I’m looking at you International First Class Award ticket flyers. Yeah you. The ones that fly F and then immediately go from the plane to the Park Hyatt (22,000 pts per night) and get your free suite upgrades. You’re missing the point of travel. Ok I have my judgmental hat on again, so I’ll let you off if you are already Worldly. But if you aren’t, take this one on the chin.
Don’t get me wrong, I have sat in Business Class myself and lorded it over the peasants moving to the rear of the plane, I have enjoyed brushing past the Gate Lice when they clamber around the Business Class Line at embarkation, and it felt great. I recently realized though, that this is the perfect example of being the big fish in the small pond. That I can somehow pretend I am better than my fellow man by being treated better, and that the smug sense of satisfaction as people walk past me lounging out on my lie flat bed is really rather lame.
I do think that a Business Class seat can be worth the difference to a short trip (by which I mean a long flight, with quick turnaround) when we recently flew to Milan on an overnight flight I was cranky as all hell sitting in coach (and spitefully thinking about those in Business Class) rather than napping the night away, which did impact our morning in Milan as I didn’t want to do anything right away. We are also going to Zurich in December and our outbound flight is similarly in Coach and arrives at 8am, so if Business opens up I will pay the difference (when I say pay, I mean add more miles, since I never pay money for a ticket, sheesh).
So yes, I value the comfort factor and it cannot be discounted. But Business Class is comfortable enough – you get a lie flat seat and can rest, food and drink is perfectly fine and there really is nothing to grumble about. First Class on the other hand is taking it to the extreme though, and is purely about bragging rights.
The problem with First and then going to the local Hyatt/Waldorf/St Regis is that they have such a high standard of service. This is the last thing you should be looking for in travel. Sounds weird right? But you will only get the best out of an experience when you don’t get high standards.
Globalization and Service Standards
Catering to the high net worth traveler, which is the target for First Class flights and the most expensive examples of chain hotels (boutiques are actually much better in general, but I digress) requires a consistent level of service. What that means is that you are treated a certain way, and your expectations are always met. Certainly those in the service industry will use marketing gimmickry to coin terms like ‘exceeding expectations’ but that is a fallacious term for repeat guests, if you didn’t expect top tier service at a high end hotel or big ticket flight then you would not have come back to that operation. Exceeding Expectations is a term that is targeted at gaining guests from competitors who experienced less than expected service and are shopping around.
Brands at this level create an experience that you would expect at any hotel anywhere in the family, you should be able to walk into the Park Hyatt Sydney and be treated just the same as the Park Hyatt Milan. In fact, a lot of these hotels actually share staff for rolling out of the new properties – just as they do when a new cruise ship is launched. The startup teams are a mix of the best people, as they can smooth over any teething troubles in a new build and provide a consistent level of service.
For me, this globalization of brand is a real negative thing for those who seek to get the best from travel. I see an increasing trend in old and young people alike, and the points game makes it that much worse.
Lowering the Bar to Travel Devalues not only the cost, but the experience
When an increasing number of people are able to travel to exotic destinations using techniques of Point Acquisition and Redemption, they have opened up the world, it is their oyster. But just as soon as that door has opened, it has closed again when people insist on creating a consistent experience. So many points travelers going from fancy plane seat to fancy hotel room and never get down and dirty with the local people.
I see people complain about room upgrades, and how the type of room they have impacts their experience – let me tell you a secret, its not about the room, its about who you are sharing the room with. I personally have some fabulous memories of staying in the Yasser Arafat Hotel in Suez for the night, the room we got had no paint on the walls, a shower with 3 walls and a curtain (in the bedroom) and 4 large beds of varying heights, no sheets other than torn down mosquito netting, but hey we got to walk around a really shady neighborhood and get some fantastic food.
That same trip we slept for 3 nights on the deck of a boat, and I came very close to being killed by a dozen or so local farmers on the banks of the Nile. I had to sit down and deescalate the situation with them and bribe my way out with a liberal gifting of cigarettes and high fives. That is what memories are made of!
My First Time
They say you always remember your first. I’ve been traveling for a very long time, considering my age… after moving around extensively from pretty much birth I settled in small town Wales. I recall my first International vacation vividly. I was around 19 years old, I got on a train by myself with my months pay packet in hand (around $1,000) and went to Gatwick Airport near London. I had it in mind that I could find a flight that was running empty and they might have a fire sale on seats. Arriving at around 5pm I discovered that there were no more flights that day (especially not in my budget of around $150) but I could book something the following day and crash that night nearby. I scanned the nearest board at the ticket agents there and found the most exotic destination a guy could hope for: Boston, USA for $500 RT leaving the next day. I crashed for the night, and the next day headed on my first International trip.
Of course the flight was in Economy, but I wouldn’t have even thought of flying anything else back then, and it really wasn’t too bad, came with free booze and a blanket and I was happy. Immigration was a little tricky, since apparently they prefer it if you don’t complete the line ‘address where you be staying the USA’ with ‘don’t know’ I have since learned that a little lie on that line works best in every Country. The immigration guy seemed convinced that my $500 in cash and a Credit Card (that had absolutely no credit line on it at all) would be fine for the trip and I wasn’t secretly, and rather obviously trying to emigrate from Blighty.
I had decided (possibly based upon watching Miami Vice) that hotels in America should cost no more than $35 per night, so was looking forward to my 6 night trip, and the promise of portions that could feed a family of 4 for just 99 cents and felt more than ready to get my hotel sorted for the evening. I was rather disappointed to learn that the cheapest ‘hotel’ on offer was about $89 per night, which would require at least one night sleeping rough and no food for the week, but happy when the helpful agent suggested a Hostel, which had a shared room for around $20 per night! I took it for 2 nights as I didn’t want to commit myself in case it was awful, plus I also had plans of later driving to Vegas for a day.
After schlepping (a word I later learned) across to the Hostel I sat on my bunk, in a room shared with 5 other adventurous spirits. We had 2 brothers who were Methadone addicts and were unable to cross the state line in fear of being recaptured, a guy from Australia who studied Aikido, an Asian guy (sat in silence so didn’t know much about him) and a guy that seemed relatively normal from somewhere in the Midwest. Me, mr Normal and the Ozzie hit the town soon after and were drinking up a storm in some dodgy Irish pub. I still recall wondering how the bartender could be so casual about all of the dollar bills sitting on the bar as tips – tipping alone is an alien concept to bars in the UK, and leaving money lying around is downright stupid… anyway, he seemed OK with it.
After a few pints and talking with these guys I realized that driving to Vegas would take more than 4hrs from Boston, so I instead went to New York, staying in another Hostel and walked the city from 125th down to Battery Park City, mostly in the rain. I did stop once for shelter with a coffee, but that was my budget for the day (dollar pizza helped a lot!).
That one trip was filled with undesirable characters, nasty hotels, cheap flights and really shaped my appetite for travel like nothing else ever could. Sure, I stay in nicer hotels now, and fly business class, but they are the tools, the means to an end.
If all you do when you travel is go to the airport lounge, to the fancy cabin on the plane, to the fancy hotel, then eat 2-3 meals a day in that hotel you might as well be anywhere, you are never going to get to experience the beauty of travel, how learning from locals can enlighten your world view, and how you can actually be a positive influence to the world image of your Country. Points and miles are currencies, flights and hotels are facilitators, the beauty of travel is in the people, the culture, the language, and the food. Get out there and get dirty.
Totally agree. We also have had some scruffy nights in odd places and hotels and they have given us great memories (although there were some times when I swore never again!). Hitchhiking around Europe for 5 months in 1973 (shh, don’t tell my kids!) gave us plenty of opportunity to be “out there.” Had the best ratatouille ever when someone who gave us a ride took us home to his mom for dinner. And had utterly delicious melon with an Italian trucker after he helped said melon fall off his truck. Explored the back-roads of Britanny with a man who remember using them during WW2 and ate my best fish ‘n chips in a pub near the Crystal Palace campground when unexpected cold weather in April drove us inside to somewhere, anywhere!
While we are thankfully done with our hitchhiking days, being basically budget travelers we almost never stay at chains (although with free nights available that is changing some). I have a hard time understanding the people in this hobby who fly halfway around the world only to spend a few days in a chain hotel with enough time to pop briefly into the top three sites a foreign city has to offer. We’ve never traveled that way and I hope that I never will.
See, those are the sort of memories that shape who you are as a person. Fabulous to hear about them. You can certainly experience things like this when using Points and Miles as a currency, if your goal is to experience life and use them to facilitate that. But just squandering them on a hotel and a flight without experiencing the people, the town, the food it is just a crying shame.
very true – I have much more vivid memories and affinity for the places I slummed it than for the places I was pampered and venture a few blocks off the tacky tourist trail you will experience a whole different world
You experience the real world, which thankfully is a new, exciting and sometimes scary experience!
I agree with this sentiment.
These issues are the reasons I’m cutting back reading posts in this subculture/hobby/business. Sustaining the “everyone-can-do-it-click-here” business model seems to require selling people on the idea of sterile international travel. I don’t understand why, but I imagine a) one gets more results pushing aspirational travel and b) there are hotel cards to be pushed. I’m also not in the business, so these are guesses..
Honestly, I don’t think its about focused trip type for clicks, I really don’t think most of these folk have really ever traveled, so don’t know better, and are click happy because it obviously pays a ton of cash.
I’m taking my 24 yr old daughter and my 70 yr old mother to Paris and London in March. It will be my mom’s very first trip to both places. I’ve already booked business class seats for us, and we’ll be staying at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome…..yup….in a suite. And if first class seats become available, I have every intention of upgrading us. You see, this trip is not just about Paris and London. Its about spending time with my mother and my daughter, both who live thousands of miles away from me, and treating them to things that they wouldn’t, otherwise, have access to. The three of us have never taken a trip together, and I intend to spoil them a bit….ok a lot. My mom, especially, deserves it, and I intend to take advantage of any opportunity to do that while I can. We’re making memories – not about Paris and London. We’re making memories about doing something super sonic awesome together.
Hi Kari,
I think you are doing a fabulous thing, and hope that one day someone will do the same for me. In no way shape or form is this post applicable to people doing what you are doing.
I’m addressing instead the people that travel frequently, indeed, solely in this fashion and simply do not get to experience the world as they should, which is outside of the hotel.
Sharing a 5* experience with your mother (and bringing your daughter along for the ride) is just a fantastic thing to do.
I travel frequently, but in the past, I’ve had to actually (gasp!) paid cash money for it (my first flight was at 6 months old). My point is – travel isn’t solely about the destination, or how much or little of it you get to experience. Travel is also largely about the people you share those destinations with. Neither one is more “real” than the other.
YOU DID WHAT?!
Travel is solely about the destination, and its impact on you and your dynamic. Sharing it with someone special is wonderful. Which is why I said it wasn’t about the room you got, but who you shared it with 🙂
Your travel may be solely about the destination. My travel is not. And neither is any more “real” than the other. Just differing perspectives.
And my upcoming trip down the Danube? Not a single mile/point spent. 🙂
Hey Kari,
I said AND its impact on you and your dynamic (relationship with the person traveling with your or elsewhere in your life).
The Danube sounds fun, I hope you will share the experience of it with me.
Cheers,
Matt
I’m really excited about the Danube trip, and I’ll definitely share.
I was just offering a dissenting opinion. I thought that’s what you asked for. 🙂
Great – I look forward to hearing about it. And no,there shall be no dissent, I only ask for that playfully. I expect everyone to agree with everything I say!
Thanks for keeping me honest. Cheers, Matt
Agree.
Just got back from 10 days in a suite at PHV last night. Cancelled my return direct nonstop biz flight (2 cabin) to SFO to upgrade and sit in F by taking a trip thru Frankfurt.
Sitting in F doesn’t devalue anything – it’s exactly the opposite. You arrive fresh/your hassle factor is much lower/you don’t often deal with crying babies/smelly Germans/fatso’s with their gut hanging over the armrest…or tattooed 20-Something bloggers (roll eyes now).
The notion that you get a more “authentic” experience sitting back of the bus/”enjoying” a hostel is ludicrous nonsense.
You took the wrong message from this, but that is OK. And we all used to be 20-something, just some longer ago than others. If you want to comment on my appearance perhaps you could balance it with something positive like I have pretty eyes no?
Sitting in F is fine, sitting in your room ordering room service every day is fine too, but you will see more of the world if you break free of the attachment to` consistent, globalized luxury.
Only some privileged DB blogger from the First World would ever have the gall to suggest that travel in back of the bus is “roughing it”.
“Roughing it” in a hostel may sound “horrible” if you travel F/stay at 5 star properties, but it’s relative luxury to the 50% of the world (~3.5 BILLION) who live on <$2.50 a day.
If you want to learn something about a culture, you need to live it – and that takes months, if not years in one place.
Tell me more, where did you live and what did you learn?
The point of the post was that you can learn when you are exposed to the culture, interacting with people – you do a lot more of that when meeting new people and not traveling in a bubble.
Sorry it took me a few days to comment, but work waits for no one, especially when there is a tax return due date.
Anyway, while appreciate the sentiment in your post, I think that you went about it the wrong way. I think that each person has their own travel style and stating that your travel style is more authentic than any other travel style does you a disservice.
In fact, when I first started delving into this hobby, I had the similar reactions. Why would you go XXX for just the night and not spend time there and see the sights. How empty is this life that that person is living, they never stay in one place too long, they are not getting everything that they can out of travel.
Then I realized, they are getting exactly what they want out of travel. Just because I do not understand it, doesn’t mean that I can pass judgement on it.
I do understand that endless pictures of first class and luxury suites influences people that want to emulate that lifestyle. I think that your message would have been better served, though if you had talked about discovering your own travel style and to take what is offered on the blogs as a jumping off point. You could have then provided the explanations of the how your travel style differs from the miles and points “norm”.
Oh – and a big LOL to driving from NY to LAS in 4 hours! We drove from SFO – LAS – JAX once and it was a heck of a long trip!
Hey Katherine,
Sure, you are right. It was judgmental of me, and no doubt being non-judgmental is better, but I like a good argument every now and then and I also have my opinions 🙂
The target of this message is the people who have tunnel vision about what travel can offer, could it be presented better, certainly, is it valid, yes- to an extent…
Thanks for popping by!