World Leaders Weigh in on the State of Business Travel From baggage fees to TSA restrictions, a look on what's on the horizon for business travel, and how to make it better.

The keynote speeches at the Global Business Travel Association's annual convention in July in Boston could hardly have carried more heft. A jaunty George W. Bush told attendees, "Our country does presidential travel right." Interesting, sure. But not much use for the rest of us.

Then Bill Clinton told a standing-room-only crowd that business travel is thriving despite the efficiencies of new communications tools because there are competitive advantages to seeing people face to face--but also because "it's fun." Really? Rewarding, perhaps, but from endless security waits to onerous baggage fees, aging rental-car fleets to increasingly crowded hotels, there's not much about planning or taking a typical business trip that's fun.

The words of yet another leader served as a cautionary reminder that most executives' experiences are a long way from Air Force One. "As a traveler, are you better off today than you were four years ago?" asked Brad Gerstner, founder and chairman of online hotel-booking service Room 77 and founder and CEO of Boston-based Altimeter Capital.