Travel Envy

Years back I was on the Skytrain traveling between terminals at San Francisco International, SFO. One of the first stops the Skytrain takes when you board from the BART station is the International terminal. At this point, I noticed a gentleman step off the Skytrain and begin walking down the walkway to the terminal with only a backpack.

I was flabbergasted. Imagine that; I was in San Francisco for three days and carrying a backpack and a suitcase. How could somebody traveling outside our border only carry a simple backpack? I mean, this isn’t fair. What’s the secret?

Well, I never had a chance to learn this individual’s secret, but the concept has always sat with me. Fast forward to just a couple months ago. My wife and I were traveling with our 2-year-old daughter to Portland, OR from Phoenix, AZ. There was a hitch, however. I was in SFO again for a workshop and planned to meet them Thursday night. This would mean my wife was on her own to travel with our daughter, and between the luggage and a rambunctious toddler, I was concerned that my wife was going to have a logistical nightmare on her hands.

So, long story short, she made it to Portland unscathed, but I couldn’t help but think about the difficulty she had to go through. It wasn’t easy for her, but like most, she adapted to make it work. She planned ahead, packed the night before (after little-one was asleep), entertained the kiddo with songs and games as they went through the travel process, and made it to the end. But, I just couldn’t stop thinking that we had a true problem on our hands that very few seemed to be addressing.

As we travel, the one constant we have on us is our luggage. It’s fully ingrained into the travel process. We pack it, we lug it, we deal with it, and we’ve adapted to allow this to be a part of what travel is.

“But Corey, I don’t see a problem.”

Right, and that’s what people said about hotel capacity, hailing a cab and shopping at department stores. But then came along Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon to change all that. Let me walk you through a few of the problems traveler experience as it relates to luggage:

There’s got to be a better way!

There are a few services out there I’d like to address first.

Need I go on?

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