5. THE UPGRADE | WEEKLY
Why you should travel with your parents, the new luxury train car on the British Pullman, and hotel earnings report roundup
🗝️ The Upgrade · Weekly by Anne Marie Brown
May 12, 2026
Inside The Upgrade this week:
Pre-Departure – Why you should travel with your parents, a personal note
The Room Report – The British Pullman’s new luxury train car
The Lobby Bar – Your new passport might have Trump’s face on it, UAE airspace is back open, hotel earnings reports worth watching, good-bye to Spirit airlines (not that I ever flew on them)
Travelers,
This week’s edition of The Upgrade | Weekly is more personal. This weekend had me thinking about my parents – both of whom I lost within 6 months of each other in late 2022 and early 2023. As part of the sandwich generation, I wanted to take a moment to remind you why you should travel with your parents while you can. If you aren’t ready for the guilt trip, scroll past to the Room Report where Baz Luhrmann has designed a train carriage, Celia, for the Belmond British Pullman, and it is a maximalist masterpiece.
Happy travels, Anne Marie Co-Founder, Alpenglow Travel
The Upgrade is free for subscribers. Support this publication by forwarding it to your friends and booking your trips with us.
Yours truly in Botswana with my parents
🗝️ Pre-Departure – Hospitality Industry Hot Takes
Why You Should Travel With Your Parents
I often write about traveling with my children and the benefits of raising kids who have a global view that extends beyond their own country. Most of my clients are millennial families, trying to navigate room configurations that work for a couple with two or three kids, hotels located near playgrounds, and activities that won’t result in meltdowns.
What we don’t explore often enough is the other end of the curve – traveling with our parents once we are no longer children. Yes, every older parent is a unique case. My father at 80 happily navigated safari vehicles in Botswana. My mother thought a hotel without room service was equivalent to camping.
Just as traveling with young children comes with challenges, so does traveling with your parents. We are the true sandwich generation, trying to hold together expectations, caretaking, and responsibilities on both sides.
Yes, our parents may not remember to turn on international service for their cell phone before travel. They may need 5pm dinner reservations in a country that eats at 9pm. They may be prime targets for pickpockets and scam artists. They may book the wrong date for a hotel and then argue at check in about why their Booking.com reservation can’t be honored. They may forget their daughter is a travel agent and try to make their own bookings, which they hopelessly mess up.
Nonetheless, I am going to argue here in favor of traveling with your parents as an adult.
I was in my early 20s, working my tail off in my first job, a full social calendar, bounding between happy hours, hikes, and bachelorette parties. The last thing on my mind was calling my parents. They often called me, after all, and I could schedule time on my calendar if they really needed to see me. I was very busy.
My father, who had been in the travel industry for most of his life, had a tradition of taking a solo trip with each of his seven kids when they reached adulthood. He’d been asking me for a few years where I would like to go for my trip, but I kept putting it off. I had limited PTO.
As the youngest – the child my dad had at age 50 with his second wife – I grew up with people thinking he was my grandfather. He had white hair when I was born. Soft spoken and brilliant, he loved travel with a passion I inherited.
I was knee deep in planning a trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos for clients – one of the first trips I would be responsible for – and I was proudly explaining the details to my dad when he asked if I’d like to take that same trip with him.
He had never served in the Vietnam War, but it had a large impact on his life, and he’d always wanted to travel there.
I am forever grateful I said “Yes” at that moment.
My dad and me in Halong Bay, Vietnam, 2009
There is a special shift that happens when a parent finally recognizes you as an adult. Travel is a perfect catalyst for such a shift because it connects you intensely over lunches, dinners, walks, and a range of interactions spread over a number of days. Conversations move from shallow catch-ups to memory sharing, storytelling, and deep intellectual dives. Each day builds on the last. You keep going deeper.
For the first time, my father passed the travel leader baton to me. I ordered our visas, created binders with all printed documents, designed the itinerary, bought the flights.
In line at TSA, my father paid me the highest compliment, “Honey, you are such an easy person to travel with.” We spent ten days (all of my PTO for the year) traveling through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos together.
My father’s Parkinson’s was starting to take its toll, and I held him upright down temple steps, cupped my hand over his head as he ducked into Tuk Tuks, and helped him locate the restroom at night.
I could tell the trip was hard on his weakening body. We booked massages at each stop to ease his pain, and I cancelled a few items to free up time for him to rest, despite what he had always said: “You rest, you rust.”
That was our last trip together, just the two of us. After Vietnam, my life got busier than ever. I got married, moved away for graduate school, then moved home and had two children.
My dad kept a framed photo of us in front of Angkor Wat on his desk. In the hospital during his last few weeks, when I’d come visit him and bring ketchup or ice cream (his favorite foods), he’d talk about our trip and what it meant to him.
The photo my dad kept on his desk - Angkor Wat
I was on a ski run in the mountains with my brother when I got the call that he was gone. The run was called “Angel’s Rest.”
Looking back, I want to grab everyone around me by the collar and whisper like a Victorian ghost, “Travel with your parents! Do it now, before it’s too late.”
Those moments in Southeast Asia – eating bowls of breakfast pho with steam curling in the humidity, dodging motorbikes like Frogger, blocking out my dad’s deafening, lumberjack snores while swaying to sleep on the night train – those were what I see as the peak of our adult relationship.
On that trip, he seemed to recognize the traveler in me, and bless the future I’d chosen for myself in the travel industry.
So, whether you’re a parent worrying about pulling your kids away from college or a budding career, or you’re an adult child making room on your calendar for your parents like it’s hardly top priority, listen up.
Take the trip now. Take it while you can. Take the time to be together, someplace where it’s just the two of you, and create the stories you’ll keep with you long after they’re gone.
🗝️ The Room Report Personal reviews from my own travels, hotels you should know about
Last year, I traveled on the British Pullman’s Murder Mystery Train ride to celebrate my 40th. I’m now absolutely dying to hop on the Pullman again to check out it’s new private car, Celia.
The Baz Luhrmann Train Carriage Is Exactly What You’d Expect
With purple velvet, marquetry walls, and a signature scent, Celia is in a class of her own when it comes to luxury train cars. Baz Luhrmann and his wife, Catherine Martin, designed a private train carriage for the British Pullman and it looks exactly like a scene from one of his films. The launch party was hosted by Anna Wintour and included Roger Federer and Tom Ford. I can’t believe they forgot to invite me.
The concept is built around a fictional 1920s West End actress who was secretly gifted her own Pullman car. The carriage seats up to 12 for exclusive group bookings, and the details are extraordinary: bespoke marquetry walls depicting flowers and fairies, a tasseled purple velvet sofa, custom glass, Hand and Lock embroidery, and a signature scent Luhrmann and Martin personally selected to complete the atmosphere.
A private transfer picks you up from your London hotel, a butler greets you at Victoria Station, and a dedicated chef prepares a fine dining menu in your private onboard kitchen. Your Guest Experience Curator handles every detail in advance, including excursion itineraries and live entertainment.
Celia is bookable through Belmond directly or through a travel advisor, like yours truly. If a private Belmond experience is on your list, email me at AnneMarie@alpenglowtravel.com.
🗝️ The Lobby Bar Hospitality updates, promotions, and the occasional pun
Your New Passport Might Have Trump’s Face On It
The U.S. State Department is releasing a limited run of commemorative passports featuring President Trump’s portrait, timed to the country’s 250th anniversary this July. Between 25,000 and 30,000 available, against 160 million U.S. passports in circulation. If you’re renewing online or applying anywhere outside Washington D.C., you almost certainly won’t receive one. Check your expiration date before you book anything this summer. Most European countries require at least six months of validity remaining at the time of travel. [Read more]
The UAE Is Open
The UAE airspace has fully reopened with normal commercial operations restored. For travelerwho had Middle East travel on hold, this is the green light. We’re watching for governments to lift remaining travel advisories so the return can be complete. [Read more]
Hotel Earnings Season Is Worth Watching
Skift reports investors are closely watching April-May hotel earnings for signs that performance has improved after a soft 2025, with attention on energy costs, World Cup demand pacing, and margin resilience. For anyone planning group travel or high-end bookings over the next 18 months, this is one of the cleaner reads on where hotel pricing is headed. [Read more]
Hyatt’s Luxury Bet Is Paying Off
Hyatt posted first-quarter RevPAR growth of 5.4% year over year, led by its luxury brands, which recorded double-digit RevPAR growth in Q1. Pipeline of executed management or franchise contracts grew 9.4%, 3,996 rooms opened, and net rooms growth hit 5%.
CEO Mark Hoplamazian put it plainly: “If there’s any sign of weakness in terms of the high-end customer, we have not seen it.”
Rising airfares, higher oil prices, and geopolitical noise have done nothing to slow spending at the top of the market. For our clients, this confirms what we’re already seeing in booking patterns. Demand for the best rooms at the best properties is not softening. Book early. [Read more]
Spirit Airlines Is Gone
Spirit Airlines, the largest ultra-low-cost carrier in the U.S., is shutting down after its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy and failed bailout talks with the Trump administration. High fuel prices were cited as the final blow.
If you have outstanding Spirit bookings, contact your credit card company immediately to dispute charges. Spirit is not in a position to rebook or refund you. This is a good reminder of why booking through a travel advisor matters: when an airline folds, we are already on the phone working the problem before you even know there is one. [Read more]
The Travel Industry By the Numbers
The World Travel and Tourism Council put the sector’s contribution to the global economy at $11.7 trillion in 2025, representing 10.3% of global GDP, with projections to reach $16.5 trillion by 2035. The industry recovered from COVID and kept growing. That tracks with what we see on the ground: our clients are not pulling back. They’re planning bigger trips, booking further out, and spending more intentionally. [Read more]
🗝️ Anne Marie
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Love it, great article
Before becoming a mother, I used to travel with my parents all the time. Today, now that I'm in my forties, I rarely manage to find that kind of time for them. Thank you for reminding me how important it is to build memories together.