 30 seconds of inattention for a corporate sponsorship of my being online. But there are other alternatives.

Anil Polar's labor of love has been the creation of the above google map collecting WiFi passwords contributed by his readers at airports around the world. I'm not sure how useful this information is. Looking at the airport closest to my home, San Francisco International Airport, the collected passwords are from several airport lounges — AirFrance/KLM (international terminal), Centurion Lounge (Terminal 3), and Admirals Club (Terminal 2). If you have access to those lounges, there's no purpose to this map. I suppose you could sit on the hard floor outside those lounges, but why would you do that? SFO has free public WiFi.

There are better alternatives! For instance, American Express Platinum Card members (1) get free admission into the Centurion Lounge, (2) receive Priority Pass which provides free admission to the AirFrance/KLM Lounge, and (3) have access to complimentary WiFi at over one million Boingo hotspots worldwide. And if you're flying internationally in business class, you also receive complimentary lounge access

If you're a frequent flyer, legitimate lounge membership is actually a good idea. Here are some of the advantages.

• (1) Comfortable seating in chairs or sofas that are not bolted to the floor.
• (2) Quiet and decorum.
• (3) Complimentary snacks and drinks.
• (4) An airline desk (sans the long lines out in the terminal) with top agents who can rebook flights or process that upgrade.
• (5) Clean restrooms without lines.
• (6) Sometimes showers.
• (7) Free WiFi.

Often that membership is included if you obtain the right credit card ... and it may be tax deductible — consult your CPA.

copyright (c) 2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.