.KEYWORD travel
.FLYINGHEAD TRAVEL TRICKS
.TITLE How to save 90% on business travel using your handy Palm handheld
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY In today’s challenging economy, cost cutting has become more and more necessary. Many companies have cut down drastically on business travel, but if you are going to be traveling on business, one way you can do your part is to keep an eye on what you spend. In this timely article by Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz, you’ll learn how using a Palm wireless handheld may be able to save you up to 90% on your business travel communications costs.
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
In today’s challenging economy, cost cutting has become more and more necessary. Many companies have cut down drastically on business travel, but if you are going to be traveling on business, one way you can do your part is to keep an eye on what you spend.
Now, I’m not going to tell you to go to Mickey D’s when you’re in a strange city and dying for a steak. Instead, in this article, I’m going to give you a few simple tips for keeping your hotel phone bill in check.
On the surface, hotel phone charges may not seem like such a big deal. But if you look carefully at your bill, you may find that in-room calling can wind up costing your company almost as much as the room itself. If you can cut that cost down, you can have a big impact.
.CALLOUT Even if you don’t have the hardware and went out and purchased it specially, you’d still save more than the in-room phone charges for a single trip.
A few years ago, I found this out the hard way. I’d been traveling and calling back to the office. When I checked out, I find I had a bill almost $800 more than I expected simply because of the in-room phone charges.
.H1 A recent trip
A few weeks ago, I had to go to Hawaii for a training seminar. Yeah, I know, it’s a tough life. Even though most of the ten days were spent in the hotel from morning to night, I did get to spend one day driving around the island of Honolulu.
I knew I’d need to stay in constant contact with the office, which would mean multiple calls each day, as well as checking my mail regularly. After learning my lesson on a previous trip, I decided that developing a communications strategy before traveling could have a big impact on my trip’s bottom line.
I stayed at a middle-of-the-road hotel called the Waikiki Parkside. We got a special conference rate of $67 per night. Local calls are $0.60 each, and calls to 800-numbers or using a calling card are $0.62 each, plus the cost of the long distance charges, plus the calling card surcharges (which, being the casual long distance charges of the local carrier, are much higher than those you’d have at home). Even worse, if I just dialed the office from the room’s phone, it’d cost me a whopping $2.00 per minute.
It adds up pretty quickly. If I would have called into the office twice a day, for 10 minutes each, plus checked and answered email twice a day, also taking 10 minutes each session, I’d have used 40 minutes a day. At $2.00 a minute, that’s $80 a day for phone use. Note that that’s even more than the room cost. Carried across the entire 10 days, that’d be another $800–more than enough to go buy myself a Palm handheld, a wireless modem, and that steak I wanted so much.
First, I had to rethink my voice calls. Instead of phoning home from the room phone, I dialed home from my cellular phone. Recognizing that I’d be traveling, the company got me a phone plan that allows me to call from anywhere in the U.S. at a basic rate. I had 400 minutes per month that I could use for anything, at any time, from anywhere. My plan costs $55/month plus taxes. As long as I kept my voice calls to a reasonable length, I’d fit under the 400 minute wire. Anything more than 400 minutes would cost me another $0.35 per minute.
.H1 Keeping email costs down
But what about email? The last time I traveled, I took my laptop and just plugged it into the wall. It’s an easy approach, but as you saw above, the bill got big quite rapidly.
This time, I decided I’d try another approach. Rather than using my laptop, I decided to use my Palm handheld and my wonderful folding keyboard. Not only was the combo lighter than my laptop, but it also had the addition of a wireless modem. It allowed me to check my email and surf the Web during those times that the class got dull.
Although we’ve got a number of Palm VIIx handhelds here in the office which have a built-in wireless modem, I’m still a happy user of my Palm Vx. It’s easy to turn almost any Palm handheld into a wireless device with the addition of a wireless modem, and that’s what I did with my Palm Vx. I pulled the OmniSky wireless modem (at http://www.omnisky.com/discover/devices/palm.jhtml), shown in Figure A, off the shelf and took it on the road.
.FIG A My trusty Palm Vx fits onto the OmniSky modem beautifully.
Whether you go the Palm VIIx route or the add-on modem route, there’s going to be a bit of hardware cost. The Palm VIIx itself costs $199, if you don’t already have one. If you’re using another Palm handheld, like my Palm Vx, the OmniSky modem costs $69 (after a rebate). The thing is, even if you don’t have the hardware and went out and purchased it specially, you’d still save more than the in-room phone charges for a single trip.
Where things start to get interesting are the wireless plans that are available for wireless modems like the OmniSky and the Palm VIIx. Although Palm has a basic plan that starts at $9.99 for 50KB transferred per month, the real deals are the "all-you-can-eat" plans both companies offer.
Palm offers an unlimited volume usage plan for $44.99 a month (and a startup fee of $9.99). OmniSky’s plan is $39.95 a month, with a $29.95 startup fee. Plus, if you happen to buy a Palm VIIx from the Palm store before the end of the year, you can also get a credit of $100 back.
I like unlimited usage plans. They mean I can access the Internet as often as I need, for as long as I need, without worrying about racking up the charges.
.H1 The final comparison
So let’s go back to the numbers from my trip. Had I taken my laptop, plugged it into the phone in the room, and done my calling back to the office, it would have cost me about $400. That’s 10 minutes a call, two calls a day, at $2.00 per minute.
Instead, I used my OmniSky modem. Instead of paying $400 for the ten days, my entire month cost only $39.95, or just 10% of the in-room charges. Even if I’d gone out and bought the wireless modem just for the trip, it’d have cost me $69 for the modem, $29.95 for startup, and $39.95 for the service, a total of $138.90, which still beats the in-room $400 charge hands down.
Now, let’s look at the numbers for a similar Palm VIIx. If you already own one, it’d have cost $44.99 instead of $400. If you had to run out and buy one, you’re spending $199 for the new Palm handheld (always cool to get!), $9.99 to start up, and $44.99 a month. That’s $253.98. Take away the $100 credit that Palm’s currently offering, and you’re spending $153.98, which, again, beats the pants off the basic in-room charge of $400.
No doubt about it. If you’re going to travel, bring a wireless modem for your Palm handheld or a Palm VII or VIIx. You’ll save a tremendous amount of money.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on the OminiSky modem, visit http://www.omnisky.com/discover/devices/palm.jhtml.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
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.END_SIDEBAR
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