Walking into a Westin lobby last night — Thursday — I was confronted with this projected onto the floor.

To a frequent flyer business traveler this makes all the sense in the world. Thursday is done. The work week is, for all intents and purposes, done.

If you’re walking into the Westin lobby you weren’t one of the lucky ones that got to catch a flight home Thursday night. Maybe your engagement took you through to the end of the business day and it was too late to make it to the airport and get back home to your base. There aren’t as many late evening flights as there used to be, especially late evening flights that will still connect if you aren’t headed to a major hub.

But either way you probably aren’t at a client site, or remote location for your own company on Friday. On Friday morning you’re headed to the airport. The upside of that is that you don’t have to spend Friday catching up on administrative tasks either in the office or from home. You’re flying. Home in time to drop things off at the dry cleaners, hopefully pick them up on Saturday so you’re ready to start the work week. One of your greatest wishes is that dry cleaners all opened on Sundays. That one hour window between when clothes are ready for pickup on Saturday and when the cleaners closes puts a real crimp in your Saturday plans.

To the median American, the Frequent Flyer Weekend seems just as odd as the Friday-Saturday weekend of much of the Muslim world. In fact, the Friday weekend day is probably why we get so much screening by the TSA.

Filed under: the culture that is business travel.

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