Posted by holly on Jul 11, 2009 in
Blog,
BlogSherpa,
Tips I’ve been sitting here, staring at this computer for hours wondering what to blog about. From what I can find through google, most travel blogs are only for the duration of each person’s specific trip, so nobody has to write to fill the time in between vacations. That got me thinking: why? What is it about the “gap” days/months/years that fail to inspire bloggers? Granted, the most interesting part of any vacation is the time you’re actually on it, but the joy of travel is so much bigger than just the dates you book off from work that it deserves some attention, too. My Mom always told me that “every vacation comes in three parts: the anticipation, the actually going, and the talking about it afterwards”, and she’s right.
The anticipation is the longest and hardest to define part of every vacation, as it can take many forms. It starts with that first niggle at the back of your mind that you’d like to go somewhere, as, even before you’re actually planning anything, you’re already anticipating it. Watching that episode of Globe Trekker when they go to Brazil, or even seeing the Batchelorette go to Hawaii; hearing your friends talk about how much they loved Vegas; whatever it takes to get your travel motor running.
This then leads into the inevitable (and highly enjoyable) internet search phase. Depending on how research-centric you are this can take an hour or months before you decide “yep, this place has exactly what I’m looking for in a vacation” and you drop by to see me at work. I have tons of friends/clients who don’t do any research at all, they just decide to go someplace and book it, and on the flip side, there’s an equal amount of people who end up with that giant binder of yahoo printouts and know down to the second what they’re going to do. I’m somewhere in the middle. I like my research, knowing what the must-see sights are and exactly how to get there (on public transportation, if possible. Skytrains/subways/buses rock), and knowing all about my hotel and it’s location, but I’m not staying up nights obsessively googling.
And now you’re booked. Fully committed. Non-refundable. I love the feeling you get when your official tickets are in your hot little hands for the first time, it really hits home that “Holy crap, I’m going to _______!” This is awesome! I need a moneybelt!” This segues into the giddy phase, when just the mention of your destination (or travel in general) can cause you to drift away into daydreamland, a far away look in your eyes and a stupid grin on your face. Think of that TV commercial where the kid’s jumping on his bed wearing a snorkel as his parents book the tropical vacation. That too could be you! This is one of my favorite phases, as I love that happy, swimmy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Come to think of it, it’s a lot like prepping for date (but with more non-emotional baggage), you’re all excited, but you still have to remember everything you need to do/buy/take with you so you have the best time.
And before you know it all the days have been checked off on your calendar, you’re all packed, you’ve got someone watering your plants for you and it’s time to enter Stage 2…
Tags: BlogSherpa, Tips, travel agent
Posted by holly on Jul 4, 2009 in
Blog,
BlogSherpa,
Tips “That’s not how my name’s spelled on my passport.”
Or, even more terrifying,
”That’s not the name on my passport.”
Aargh! Names are like travel kryptonite, the one thing that airlines don’t like you to change once the ticket has been paid for, at least not without a sizeable fee (and we’re talking hundreds here, people). From what I hear (this is back before my time in the industry) you used to be able to book a ticket using just an inital or a random name and then, if that person couldn’t/didn’t want to travel, you could just change the name and you were good to go. Not any more. Especially not since 9/11. Every country wants to know without a doubt who the heck they are letting onto their soil, and this is not taken lightly. If you show up at the airport and your ticket doesn’t match your passport (or ID, depending on the destination), you’re not going anywhere, plain and simple. That’s why we always, always, always ask for your name as it appears on your passport.
“Binky” might be cute, and I’m sure you like it better than your legal name, but it’s not going to get you on a plane unless it’s the first name on your passport. Not the middle name either (for all intents and purposes, middle names are to airlines like olives are to martinis, nice and decorative and easy to ignore), but the first. And it doesn’t matter if the people at Visa were happy to issue you your credit card to that name, either. Until they become a legal governing body (okay, with the way we all love our credit cards – me included – this could happen eventually…) it’s not going to help you get to Lima any more than your library card would. On a side note, firearms licences are never a good idea to show the people at airport check in, it just makes them double-search your luggage and eye you suspiciously for the duration of your flight.
Typos can happen, although rarely. If they do, we fix it. We’re professionals, we might be hyperventilating as we do it, but we’ll make sure you get on that plane. On the other hand, if you’re not 100% sure of what name appears on your passport, or your friend’s passport, go home and reconfirm it before putting your money down. The second that ticket’s issued, any change, no matter how small, is going to cost you big. I’ve witnessed friendships fall apart over this, when one friend gets a little over-eager and books the tickets with the names they think are right, only to discover their best friend has always gone by their middle name, and now it’s going to cost CAD$400.00 to get the ticket reissued. The friend with the wrong name doesn’t want to split that bill, since it wasn’t their fault the names were spelled wrong in the first place, but the friend who made the mistake either doesn’t have the money for the fee or resents the friend for not being understanding and helpful. From there it just spirals… you get the point.
Oh, and if you’re looking at tickets on EBay or Craig’s List, I hope it’s for decorative purposes only, because there’s no way that CAD$50.00 ticket to London is going to actually get you to London. Unless, of course, you actually do happen to have the same legal name as the seller, but I have yet to see this happen. If anyone knows of a time it has, please let me know, I’ll pass it around the office and it’ll become the stuff of travel legends.
So before you part with your hard-earned money, check your passport and make sure you know what name the government would like you to go by, or you’ll be parting with even more of that money and earning yourself (and your agent) a world of unneeded stress. You would never believe the amount of Tums I go through. Really. But if we work together and get the names right in the first place, we’re golden.
Thanks 
Tags: BlogSherpa, names, Passports, Tips, travel agent
Posted by holly on Jun 26, 2009 in
Blog She walks into the travel agency and asks for the best all-inclusive vacation deal. At this point she seems like another perfectly normal bargain-hunter. No problem, whatever. Little did I know that five minutes later I would be tempted to excuse myself, walk into the back room and bang my head repeatedly against the wall, screaming expletives.
On this particular day the best deal happens to be in Varadero, Cuba, so I show her the hotels, she makes all the excited noises and says she’s ready to book. Inside I’m doing the happy dance that happens every time I sell a trip. But then she asks, “How long is it going to take me to drive there from Florida?”
Excuse me? Drive? Florida? Where did that come from? I’m trying to keep the totally perplexed look off my face as I explain that Cuba is an island, and that you can’t drive there from anywhere, especially not the USA. Hell, you can’t even fly there from the US! She then asked if it was a long highway or a bridge, having totally glosssed over everything I had just said.
After the second repitition of the ”you can’t drive to Cuba” spiel, it becomes very apparent that I only have one option: the Sesame Street method. “Cuba is an island. It is completely surrounded by water. You know, that blue wet stuff? Well, you can’t drive on water (unless you have a very special car, but I wasn’t going to complicate things and tell her that) and there is no bridge, so you have to fly to Cuba. You know, in a plane? With the wings and the engine?” Of course I said it slightly nicer than that (not by much, though she – oooh, shocker – didn’t seem to notice) and I even got out the atlas (or, as she’d describe it, the heavy book with all the pictures of places in it) and showed her a map. Finally she nodded, pushed the atlas away and booked the trip. I even did something unusual in a sales job and actively tried to talk her out if it, but she insisted.
Booking was an equally nerve racking process, as every time I asked for her name as it appeared on her passport she started giggling, not something that makes me confidant she comprehends yet again, but we managed. Then, three days later, she calls to see if she could change her non-refundable (she had this in writing, I made sure) vacation to Mexico, as she still can’t figure out how to get to Cuba. No. Just no. Period. And, in case you’re wondering, this woman spoke perfect English, so there was nothing lost in translation!
So for anyone playing along with the home game, let’s summarize:
1 – Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean, completely surrounded by water.
2- You can’t drive there from anywhere.
3-If you’re a US citizen, you can’t even visit there (with the exception of the people with some very long and technical government paperwork in their posession).
4-If you see a woman wandering around Varadero wondering how to get from her resort to Disneyworld, please accept my sincerest apologies and steer her back in the direction of her lounge chair and coconut umbrella drink
Call me crazy, but before I spend thousands of dollars and get on a plane to somewhere I can’t leave immediately if I discover I don’t like it, I like to know where I’m going. Maybe that’s just me!
Tags: cuba, island, travel agent, travel problems, weird
Posted by holly on Jun 11, 2009 in
Blog,
BlogSherpa Today a friend of mine asked me what the strangest thing I’ve ever been asked at work, and that got me thinking. The first thing that came to mind was the trio of early-twenties guys who wanted me to request that the cruise line seat them at the same dinner table as “young hot girls, not old people” (not guaranteed, but the reservations agent at Royal Caribbean was laughing her ass off). Or the guy who wanted me to fake a reciept so that his wife wouldn’t accidentally see he was taking his mistress with him to Disneyland (of all places. Really? Nothing turns people on like a giant mouse, apparently). Didn’t do that one. Minor legal reasons.
Then it came to me: To find a non-smoking city in Europe.
Yep, I said city. As in whole freakin’ place. That’s like finding a cow with air brakes, it just ain’t gonna happen. This is Europe, people. Everyone smokes. Infants come out of the womb with a filter tip and a Bic. A client of mine even picked where to eat dinner by how much smoke was spilling out the door, because if there was lots, it was a popular place and the food had to be good!
Once I got past the “wow, did that make sense in your head before you said it out loud?” factor, I found a non-smoking hotel and an Irish town (you’d think after all that I’d remember what it was called, but I don’t) that banned indoor smoking. Afterwards the clients had no complaints, but it’s been years and I’m still shaking my head at that one.
Ah, well, it could have been worse, like the time I lost a client…
Tags: BlogSherpa, cruise, travel agent, weird
Posted by holly on Jun 10, 2009 in
Blog,
BlogSherpa,
Europe Woo-hoo! I’m leaving Friday for a business trip to Barcelona and the Costa Dorada in Spain (I know, I’m working sooo hard!) It’ll be a lot of busy days, but who cares, I’ll be in Spain! This is when I love my job (travel agent – or, as I like to call it, facilitator of all things good and wonderful) more than anything. I can stand getting up at five am daily and touring thirty hotels in exchange for a few days shopping on Las Ramblas and sunning on the Costa. Maybe I’ll even get a tan and people will stop asking me if I feel all right (I swear, I really am that pale. I live in Vancouver, what can I say? Think great white north). Still in the frantic packing stage, with visions of Gaudi architecture, flamenco and tapas dancing in my head, but I’m totally counting down the seconds until takeoff. How do they expect me to focus on work tomorrow? The camera’s charging as we speak, and I’ll have details up soon
Tags: BlogSherpa, Spain, travel agent