Departures Magazine - what happened?!
 

The July/August Departures pamphlet just arrived in today's mail. :D

It's a mere shadow of what it once was. I guess a sign that nobody's departing anywhere anytime soon. :/

I never read them. I take them to the hotel I'm staying at and place them in their lobby, which I'm sure they throw away.

I suppose spending on travel and experiences isn't the top of everyone's list at the moment

As far as GDP is concerned I would have imagined opening up luxury stores first would have made more sense and paint a 'better' picture statistically (perhaps $20k watch over $2 T-shirts at Primark) - it would be easier to implement social distancing, and also I would most definitely visit a physical store to try the item on before purchase

I haven't received it yet but I'd have to guess a significant reason is the lack of advertising from travel and luxury brands?

as 99% of what appears in it is pay-to-play advertising, it is likely a function of travel-related companies cutting back on their marketing.

1/3 of the magazine appears to be an insert by Oceania Cruises with their 2021 cruise catalog.

Oceania is the only cruise line ad I noticed. It's a tear out supplement. It's a magazine I haven't looked at for a couple years. This one I was curious what companies would be advertising. Not many.

I'd be happy to see Departures be dearly departed. My household gets 2 each month and they go straight to recycling.

Same (although only one copy in my case). The only benefit I see is that the extra weight gives a scintilla of extra exercise to my postal carrier, maybe :p

mia noted in a past thread that you can opt-out:

https://www.departures.com/contact-us

but you have to call in, "Requests cannot be accepted via mail or email" and I guess #becauseFT : "IMPORTANT NOTICE: American Express will not issue a statement credit when you elect not to receive Departures Magazine" :D

I'll pass. Every time I call to fix my home and separate mailing address they always seem to screw it up. Just in the last week, it took three calls to just fix my mailing/statement address. Now I'll have to wait a month to see if it's fixed on my next statement 🙁 But, I hate those departure magazines.

What, you don't aspire to wear a $500,000 piece of diamond-studded lingerie lying at the cabaña by the pool on your Covid Luxury All-Inclusive Cruise?

I enjoy the magazine. Was not excited to see this month's devalued edition. My $550 annual subscription fee seems to invite a more compelling magazine than the issue I received. Not happy.

At least I am not the only person who experiences this. I have moved twice in two years and use a UPS Store to get my mail because I (used to) travel a lot. Both moves took multiple calls to get the address change correct. They apparently have a zillion different places your address is and they all have to be changed/do not sync. Especially complicated when your mailing address is different from your house.

Yep, my mailing address is a UPS Store box too for travel purposes.

I rarely read the articles (hard to find between the huge volume of ads in previous issues:rolleyes:). But the most recent issue had an interesting article about how energy conscious Las Vegas has become.