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By Eric Richmond
Despite what people may think, business travel isn't fun. You often spend as much time getting to and from the airport as you spend on the plane. There are lines, the inevitable wait, followed by more lines and more waiting. Airlines loose luggage, hotels loose reservations and you think you're going to loose your sanity. Here are some of our tips to help you cope when you're on the road.
Frequent Flyer Clubs
 Every airline has some kind of frequent flyer program. The good news is that you no longer have to join every airline's program. Most airlines these days belong to one of the two formal worldwide airline alliances: the One World Alliance (http://www.oneworldalliance.com), which includes American Airlines and British Airways, and the Star Alliance (http://www.star-alliance.com) which includes United Airlines. Even if they don't, they likely have significant code-share partnerships with other airlines. Either way, the benefit to you is that miles you accumulate on one airline can be used on any partner flight.
Frequent flyer programs generally operate the same way. Every time you fly somewhere, your account accumulates both miles and segments. The miles you accumulate are based (loosely) on the number of air miles between the city you're traveling from and the city you're traveling to. To maximize the miles you accumulate, look into the co-branded charge cards from AMEX, Visa or MasterCard that some airlines offer, as well as tie-ins to long distance telephone services and rental cars. Segments accumulated are based on the number of stops you make on your flight. Rewards are based on either miles or segments.
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