Three observations around the state of travel in 2023

The travel industry struggled last summer to get back on its feet. This year is different. The travel industry has recovered. In this post, I share three personal observations from our summer holiday in the US

1. Service levels are back (at least on JetBlue)
2. Servers at restaurants are the real restaurant heroes
3. Narrowbodies are taking over the skies?

Service levels are back (at least on JetBlue)

Thanks, JetBlue Mint. You've earned my loyalty for future transatlantic flights. The service on the LA to NY flight the other day blew me away. Watch out, legacy carriers! I'll get back to more about this in a bit. ?

Servers at restaurants are the real restaurant heroes.

Over the summer, I visited my fair share of restaurants across California. On some days, I'd leave a restaurant with a bland experience; on others, I'd be blown away by great food and incredible service.

There is more to dining at a restaurant than just the food. A warm welcome is the first step. Restaurants were busy along the coastal beach towns, but kudos to those who also took the time to greet us properly, especially the few who also took time to chat with our children when handing over the menus. That was appreciated and made our kids feel welcome too!

The next factor is speed. People in a restaurant are usually hungry, so speed is crucial. If I wanted to wait 45-60 minutes for food, I would have made it myself at home. Having said that, I had a fast-moving service experience in LA. Five minutes after ordering a complicated main course, it emerged from the kitchen. The illusion of freshly prepared food ended there. It's a fine line to walk.?

Tipping is a controversial topic in the US, with critics claiming tipping allows operators to keep wages low. I will be honest about the tipping I did as a customer. Most of the time, it was out of duty. Occasionally, it was to express gratitude for good service, and sometimes it was to avoid embarrassment.

Nevertheless, servers are the restaurant's true heroes and I love it when they get the service just right. I experienced this at a restaurant in Santa Monica, and I was so impressed that I had to ask the restaurant server for his name and email as I would love to invite him now to come and train our hotel servers in Nigeria.

... And back to JetBlue

Having talked about service, what's the deal with airline hosts and hostesses disappearing after serving meals???Sometimes, I wonder where they hide during flights - crew rest areas aren't big and can't accommodate everyone. Jet Blue, however, differed. Along with a great and very personal service approach, a curated small plate menu with great tasting options, free Wi-Fi, great movies, and lie-flat seats, all at a fair price (I booked my ticket three months before departure).?This was offered by what is known as a low-cost carrier operating a narrowbody A321s, not much different from Easyjet or Ryanair's workhorses.??

If you are a European carrier executive reading this, now is a great time to send your service team to Jet Blue for inspiration.

Regarding profitability, Ryanair is amongst the most profitable airlines in the world. JetBlue is only recently on the path to becoming profitable, so from a financial standpoint, the debate is over.?But I know where my money will go if I have the choice.

It's like the ongoing Booking.com vs. Airbnb discussion. The first guys make more money - whilst the brand love leans towards the second. Let's see who is the strongest in 5 years. ;-)

Narrowbodies are taking over the skies?

Regarding narrowbodies, it has been a busy summer for the new generation of these aircraft. Widebodies are usually associated with long-haul flights a discipline primarily done by legacy carriers. Since the 747 was introduced, that's mostly been the case. You fly smaller feeder flights to pick up passengers from smaller airports and transport them to your hub. Here you fill widebodies and fly off to long-haul destinations. Yet new generation narrowbody aircrafts can actually fly long distances, and they're getting better at it. Cirium's data shows narrowbodies will operate 6% of long-haul flights during the peak summer week starting August 7th, 2023. The percentage isn't much, but it's up 50% from last year's 4%.

Long-range narrow-body aircraft can introduce long-haul flights from secondary cities. Because narrow-body planes have a smaller seating capacity, they can fly niche routes and still make money. Moreover, from an environmental perspective, they are more economical to fly per passenger per mile, and they require less support infrastructure at the airports they fly from.

We were able to experience this firsthand on the recently launched Aalborg-New York route, on which SAS operates small aircraft with a configuration that is somewhat similar to that of JetBlue. The flights were full both ways, and the airport experience was far superior to a crowded Copenhagen Airport summer experience. I look forward to seeing more such experiments from SAS in the future.?

So that’s a wrap of this summer’s findings.?Almost...

Let me leave you with a small piece of advice. There has been much debate over Airbnb's experience category over the past few years. This category has not scaled as smoothly as the core accommodation category, but the vision behind it and the offerings deserve praise in my book. My oldest daughter loved the Hippies to Hipsters walk in San Francisco, and the comedian walk to the Hollywood sign, during which I believe we got close to hearing the promised 3000 jokes about LA before reaching the top. We all also truly enjoyed the unique trip across the Bronx with Mighty Mike C and the rest of the Hush Tours team, who helped us celebrate Hip Hop's 50th anniversary as well as the Broadway behind-the-scenes tour during which my 14-year-old spotted her big hero Joe Iconis in the rehearsal studios.

Sprinkling in such experiences will add flavor to our summer travel. Airbnb has a broad collection of niche experiences but there are many more providers; here are those that I have used and a couple I've had recommended by others. Please tip me if you know more that should be added to this list: