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How To Travel Well in 2020

In a podcast for travel professionals,  I recently heard a quote that resonated with me, and it came from someone I consider a friend and mentor:

“In service experiences you don’t get do-overs”
Kerry Dyer, Brownell Travel

What immediately followed in my mind was that you don’t get a do-over on your dream vacation, either. I, like most of my colleagues,  gave up a successful career to start anew in the travel industry, because we wanted to help make travel dreams come true for others. Yes, we are running a business with the goal of making money.  But we chose travel because we love building the relationship with our clients, understanding their priorities and needs, and designing the perfect trip just for them.  However there is no joy in finding out they were disappointed, or worse, they ran into serious problems.  No amount of money makes up for the feeling that we let our clients down.

Meeting a baby gray whale Magdalena Bay in Baja (Lindblad Expeditions, March 2019)

Fortunately things don’t go wrong often. But it’s also not an accident that things go right most of the time.  And I strongly believe the key to that is in my supplier partnerships, the people I entrust to take care of my clients wherever they are in the world, no matter what happens.

So my responsibilities to my clients are:

  • Select the suppliers carefully depending on my client’s needs, the type of trip they desire, and the destination.
  • Cultivate strong relationships with these suppliers so we have mutual trust and respect, and can work effectively and efficiently to make our client’s trip the best it can be.

Tahiti Cruise (Windstar, August 2019)

Why is this important going into 2020?  Because travel demand continues to grow at a rapid pace.  I celebrated my best year ever in 2019, earning a place in Brownell’s 1887 Club.  But this growth also meant there were more challenges in booking and managing travel, and who I choose to partner with in 2020 and beyond is becoming more important than ever.

Frozen Charles River (Boston, Jan 2019)

Suppliers are competing for resources.  A supplier who has their own guides and vehicles, and also has strong personal connections, and is highly regarded by his or her colleagues,  can more reliably offer the best service versus suppliers who are outsource everything to third parties.  This really comes to light when problems occur, asthe true test of a supplier’s worthiness is how they handle a crisis.

Most recently we’ve seen travelers throughout France finding it difficult to rely on public transportation.  Our suppliers have been lining up private drivers on short notice so our clients’ touring plans are not impacted. Airline strikes have forced clients to rebook or reroute their trips, and incur additional costs. While this is a “gray area” with travel insurance suppliers, our strong relationship with our insurance rep has smoothed the path to quickly resolve claims.

Lovely evening stroll in Antibes (Dec, 2019)

Private home and apartment rentals are growing in popularity, but they are prone to fraud, and quality control is difficult. I can attest from personal experience (before I was in the industry and knew better) to the panic that ensues when you show up at your rental, late at night, with no key to be found, and the management office closed. Fortunately my problem was resolved in a few hours once I was able to reach the homeowner and get a spare key from a nearby relative.  We seek out partners who have direct relationships with the property owners/managers, provide 24×7 emergency support, and have demonstrated a commitment to customer service.

Meeting the Vermejo Ranch residents (New Mexico, Sep 2019)

Yesterday an article came out advising travelers where they should not go in 2020. The primary reasons were overtourism, which was becoming detrimental to the environment or residents, to the traveler experience, or both.  The concerns are legitimate, but rather than avoid these destinations, they can be experienced in a different way.  Our supplier’s personal contacts, resources, and innovative ideas can get my clients away from the crowds, and often provide a more authentic experience. But I won’t send a client “off the beaten track” with just anybody.

Christmas Market on Marienplatz (Munich, Dec 2019)

The last industry event I attended in 2019 was the International Luxury Travel Market in Cannes. It’s not just a networking event, it was an opportunity for me to meet one on one with potential suppliers to ask hard questions about how they run their business and what advantage they offer over their competitors. And now I have a name and a face, and a shared experience, which has created a connection between us when I reach out to talk about a potential trip. (Spending an hour trying to find your Uber driver in Antibes who doesn’t speak English is a good team building exercise!)  In ANY business, building relationships is crucial, but even more so in the hospitality industry.

Walking up the same red carpet as the film stars in Cannes (ILTM, Dec 2019)

The good news is that I have many wonderful suppliers who are great partners, that care just as much as I do about my clients.  So I look forward to helping clients fulfill their travel dreams in 2020 and beyond.

~ Happy New Year From My Family To Yours!!  ~

 

Boston University Graduation (May, 2019)

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Air Travel Tips for a Non-Expert, From a Non-Expert

You heard that right.  I am a travel advisor who is not an expert at air travel!  I can’t tell you off the top of my head which aircraft have lie flat business class seats, or which have the most leg room in coach.  But I have traveled enough to be a bit savvy on dealing with hiccups while traveling.

View out of airplane window of glaciers in Alaska

Glaciers in Alaska

I’d like to share some air travel tips from friends’ and family experiences over the holidays:

1) Be proactive to get yourself rebooked  once you realize you are going to miss a connection due to a flight delay or cancellation. If you are already at the airport and are waiting in line for an agent, get on the phone and call the airline. They may be able to help you first. And also try sending a tweet to the airline. I have found they often reply in minutes and ask you to send a direct message with your reservation number.

View out of airplane over UK farmland

Flying over the Midwest or England?

2) Research other flight options available. If you don’t like what the airline offers, tell them what flight you want to be on. And don’t take the first “no.” You may have to call back to try to get a more helpful agent.

In the situation we had, the traveler (an inexperienced young adult) was rebooked on an evening flight, so there would have been a 6-7 hour layover and extremely late arrival for a 2 day trip! I called and explained the situation, and got him rebooked for a noon flight.

View out of airplane window of clouds

Yes, they can make flights a bit bumpy, but clouds are really beautiful.

3) Get a good flight tracking app. I am very happy with FlightView because not only can I learn of delays before the airline notifies me (and sometimes before the gate agents know), but I can check the status of the aircraft’s previous flight.

Here’s an example of how that helped us:

A friend’s early afternoon flight was listed as on time.  Then I checked the status of the incoming aircraft.  It was delayed and not scheduled to arrive until AFTER the scheduled departure time for my friend. Clearly the flight was not going to depart on time, unless they got another aircraft, and the delay would certainly cause a missed connection.

I called the airline and told them what I saw. The agent chuckled and said “You’re right,” and then rebooked the traveler on a flight two hours earlier.

View out of airplane window of snow capped mountains in Mexico

Yes you can find snow in Mexico!

This leads to the final tip:

4) Start monitoring your flight early! We had to leave an hour earlier than planned for the airport, but we had enough of a buffer that it was not terribly stressful.

As I mentioned, I am not an air booking expert, in fact I don’t even book airline tickets for clients. I use the airline websites for most of my travel. However, if these tickets were booked through an air ticketing expert, which many of my Brownell Travel colleagues are, there would have been no need for me to call the airline to sort things out.

It’s always ok to call the airline for help no matter how you book your ticket.  But travelers who book through an air specialist have extra support, someone who has their back and knows the airline’s responsibility for delays and cancellations.    And in some cases, an air specialist sees the problem before you do, and fixes a problem you don’t even know you have!

View out of airplane over San Jose, California

Heading home, that’s my neighborhood in San Jose

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