Yesterday I ran the gambit in modes of transportation. Plane from Texas to Oregon. Train from Portland to Eugene and then a car ride from the station to home.
On every leg of my trip, I heard about how expensive it was to travel these days.
In the airport, people were talking about the new policy to charge for the 2nd checked bag. One lady said she’d had to pay $200 extra dollars she hadn’t budgeted for and she didn’t know how she was going to pay for one of her nights in the hotel now. Not to mention wondering how she was going to pay to get her bags back once her trip was over with.
Travel habits are changing -more people staying home instead of going on vacations, taking the train instead of driving or flying, taking shorter, closer to home trips instead of longer ones – which has to be a worry for businesses depending on the usual summer vacationers.
On my flight from Phoenix to Portland there was a general announcement on the plane that as of June 1st, pretzels would no longer be served on US Airways flights. The grumbling on the plane, which had started earlier with people talking about the extra bag cost, grew louder. “Charging us more and giving us less,” was one comment I heard in my section of the plane.
The gentleman sitting in the seat next to mine gloomily informed me he was on his last business trip. “Too expensive and I can’t generate enough revenue from them to cover the cost of the trip.” He said that he used to say he couldn’t afford not to travel – it was the only way to get the big deals. Now he can’t afford the travel that was and is still vital to his business.
It makes me wonder what other types of sacrifices businesses are being forced to make all to accommodate the rising cost of travel these days.
‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software
