The blue travelling diaries

I live in the US, but travel on an Indian passport. Almost every international trip I make is for business. Most of them to speak at a conference, and my schedule is pretty tight. I've already travelled to speak in Belgium, Canada and Hong Kong this year, and have upcoming gigs in Australia, the UK and Germany. Apart from Hong Kong, I need a visa to enter all the others, and visa processing time is what limits how much I can travel.

On average, it takes 3-5 business days to get a visa. Add to that the time that my passport and docs are in the mail and that's a little over a week that my passport isn't with me. This is for every trip that I need to make, and since I need my passport for every application as well as to make the trip, I can't do them in parallel.

The good news is that some countries let you have a visa for a year, sometimes more, but not all do. European countries grant a visa from the day of entry to the day of departure. My last trip to Belgium got me a 5 day visa. I'll probably get the same when I travel to Germany. My Canadian visa is valid until a few months before my US visa expires (go figure). The Australian visa is valid for a year, and has a fairly simple application process. A UK visa may be granted for anywhere between 6 months to 10 years, but the application process is fairly involved.

Some applications require you to go for an interview, and some don't. Either way, I've always had good experiences with the various embassy staff, but the Australian Embassy in Washington DC has been the friendliest.

Over the next couple of months I'll fly to the US, apply for a German and Australian visa, fly to Australia, fly back to the US, apply for a British visa, then fly to the UK and Germany and then back home to relax for a bit.

I hear that tourist visas are easier to get than business visas. You need to show more money, but need fewer docs. Travellers from Europe and most American countries don't require a visa to most destinations.

If you plan to visit Hong Kong from the airport, and return within 24 hours, you have two options. The first is the fastest. You take the airport express from the airport right into the city and take it back. If you return on the same day, it costs just HK$100. If you're returning on the next day, it's a little more. You'll also need to pay for local transport within the city, but for the most part you can just walk around.

Now, if you're willing to take a little longer, but want the cheap way, then what you should do is get the S1 bus from the airport to Tung Chung station. Ticket price: HK$3.60. Note, don't take the S64 because that takes you on a tour of rather uninteresting places. Once at Tung Chung, buy a tourist day pass, valid for 24 hours from first use. Price: HK$55. You can use this day pass to get in to the city, and all around on the the MTR and light rail. The ticket comes with a small subway map that you can use to navigate. You'll take the Orange (Tung Chung) Line in to the city, and get off wherever you want to. To go around the island, get off at Hong Kong and then walk to Central and take the Blue (Island) line from there.

Between the months of October and March, airports like Washington DC and Denver are frequently closed due to snow storms. If you happen to have booked a flight through one of these airports, the airline will cancel it and possibly rebook you on an alternate flight. This may not always be the flight you want.

A couple of weeks ago, this happened to me. I was to fly from San Jose, CA to Boston, MA via Denver. San Jose is fairly close to where I live, so it's the most convenient airport for me. Unfortunately, very few airlines fly directly from San Jose to Boston, hence the stopover in Denver. Early on the morning of the flight, I received a voicemail from United saying that my flight had been cancelled due to bad weather. I called back a little later to check on alternatives.

The call centre agent suggested a flight out of San Francisco that was to leave in 2 hours, but there was no way I could make it to SFO by then. He then suggested a flight the following day, but that was too late for me. He then offered to re-book me on American Airlines out of San Jose around the same time that my original flight was supposed to leave. I found this rather suspicious. While he was searching for alternatives, I did the same online, and found that there were still seats available for the night flight from SFO to Boston. I'd have enough time to reach SFO and would make it early the next morning instead of late that night, which was fine.

I pointed out this flight to the agent, and he reluctantly confirmed that there was, in fact, one seat left on that flight. When I checked online, I found that this ticket was worth $734. I'd paid about $150 or $170 for my original ticket, so he was naturally reluctant to get me that seat. It would actually have been cheaper for them to rebook me on American, except that I wouldn't get any miles for that. All the same, there wasn't much more he could do except warn me that any further changes would come at a price.

The flight was packed, and quite a few people were bumped up to first class. I wasn't, but my seat was assigned at the gate. I got a middle exit row seat, with plenty of leg room.

When I checked my mileage account later, I'd been credited over 4000 miles for the flight instead of the 1200 that I usually get for this leg.