Off to... Detroit

I'm headed off today on a business trip. I haven't had many of those this year. Come to think of it I've only had four... and the last one I had became less a business trip than an escape-the-hurricane trip. 😰 The good news that I'm traveling again— and with no hurricane anywhere near the forecast. The bad news that I'm going to Detroit.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on Detroit. I've actually traveled there countless times in the past for work... though virtually all of those trips were to the northern and northwestern suburbs, where I called on clients in the auto industry. This trip I'm going to be downtown, for a trade show in the main convention center. Downtown Detroit is a different beast from Warren or Southfield. I'll see first-hand if it looks like the war zone everyone says it is.

Flying, Then and Now

As I'm flying to Detroit today I'm also traveling down Memory Lane. That's because when I started traveling regularly for work back in the mid 00s my first trip was to Detroit. (Yeah, I know, lucky me. 😂) What's changed about travel, particularly air travel, between then and now? Here are Five Things:

1) Driving to the airport. In the mid 00s I began nearly every air trip by driving to the airport— driving my own car, parking it in an airport lot or 3rd party lot nearby, and riding a shuttle to the terminal. Taking a taxi both ways was as expensive as parking for 3-4 days, and taking a taxi to the airport generally meant 30+ minutes of wasted time as the taxi dispatchers could never accurately predict when a driver would be available or how many times he would take wrong turns driving to the address. It was still several years before ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft were created. Nowadays I almost never park a car at the airport. Lyft and Uber are cheaper than parking fees, and their modern technology makes it easy and quick to get curb-to-curb service.

2) Air stairs at SJC Terminal 3. Back in the mid 00s SJC Airport was still a bit of a fossil. The original terminal, renumbered Terminal 3, was an older, ground-floor level building. It didn't have jet bridges. Boarding a jet meant walking outside across the tarmac and then ascending stairs to the aircraft's hatch. It was primitive... but also special. Who else boarded/disembarked by air stairs? The President, the Queen, the Beatles. I'd always pause at the top and imagine waving to the cameras.

3) Newspapers and magazines. Back in the mid 00s I'd try to always have a newspaper and a magazine or two to read while sitting in the terminal and aboard the aircraft. Although I had a laptop computer, airport wifi wasn't yet a thing. ...And when it did start becoming more common in airports a few years later it generally pay-per-use. Ubiquitous free wifi was still years off.

4) Jets were not full. In the mid 00s travel was still in recession in the aftermath of the Dot Com implosion and 9/11. As a flyer that meant usually the center seat in a three-across row would be empty. Through most of the teens flights went out full or pretty much full. There was another travel recession in 2020 due to Coronavirus, of course, but since last year jets have been flying full most places I go.

5) Renting a car. I almost always rented a car on business trips. Similar to item 1, taxis were not a reasonable way to get around, nor was commuter rail, except in a few major cities. And even when I traveled to major cities, it was rare that I was working or staying downtown. Most of the time I was at IT campuses out in the suburbs.

What if I Just... Didn't Travel? Part 2.

A few weeks ago I posed the question, What if I Just... Didn't Travel... for my Travel Job? It bothers me that a number of my colleagues, maybe about half, are declining travel for various reasons— when we're employed in jobs that specifically include travel responsibility. For the trade show I'm flying out to support this week, there's yet another person declining to participate, with yet another reason. This time it's Coronavirus— specifically, refusal to get vaccinated or even take a test.

The conference has a health requirement. Attendees must show either proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. And masks are required to be worn indoors at the show. That's too much for one of my Covidiot colleagues. He called our boss last week and told him he wasn't going to be able to attend.

The immediate response from my company's even organizer was, "Well, the rest of you are just going to have to work longer hours to pick up the slack. Sorry."

In my post a few weeks aog I remarked that I feel like a chump for bearing the hardship of travel when half my colleagues are opting out of it with seemingly no consequences. Now I really feel like a chump.