I Can Feel A Pulse. Travel is alive and well.

Travel is in Our Blood

It's Miami, 4AM local time. Most hotel rooms these days smell like marijuana. I guess that's better than the smoking rooms of years gone by with ashtrays, yellow nicotine stains and a combination of mold and smoke. It feels like what I knew travel to be is as old as that nicotine, and as consistent as the flickering vacancy sign outside an old roadside motel, but a new kind of travel is in the process of being born. 

Breakfast has been cancelled due to the Pandemic, and so has the shuttle to the airport. I know both these points are best efforts by the hotel to cut down on costs, and don't do anything to protect the guests. Hotels are one of the areas that frankly annoy me the most. The 2 star traveler will be lied to directly by the company until the vaccine is in effect, and COVID goes back into the hole of damnation where it belongs. What will they say then? Will the boxes of cereal return? Will they go so far as to provide a microwavable breakfast burrito? Maybe a place to sit in the lobby? I'm getting excited just thinking about it. Not really. The 2 star hotel might as well be a pod hotel like the kind in Tokyo, simply crawl in and close the coffin door, because we've transformed from a hotel into (As Steve Martin from Planes, Trains & Automobiles would have put it) an effing bed, an effing shower, an effing TV and an effing light. That was and has been my hotel experience for some time now, but I digress. 

I'm in Miami for what I believe to be my last international trip of the year. In total and since April of 2020, I've traveled to 38 states and 1 country (Costa Rica). This will be the second, Ecuador. It just so happens I'm traveling over the Thanksgiving week. People think I'm crazy. I am, but this ticket has been rescheduled over 4 times, attempted once with this being the second time. If I don't use it the airline will be happy to provide a voucher equal to the amount I paid in April - $99. No thanks. 

I was here a week ago, and a month ago. The difference is, it's not the creaky wheels of travel starting back up again, its something altogether different. From the hotel, to the Uber Driver to the Airline Check in process, the flight and well, lets see about Ecuador. You see, I think we were stuck in between for a long, long time. From the days of glam travel to the discount, flip flop wearing, cattle heard travel we've come to know and hate. 

The creaky wheels of travel seem to be gone altogether. For a lot of companies, if you were going to reinvent yourself now was the time. Quite literally, it doesn't look, feel or even smell the same. A great deal of it I like. For instance, I just checked in on my American Airlines App. I had a digital boarding pass before entering the airport. Since my backpack was so large, I was asked to check it. Ok, I go over to one of the dozens of screens, check in easily, and print the bag tag right there. I loop it through the hoop of my backpack, and then walk over to drop it off at the conveyor. Easy. Way, way, way to easy. Don't be fooled, these changes have little or nothing to do with COVID, but more to do with innovation and the future of travel. 

While hotels aren't exactly innovating the way the airlines, and cruise lines are being forced to, the benefits are going to have some big payoffs. I enjoy flying American. Did you just hear what I said? I said I enjoy flying {FILL IN HERE}.  I don't know when I've ever said that about any airline! Ever! That's the secret behind these supposed COVID changes. They are innovating and testing these changes under little stress because of reduced passenger capacity. There couldn't be a better time to change, innovate and collaborate. As devastating as COVID has been, my business included, it's change or die. It's not a temporary change, its a permanent one, and I can feel the Heartbeat of a renewed travel industry. Ecuador awaits, and I'm now going to pull my mask down to enjoy a bagel, as the in fight meal has been cancelled due to COVID.