I am absolutely addicted to business travel writer Joe Brancatelli, and his friends who craft the content about Life on the Road at www.joesentme.biz. When Joe wanted to offset some of his costs a few years ago with a Membership fee, I joined immediately. I also enjoy his Portfolio Magazine column, Seat 2B

Whether you are a luxury traveler (air, hotel, and all the rest), or otherwise, what Joe Brancatelli and guests deliver is lively, pragmatic wisdom—along with their pet peeve treats. Yes, Joe does rant, mostly about dysfunctional airline moves affecting consumers.

What Joe shares, always experientially, serves me well, whether traveling for business or pleasure.
I wonder how many members Joe has among travel agents who should be copying/pasting/sharing his practical counsel with customers.

There are valuable nuggets in every issue of The Brancatelli File.
Here are just a few excerpts that captured my attention in recent weeks: 

• It took hotel chains almost a decade to successfully adopt and adapt airline-like loyalty programs. But once they caught up in the early 1990s, hotel plans blossomed. Now, I value my elite status in frequent-stay programs more than my frequent-flyer credentials. That’s because status still matters in the hotel game and pays off with frequent room upgrades, lavish freebies (including rooms), and other perks, like the Oreos that one chain leaves on my nightstand.
• Most of the hotels at the apex of the lodging hierarchy—think Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental—don’t have frequency programs with membership cards, points, and monthly account statements. But they do have sophisticated computerized systems that track your personal preferences. Ask for a special type of pillow at the Ritz-Carlton in Cleveland and you’ll likely find the same waiting on your bed at the Ritz-Carlton in Istanbul. Request a particular wine at one Four Seasons hotel and it follows you around the Four Seasons universe.
• The new-wave, boutique-style luggage shippers—and old reliables like FedEx and U.P.S. —also offer something that the airlines never could: freedom from the schlep. They’ll come to your home or office, gather your bags, and make them appear at your final destination. You go to the airport without having to maneuver your gear into a car or a cab. You bypass the long lines at baggage check-in. You skip the even longer wait at the baggage carousel. And you arrive at your hotel or resort like a visiting head of state, blissfully free of physical encumbrance.

• Be sure you scroll down Brancatelli’s RECENT COLUMNS list
• Visit www.joesentme.biz and www.portfolio.com/business-travel/seat-2B