They say that today’s modern day corporate office worker is all about finding balance. On this particular trip I would attempt to find that balance by leveraging an existing business class work trip, and by adding on a few days of skiing at Stowe Mountain resort in Vermont USA at personal expense over the weekend. I would end up using a work trip to get me to the North Eastern part of Canada and the USA, and then paying my own way from there, in order to get to Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont. How did this balancing act end up working out?

---

This post is one chapter on a winter work trip within Canada. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Air Canada Aeroplan, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter “X” or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

---

Trip Introduction: Skiing in Stowe, Vermont, United States via Air Canada Business Class

---

Planning the Trip:

I had a business trip from Vancouver Canada to Ottawa Canada scheduled for February. This was a usual trip surrounding a week long series of business meetings.

On a personal note, as a result of an El Niño snow year, we had a terrible ski season at my home ski hill of Whistler / Blackcomb with very little snow accumulation. As a seasons pass – holder, I wasn’t getting the number of great ski days that I had hoped for. It was generally a very soggy experience. Since I had this trip coming up, I thought that I would take advantage of adding on a few personal days, to an existing work trip.

Accordingly, I ended up up adding three personal days to that were owed to my travel week. After the work week, I ended up driving the three and a half hours to Vermont, in order to take advantage of some skiing at Stowe Mountain Resort, Vermont, USA.

While I don’t often take advantage of personal stay on after work trips, there are times occasionally when it makes sense to pay the extra expense in order to see an activity or visit a few friends.

Planning Flights:

Flights from West of Canada to Ottawa

My flights for this trip were booked through my company travel agency, per my existing company policy.

There weren’t many combinations of routings between Vancouver and Ottawa. At times, it is cheaper to take a connection which often adds another two hours to the trip. Since I was booking well in advance around set dates, there was no cost savings for me to book a connecting flight. With only two major airlines within Canada- Westjet and Air Canada, I ended up on the preferred favorite of business travellers “Air Canada”.

I was lucky enough that on my departure date, the cheapest flight available was on Air Canada’s Signature Business Class Boeing 787-9 product. This featured their best available business class product.

In order to keep business travel costs as low as possible, I ended up with a very early 6 AM departure returning home. This had me returning on Air Canada’s Boeing 737 Max 8 product.

The routing ended up looking like this at the time of travel.

YVR- YOW – YVR (paid)

Planning Hotels:

On this particular trip, I was split between business and personal travel. For the business portion, I stayed at the Ottawa Marriott Hotel. Since I had reviewed that hotel previously, and there wasn’t much change, I won’t be reviewing it again.

For the personal portion of the trip, I ended up staying at the Courtyard Burlington Harbour Hotel. They were a number of Marriott hotels in Burlington Vermont in both the Delta, Residence Inn and Courtyard franchise brands. I ended up at the Courtyard Burlington Harbour as it looked to be the most appealing hotel that was close to the historic district of Burlington Harbour. Since there was a spring promotion for Marriott Bonvoy that earned double elite night credits, I ended up staying on a cash rate.

As a result of my early 6 AM flight home, I needed one night near the Ottawa international airport prior to getting on my flight. Being Marriott loyalists, my choice was between the Fairfield Inn and Suites Ottawa Airport, or the lesser point earning residence Inn and suites Ottawa airport a few miles up the road.

I ended up at the Fairfield Inn and Suites and ended up being quite satisfied. Again, as a result of the Marriott Bonvoy double elite night credit promotion, I ended up staying on a cash rate.

I hope you’ll enjoy following along on another adventure.

---

When travelling for work, how often do you add a personal stay on to gain outsized value from your trip ?

---