Executive Travel announces goal to plant 0ne million trees

Last week Executive Travel launched ETGreen: Trees for Travelers. This program is a massive environmental commitment to plant one million trees, one for every airline ticket issued by our company. The program was launched this month and is designed to help Executive Travel’s customers offset the carbon footprint generated by airline travel. The ETGreen initiative starts with Executive Travel purchasing tree seedlings and then the seedlings are planted locally and around the nation by employees, customers, volunteers, and nonprofit companies. Executive Travel will also partner with other companies who will help offer FREE tree seedlings purchased by Executive Travel to their customers and employees to be planted. CLICK HERE to see a short video on the program. 

Is this the year that your rental car breaks the 100,000 miles barrier? – Ten years ago rental car companies would hold onto cars until they had about 30,000 miles and then sell them at auctions. Two years ago the average mileage on a used rental car was an amazing 51,395 (almost double of 10 years ago) before they sent them to the auction and replaced them with a shiny new car.  This year there are so few new cars available for rental car companies to buy they are filling their inventory with used cars.  I am predicting this will be the first year in history that rental car companies will be renting cars with 100,000 miles on their odometer. This also means that there will no doubt be more breakdowns and service issues. Can you imagine that the car you rent may be on its third set of new tires? I sure miss that new car smell when jumping into a rental car at the airport. Oh for the good old days. CLICK HERE for a fascinating article on car rental mileage. 

It is time for the United States to open travel up to Europeans and the world – The U.S. has been closed to Europeans for almost 17 months. It is time for us to open up to international travel again. Every year there are major pandemics around the world that break out. 2003 – SARS; 2009-Swine Flu (H1N1), 2012- MERS; 2014–Ebola; 2015-Zika; and now COVID-19. This virus is under control. It is not completely eliminated and probably will never be eliminated just like all the others listed above can raise their ugly heads at any time. My vote is that we put up the “OPEN” sign to our traveling friends around the world. It is time to live life again.

Canada announces mindless decision to lift cruise ship ban in November – I almost fell out of my chair from laughter when Canada made the big announcement they are opening up to accepting cruise ships in November. This truly is like putting up your Christmas tree in May, five months after the season is over. You see, the Alaska/Canada cruise season runs from May to September. When Canada says they are opening up to cruising in November they are basically saying we are not open until May 2022. I love the people of Canada. Their government, however, is wackier than even ours.

Cruise lines report high occupancy and even higher prices – The pandemic shut down the cruise industry for over a year and it is just now starting to rebound. You would think this would bring about amazing deals all over the world. The reality is that hundreds of thousands of people have millions of dollars in cruise credit from all the cruises canceled because of the pandemic. Now they want to use them up as fast as possible and rebookings are sizzling.  The cruise lines say they don’t have to lower the prices to fill the available cabins because of all the rebookings and they plan to make hay on any new cruise reservations that come along now. CLICK HERE for a short article.