If you travel on business, be aware that the planes are getting fuller and customers are dissatisfied with service. My business travel experiences have been good.
Going through security can be a challenge but some airports are letting people self-select their security lane based on whether they're expert travelers, casual travelers or families. It'll be interesting to learn how effective this is.
I fly Northwest nearly all the time; when I travel, I'm not in charge of the arrangements but when you're at the hub, that's what happens. If you take Continental, they still fling you a muffin on an early flight and peanuts later in the day. NWA uses self check-in so all you need to do is swipe your card and hit a few buttons; you can change your seat if there's something better available and check your bag, which I recommend unless there's a compelling reason not to do so. So much easier to get through the airport and on the plane with less stuff.
I love the wheeled cases but when everyone is loaded down with stuff it makes life difficult. I get on the plane with a purse only and am very happy because the overhead bins are stuffed with multiple bags from the same person. I understand that sometimes people are carrying things that can't be checked, but a lot of people bring their wheeled bags to avoid waiting at baggage claim.
My baggage claim experiences have been remarkably good; I rarely have had to wait more than a few minutes, partly out of sheer luck, partly because I get to the airport early and seem to be rewarded with good luggage karma.
Most people seem to know that they need to take their shoes off and laptops out, but there are still people who don't know that full-size products are no longer allowed in their carry-ons, so get taken away for a more comprehensive look. Security usually goes pretty fast, unless it's right before or after a holiday; I allow plenty of time all the time though, because it's impossible to know how busy the airport will be.
I'm also turning into an airport snob because my home airport, MSP, has a lot going on. There are local and chain restaurants as well as stores. Real stores, not just those with souvenirs, magazines and snacks. You can buy clothes, luggage, electronics, books, lottery tickets. Pretty much anything.
I have had the dubious honor of having traveled to client sites for Document Collection trips, in which my role was to sit through a meeting and to look through paper files on someones desk. For my first trip, I was given flight and hotel information so just met my party at the airport on the designated day. There was a bit of a mix-up between the agency and the document review center; neither advised me that for travel I would front the hotel and be reimbursed for it later. Each thought the other would tell me. Fortunately I was able to pay for the hotel; it was a Hilton and was $250/night! That was a bit of a shock. We drove to another city the following afternoon and stayed at a Hampton inn for $130/night, and the trip leader told me to leave it on the corporate card. Which was good! I had money in savings so would've been fine, but wouldn't it have been nice to be told in advance? The review center was quick in reimbursing me; I had a check hand-delivered the next week.
It was quite interesting to participate in the document collection process; I went on more than one trip and found the experience varied depending on the size of the group and the person in charge of it. Some groups went out for dinner together and it was high-energy and fun; other groups had lower energy and were just fine too.
The basics: Persons who potentially have relevant information are identified, either through position; perhaps they're a decision-maker such as CEO, Corporate Counsel or COO or through interviews with others who identify by name people with whom they interact who may have relevant information. Relevant people are interviewed by the litigation team or by National Discovery Counsel, as well as being interviewed by the document collection team lead for information regarding electronic information they use and where it's located. After the interview, the document collection people go to the persons workspace to collect information; the computer is mapped and information from it is e-mailed to the people who work directly with electronic information collections and paper documents are reviewed for relevance, anything that might be relevant is collected. Once documents are collected, they're boxed up and labeled for direct shipping to the entity responsible for scanning and dumping them into the system.
Once that happens, they go through whatever the process is on your particular review; I have worked on reviews on which documents were assigned by a document analyst and others where we just added our name to a table together with the completion date. Most reviews seem to have a quality component so review twice before they're sent to the firm to be reviewed yet again.
After that? No idea, unless I read about it in the paper later. Sometimes I have.
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