I spent a decade as a business traveller covering an ever wider area of the world. I accumulated one and quarter million air miles and got really good at it. The TV image of the business traveller is glamourous. It isn't. It's a rotten life, highly disruptive to both family and health.
The short-haul traveller gets up at four-something to beat the M25 and be at Heathrow for the earliest possible flight. A later flight means much longer in traffic and less time doing business - or worse, a longer trip. He/she returns early evening one or two days later ('cept for the poor sods who work abroad monday to friday) having entertained/been entertained/eaten alone while away. Timing is always critical because missing a flight often has knock-on effects, so the traveller is generally stressed having not quite left enough time to be comfortable. He/she also rarely sees much of the countries being visited.
The long-haul traveller generally takes things easier. Check-in times are much longer for no reason I was ever able to observe so the E-class whisks you to the airport in comfort with plenty of time to enjoy some truly weird selections of lounge plastic food while you hang around. Choose BA to get ratted on decent wine or Virgin for the food and a more comfortable enforced wait.
The frequent flyer is a creature of habit who knows exactly how the airline does things. He/she will have registered seat preferences with the airline, and tweaked them online well before the ordinary traveller. I almost always had seat A17 on Virgin and K63 on BA 747s and was peeved if anyone else got there first. I would be on the plane first, changing into my free tracksuit and setting-up laptop and stuff while others faffed around. Being early means your suit is nearby, being near a loo means being ahead of the jam which always happens before landing when everyone is trying to freshen up at the same time.
Fine hotels at the company's expense sound great - except that being on your own in a very foreign city isn't nice. Exploring by yourself can be dangerous and isn't much fun with no-one to share it. You become conservative when eating after a few episodes of the trots. Caesar salad and the club sandwich are universal business hotel fare. It's also no fun to fall ill abroad. Throwing up your guts for six hours in Shanghai's finest hotel is awful. Seeing dawn at 0200 in Stockholm while doubled up from a gall bladder was special, as is seeing the Opera House through the stripes of a migraine. So I had - still have - a very comprehensive medical kit full of heavy prescription stuff.
"Entertaining" has an altogether alien meaning in business travel to normal use. It does involve eating foods you can't fully identify, cooked in an unusual way and requiring confidence and ingenuity to eat. In many cultures business entertaining involves colossal quantities of alcohol, much of it of unknown strength and doubtful taste. I developed a patentable technique for winning the Moutai drinking contests in China.
The curse of the long haul traveller is jet lag. I got used to it rather than immune to it. It degrades our judgement. I lived on sleeping tablets and caffeine - not at the same time, obviously, with industrial quantities of Resolve Extra. Unwinding all this after I retired took about two years.
Favourite airport is Singapore. No queues and big smiles. But there's nothing to do there.
Worst is Schipol. Bloody miles of taxying means you land on time but get off the plane late.
Most memorable landing was into Taipei during a typhoon. "It's a bit rough down here but we'll give it a shot" was followed by a seriously rough descent and a brilliant very fast landing.
Favourite airline - BA for dull consistency and Virgin for brilliance
Least favourite - Air France-KLM/Lufthansa/Alitalia/Iberia (BA but ruder) and anything with China in it. Budget airlines don't count.
Favourite European cities - Madrid and Stockholm
Least favourite city - Frankfurt
Favourite worldwide - Sydney. HK comes close.
Best hotel - Mandarin Oriental, HK
Nicest hotel - The Establishment, Sydney