Time to face the truth of 2022 - travel has become a punishment

Travel experience has changed. For all 109 million holiday travelers this season. No doubt about it. Are the changes permanent? I hope not, since there is almost nothing fun about traveling today. And this is coming from me: the most passionate person you will ever meet on the topic of travel. So much so, that I made a transoceanic trip in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. I love travel because it gives us access to new cultures, builds empathy, and connects us with our global community. And I love building travel experiences because I share the vision of seamless and enjoyable experiences for new generations of travelers.

Tension Across Touchpoints

Before the pandemic,?travelers were welcomed at every phase of their experience. On their journeys, hospitality agents, concessions staff, airline personnel, and even security, went out of their way to smile. It felt like there was a team with one goal - to make passengers feel comfortable, carefree, and happy. Today, travelers are "processed," rather than guided. As a traveler last week, I felt like an intruder. Or even worse, a criminal. The current travel experience has palpable tension at every touchpoint along the journey.

Across the journey, travelers receive the message that, at best, they are not wanted. At worst, they are feared. Customer service is bad everywhere. And no one seems to be bothered by that. Like Jon Picoult shares in The New YorkTimes, “The pandemic has given many companies license to reduce their focus on the quality of the experience they’re delivering to the customer.” Don't get me wrong. I am all about safety and security. What I am not about is throwing away the entire industry's progress in terms of hospitality and self-service, in the name of Covid. We are talking about millions of dollars of investments being underutilized today. Just like the below example of facial recognition boarding.

Pre-Travel

Today, traveling internationally brings confusion and uncertainty about rules and regulations crossing borders and continents. Even after the confusion is (somewhat) cleared, logistics questions remain.

As of December 6th, the CDC is requiring a Covid test one calendar day prior to air travel*. CityMD, the testing clinic in my neighborhood, states on its website that "Due to increased national laboratory testing, the current turnaround time is averaging 5-7 days to receive your COVID-19 PCR (Nasal Swab) results." Yes, there are trucks around New York City. But they are outside and it is difficult to access them (especially with a young child). And the outdoor lines are impossibly long, particularly during peak travel time.

The pre-travel phase once included day dreaming about what to wear on vacation, and practicing phrases for greeting new friends. Now, we greet stress in our neighborhood clinics. If testing requirements are a permanent part of the travel experience, we must embed taking tests in the passenger journey seamlessly. More importantly, the responsibility and costs for testing must shift from the passenger to government. What you require, you must also support.

At the Airport

Remember the life-changing self-service technology that allowed us to check-in at home, self bag tag, and drop our bags quickly? Well, JetBlue disabled that for International Travel (the time when you do have bags that slow you down). Today, you can still go through all the self-service steps, but when you try to drop your bags, you are sent to the Full Service, slow line with all passengers.

In that line, you "get your documents checked." Airlines need to automate this process as soon as possible. Almost two years have passed since the initial pandemic lockdown. And we are clearly not going to eliminate those checks in 2022. Time to get to work with your IT teams. Edit the check-in flows and code a few new screens. Do the right thing.?Make the necessary, straightforward improvement to the travel experience for people who have been waiting too long to feel welcomed and guided.

In the Air

The individuals flying with us now are not deserving of the flight attendant title. I understand times are tough. And government bailout funding probably did not cover hospitality training. But, my, oh my. The atrocities I witnessed on both flights I took last week are inexcusable. It was as if JetBlue never spoke to the inflight crew about standards of behavior or uniform compliance. It hurt me to experience that, knowing the high NPS scores and positive feedback we used to receive. I also remember how hard our flight attendants worked to help achieve those scores and, more importantly, the customer happiness high NPS represents.

It seems like JetBlue has removed the all you can eat snacks perk, without informing travelers. Passengers used to be allowed as many snacks as they wanted. On both flights that was not the case. Going to Ecuador we had to ask several times for an extra bag of chips before we were given one. If the airline offered a warm meal on the 6.5 hour flight, that would be alright. But that was not the case either. In addition, we were delayed 2 more hours and stood on the tarmac. The service was just bad.?By the time we arrived in Ecuador, I realize that no one even passed with water during the long flight.?

While stuck on the tarmac, I had to ask flight attendants to turn on the entertainment system. Even over simple requests like this (that help to keep passengers calm and happy), flight attendants dropped their standards. On multiple occasions, flight attendants snapped at passengers. They talked on their personal phones in the back of the plane. And they used borderline hostile body language.

Prime examples of the hospitality catastrophe include team members who decided to work in their personal clothes! Yes, the flight attendant on the flight back wore her own jacket that covered her entire uniform. The lead flight attendant in the front covered his uniform with a flowing shawl. It dragged through the aisle as he walked. The disrespect for the uniform and the profession was abundantly clear. Leaving passengers underserved and hungry.

Arrival & Return Trip

Lack of rules continue along the journey, where it impacts hotel hospitality, too. Hotels do not clarify what amenities will be open. Whether museums or shows will be canceled, and what to do about previously purchased tickets.

More importantly, hotel hospitality does not include providing travelers with information about how to access required Covid tests for return travel. Beyond the hotel, the overall travel experience journey lacks design for the return Covid test phase. This is more than an inconvenience. Think about the impact of receiving a positive test while traveling abroad. Where is the design for securing accommodations, following proper quarantine procedures, and accessing any necessary care? Should testing and everything that follows come exclusively at the traveler's expense, even though rules and requirements were not clear prior to booking?

To sum up, travel has transformed from a fun, exciting experience to a nightmare. I plead with my colleagues in the travel space to stop hiding behind Covid restrictions and start building a future travel experience that incorporates the realities of Covid into the seamless journey of travelers. I am afraid that if that does not happen in 2022 we may not see the come back of demand needed to bounce back into the future.?

* The original version of this article referenced airline requirements related to Covid testing and travel. It has been updated to state the CDC issues the requirements that airlines follow.