A look back at the past decade in faculty-led education abroad must include changes in international travel. Here are a few from the vast experience of the Seminars International team.
- A decade ago, iPhones were new, roaming charges terrified travelers, and internet cafes abroad were a hot commodity. We now use our phones for maps, directions, flashlight, translations and podcasts/books, and so much more. What did we ever do before smartphones? (I remember packing six paperbacks for a trip to India some years ago! Fortunately, not everyone has my irrational fear of being without something to read.)
- Remember when you could actually recline an airline seat and stretch out your legs? And even get an empty seat or two next to you for an overnight flight? Cramped planes plus increased security and the need for vigilance everywhere have become a normal part of travel.
-
Seminars includes group flights on many programs, so we ve seen lots of changes in air travel:
- More self-service kiosks at airport for self check in. Print your own boarding pass and even weigh your own bags and print bag tags. Clearly, passengers are doing more of the work that airline staff used to do.
- The flip side is that with e-tickets, there are no more lost airline tickets. We used to have to solve the problem of re-issuing several lost airline tickets each year.
- We all now know what three ounces of liquid looks like!
- There are new (but definitely not improved!) classes of economy seating on airlines. This makes passengers decide how much extra they re willing to pay to be comfortable on long flights. And we ve discovered how much a few inches more or less can affect our comfort.
Seminars keeps up to date on airline and air travel changes, so we are in a excellent position to advise your faculty-led program on group flights and secure you the best combination of flight schedule and cost.