How to Travel Like A Travel Professional:

I travel often, it is a requirement of my job.  If I don't travel and see places, experience things- how credible am I to my clients?   Not very.  Now I can't travel every place , see every hotel or dine at every restaurant, nobody can - but  I have to keep experiencing different places and things to keep my travel blood flowing.  I know that many people probably assume that I get to travel for free or for great discounts and I'm here to tell you that it is a myth.   Travel Professionals usually pay and often times pay just as much as you do for their trips.   Yes, there are some freebies here or there, but they are few and far between.  Often times if we want to go someplace for a week, if we want free hotel rooms that may mean changing hotels 3-4 times in that week- which is not ideal because you end up spending more time checking in and out of hotels.

I have been fortunate to travel First Class on many of my recent trips in the past couple of years, but that is in large part due to knowing how to play the mileage and upgrade game with the airlines.  Each airline has their own quirk and program, so I am here to give you some insights that I've learned along the way.

Virgin America- my favorite airline domestically - I fly them whenever I can- they offer very affordable upgrades within 6 hours of flight departure time- you can secure the upgrade online or in person or over the phone.  Online is fastest and easiest.  I have been known to get up at 2am to secure my upgrade or better yet not go to bed until 2am after I've secured my upgrade.  Cost varies depending upon length of the flights- but a cross country flight is approximately $140 one way.  For less, you can upgrade to Main Cabin Select which are seats that offer more legroom in the Coach section.  With both upgrades you can order anything on board for free and with Main Cabin Select you get one free checked bag with First class you get two free checked bags.  So the cost of the extra comfort is really quite a bit less when you consider these other things you'd be paying for on board.

Alaska Airlines- who I just recently flew to Hawaii offers upgrades within 24 hours of departure when you check-in online.   The cost of the upgrade varies depending upon how far you are flying, but for Hawaii it was $100 each way - a very good value!  Again, you get the free checked bags, the free food/drink/movies, etc. so that actual seat doesn't cost you that much more for the comfort.

United airlines has a huge following of flyers because of their mileage program and they have made some changes in the recent years- I'm not a huge fan of their program but they do fly to just about anywhere and can help to save money when you need to.  What I don't like is when you use mileage to upgrade, they also charge you a co-payment fee which is pretty equivalent to the cost of the upgrade charges that carriers like Virgin or Alaska charge you to upgrade flat out (using no mileage).    But I use them when I have to.  I tend to use mileage for a free coach ticket and then pay for economy plus seats- but this also gets expensive to do.  We recently booked flights to New Orleans and used mileage for free coach and then spent about $300 for economy plus seats and all you really get is more legroom.  We will still end up paying for checked bags, on board food/drink, etc.

So overall, we don't travel for free- each trip costs us something- we may pay a real person price on a cruise, but then use mileage/points to fly for free.   We may get a few free hotel nights, but then pay for additional nights to extend the stay to avoid having to move hotel to hotel.  We may get invited to a Travel Agent 2 day cruise to nowhere that is completely free, I've had the pleasure of attending several of these and I've traveled two times to enjoy these experiences- but then I've paid for my flights to get there.  In the end it all balances out, but it's never all free.  I have to work the system just like everyone else and it is my job to help you work the system and get the best value for your vacation dollar as well.

I have a variety of credit cards that earn points with United & Virgin America.  I have the Alaska Airline credit card that gifts you a companion certificate every year.  I use these to the best advantage that I can. I also belong to hotel reward programs and earn points mostly with Starwood, Marriott and Hilton.   I have redeemed points with Starwood to secure hotel reservations in places that would cost a large sum of money at times when I would never get a Travel Agent rate (think New Orleans over Mardi Gras)- using points for our trip next year to New Orleans saved close to $900 for 2 nights hotel!

Travel is a fun business, I would not have just celebrated 23 years in this business if I didn't love it and I have to say that the past 9 years have been the best.  Being the owner of my agency & traveling a lot more than I did the first two-thirds of my career!  It's been awesome and I can't wait to see what the future of this career has in store for me!  I love helping clients make their travel dreams come true! 

Benefits of Going Offline when Traveling

To have a true vacation, you need to completely escape. Yet that’s getting harder and harder to do when you’re virtually tethered to your online life. It’s difficult to recharge your own batteries when you’re constantly charging your tablet or smartphone. When your mind relaxes without interruptions, it’s easier to focus on whatever is right in front of you, allowing you to experience it in a richer, more satisfying way. A vacation—whether it’s a relaxing retreat to the Caribbean or an engaging journey through China—is filled with moments that deserve your full attention, so we suggest you do the following to get off the internet and on with making memories. Make it Clear – Tell all your friends and co-workers that you will not, under any circumstances, be checking email. You can be reached for emergencies, but you cannot be reached to review the final draft or decide where to take mom out for dinner on her birthday. Eliminate the Temptation – Out of sight is out of mind, so hide your phone or put it in the hotel safe. It will feel strange to walk around without that electronic brick in your pocket or purse, but your body will readjust quickly.   Back to Basics – You can still read fascinating stories and discover new information without being online. All you need are books. Bring several, because when Facebook and Pinterest aren’t hijacking your attention, you suddenly have the time and mental energy to read quickly. Accept Not Knowing – Don’t Google anything. There will be times when you want to know something—like the name of that actor from that movie who is a dead ringer for your waiter—but on this vacation, you need to adopt a Zen-like appreciation for not getting the answer. Once you’ve made the decision to digitally disconnect, connect with us. We know plenty of places around the globe that will make it easy for you to leave the internet far, far behind.

To Insure or Not to Insure ....that is the question.

The answer- always insure!    I have for years explained to clients the importance of Travel Insurance and have seen many instances over the years when clients would not take my advice and ended up losing a great amount of their money on trips that they had to cancel for things that they never though would happen to them, therefore they didn't take out Trip Insurance.

I will say that for years, I have not listened to my own advice.  Call it stupidity or thinking that I could probably use my clout with vendors to get penalties waived - who knows.  But what I do know is that last year before we took our trip to Paris, for some reason I just didn't feel as though my mom was in the best of health and I FINALLY researched and purchased a Travel Agent annual policy with Travel Guard.  Now granted, Travel Guard has some pretty nice annual products for Travel Industry Professionals, but they have very affordable policies that I sell for clients.   Now that I have this annual policy, they remind me when I need to renew it and I've now had it for two years.

This past October, Bill & I traveled to the East Coast for my cousin's wedding in Connecticut.  We booked a decent airfare with Virgin America, I had some free car rental certificates that covered us for the long weekend.  We were staying with family.  When we landed into JFK and picked up our car, I wasn't thrilled with what we had (in the past with my Hertz Gold, usually there are some pretty sweet upgrade offers for free, so I take my chances with that)- well I ended up negotiating a deal with the sales guy to get my SUV upgrade for $25/day- this 4 day rental would have cost us $100 plus tax.

Then Sunday night came and Hurricane Sandy arrived on the East Coast, fortunately after my cousin's wedding and after we were safely back at the house.  Soon came the calls that my cousin's kids would not have school on Monday, my cousin who drives a school bus would not have work and we were buttoning down the hatches in preparation for possible loss of power, which also means loss of running water in this neck of the woods, then came the text message from Virgin America that our Monday flight was canceled.

We were rebooked for a Tuesday flight, not too bad until we received a text on Monday saying that our flight was canceled again.  I spent 3 hours on hold for Virgin America and once I got in touch with them, the best they could do was rebook us on a Friday flight home from JFK.  My husband needed to be back to work, big projects that needed his attention and that was critical.  I had my laptop, so I was able to work from my cousin's house (fortunately we didn't lose power), but he was stuck.  I had to resort to other options and then the light bulb went off- WE HAVE TRAVEL INSURANCE!   I made a quick call to Travel Guard to confirm what I believed to be true and then made arrangements on another airline to get us home on Wednesday.

We had to fly from Boston to get home, which means we had to change our rental car return.  This meant that my "free day" certificates were no longer applicable and we were stuck with a rental bill of over $700, plus new airline tickets that were almost $1100, and our unused return tickets on Virgin American for $200 - OUCH!   But I knew that the insurance would cover these expenses because our trip was interrupted/canceled due to a covered reason and her name was Sandy, Hurricane Sandy!

Today I received my check in the mail for payment- just about 6 weeks after filing the paperwork.  Usually, claims take about  weeks to process, but given the number of Sandy claims they would have had, plus all of the holidays in between, I thought payment in 6 weeks was perfectly acceptable.

My advice- always insure your trip!