Five Big Ways How I Travel in 2020 Will Change

By Robert McGarvey

It’s sinking in: changes triggered by the coronavirus will create lasting and big changes in how we live – and especially in how we travel.

Here are five transformational new realities that will make 2020 travel seem substantially different from travel in 2019 or 2009. In some ways the 2020 travel may well be more pleasant – so don’t boo all the changes. Some I too will join in booing. But others looks good to me.

Face masks are us. It won’t be volitional. We will soon wear a face mask whenever we fly as increasing numbers of airlines make them mandatory. It’s a good thing. Are masks comfortable? Nah. But many of us feel safer wearing them and that’s important as we slowly return to flying. Note: JoeSentMe members qualify for a deal on face masks. Stock up. You will be needing them and, honestly, while I am glad I discovered that airline amenity kit eye masks can be conscripted to stand in for a real face mask, the eye masks are harder to breathe through and not especially comfy when used as a face mask. Use the real deal. You’ll be glad when you are on flights.

I will not use airport clubs (so long Centurion, a longtime personal favorite).  Of course that is moot because Amex has closed the lounges – sniff – but when they re-open instead of dashing in I will closely inspect the offering and then decide to go or not. But I can say overcrowded rooms, buffet dining, and the rest of the Centurion experience just will not be on my personal dance card anytime soon.  So much about the experience just is wrong when looked at from today’s perspective.  I hope Amex does a deep rethink on the lounges – but they have a tough dilemma to unravel, between balancing high demand for the clubs and present-day, pandemic shaped health concerns.  Good luck, Amex (and they will need it).

I do not expect to set foot into a Centurion in 2020. 2021? I definitely hope to. But the virus, and the coherence and effectiveness of our response as a nation, will make the decision.

Goodby free buffet breakfasts. I am a longtime fan of free hotel buffet breakfasts – and, sure, I do not tell my cardiologist because these are feasts of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and other stuff (sweet rolls!) that I know I should not be eating. But I do and, because it is free, I feel obligated. Sort of. And definitely I shovel it in.

How hotels and motels reinvent the free buffet breakfast I have no idea. The whole point is to pile an obscene amount of forbidden foods on a plate and no one will do that for me.

But the agreement is wide: the end of the buffet is upon us (and don’t ask how the Las Vegas Strip will reinvent the buffet because I doubt anybody knows).

Expect to pay more for flights. Most experts see significant jumps in ticket prices because – very probably – most carriers will sell fewer seats (they may leave middle seats vacant, as they once typically were some decades past). They may also cut back on services – possibly no food items for sale in coach and also possibly no booze.

Consider such steps a death blow for cheap flights, which depended upon stuffed planes and impulse buys of overpriced snacks and drinks for their profitability. I remember buying roundrip tix to Madrid simply because they were so cheap it was a deal I couldn’t refuse. Ditto flights to London, often. Yes, and Paris too. Who could say no?

I do not believe I will be seeing those prices again. Sigh. But I am grateful for the emptier planes, which I view as worth paying the price.

Side note: expect to pay more at fine dining restaurants too. With many expecting to serve only half as many diners as tables sit further apart, prices will go up, a price needing to be paid to maintain social distancing.

I will not use public transit to/from the airport.  That hurts me, a lot more than skipping the Centurion Lounge.  I like light rail and I like subways (I forget how I used to get from SFO to downtown before BART was extended to the airport) and it’s been my most consistent “think green” action. Does it compensate for the carbon associated with the flight? Of course not. But it’s been my gesture. And yet, right now, public transit just strikes me as screamingly unhealthy. So I will not use it.

Things are indeed different today.

When will we revert to the old “normal?” Impossible to say, maybe never, but certainly not before there is a widely available vaccine that has been proven effective. I would not bet on that widely available vaccine until perhaps a years from now, very possibly longer. So get used to travel differently, We’ll be doing it for some time.