Dealing With After Travel Issues
A big part of my duties include following up on issues that happen during people’s vacations. Most vacations come off without a hitch, but things do happen.
Some issues are unique. For instance today I talked to the mother of a bride where her only complaint about the resort where her daughter’s destination wedding was held that they couldn’t smoke the cigars that the cigar roller rolled because the tobacco leaves weren’t dry. I’ve never heard that before. I’ll probably never hear it again.
Most complaints, though, fit into one of several categories. Here are the most common after travel complaints I deal with.
Didn’t Receive Added Values: A popular sort of promotion is where you get something additional thrown in when you book a room. Maybe a resort credit, maybe a tour, maybe an upgrade to nonstoptransfers. A very regular complaint is that those added values weren’t received. Just today I am working on a $250 resort credit that didn’t materialize.
Didn’t Receive Room as Booked: Another common complaint is that the resort didn’t give them the room that they paid for. For instance, if you paid for a water view and didn’t get it. Or, for instance, that you wanted a king bed and got two doubles. Or vice versa.
Another common complaint that has to do with room assignment has to do with the difference between Oceanview vs Oceanfront rooms. You can read about that here.
Maybe the biggest complaint having to do with rooms concerns upgrades. A very common feature of promotions is a “upgrade – based on availability”. People don’t tend to hear the “based on availability” part. They only hear that they’re getting an upgrade.
Transfer Issues: On packages where transfers are included, sometimes the transfers are the issue. Sometimes customers don’t catch their transfers. Sometimes the transfer operator doesn’t have the passenger on the manifest. Many times, customers don’t appear in the lobby for their return transfer until after the appointed time and the drive has to leave them.
How can you avoid having an after travel issue?
If you’re expecting an added value of any kind, be sure you have documentation reflecting that added value. Be sure to clarify the conditions surrounding any upgrades you’re expecting. Be very clear about the procedure surrounding catching your transfer. (It is probably outlined in your documents. Ask your agent about anything that isn’t clear.)
If you’re on vacation and start to face something unexpected, there are things you can do to make sure you have the best outcome possible.
1) Be nice. Your mother was right. You do catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I like to visualize “velvet over steel”. I want to be very nice, yet very strong.
2) Utilize your resources. If you bought a package from us, you probably have a representative at the hotel. Contact them and ask for help resolving whatever the issue is. Also, many times we are able to resolve issues from here if you call us and tell us what’s going on. It’s much easier to fix something while it’s happening than when it’s ancient history.
3) Keep records. As you’re going through the situation, keep track of the names of who you talk to and any money you spent to rectify the situation. This will also help with resolution.
Lessons Learned in France
Eiffel Tower at Night
We’re back from France. It was an amazing trip, and I’m sure I’ll write about it more in another blog post.. What I want to write about today are the lessons we learned along the way. Before the trip I wrote about the process of packing, and I’ll also write about how that all worked out. Today, though, it’s all about lessons. Maybe some of them can translate to every day life lessons too.
Here they are, in no particular order.
1) Learn the basics of the native language. We didn’t do this. I wish we had. If you learn the niceties of the language as well as a few useful things (perhaps having to do with food and things like the bathroom) people will perceive you less as an intruder and more as a guest. Go ahead, make some flash cards. You can do it.
2) Eat when you can. One day we were in a beautiful small town, but only for three hours. Because we wanted to digest all of our surroundings and record them in photographs, we elected to skip eating in the dining room on board and head straight for town. Our thought was that we would pick up one of the wonderful sandwiches that are at little shops everywhere and maybe a diet coke, and eat them while walking around. Sadly, the three hours we were there were the three hours in the middle of the day that everyone in small town France takes off in the middle of the day to go home and eat with their families. This means that every single thing is closed with the exception of the sit down cafes where you can expect it to take 90 minutes to eat.
Nice tradition, but it sure didn’t fit our schedule that day. We were starving. We did, however, find the worlds most legendary cream puff that day. There was one solitary bakery that was open straight through instead of closing. Probably not very popular with the locals to be open straight through, but were we ever thankful for those cream puffs.
3) Pee when you can. I always made sure I went right before leaving the ship. Even so, sometimes we were caught having to locate acceptable facilities. We usually found them, but even so, it took away from touring time and interuupted the enjoyment of the amazing beauty we were there to see. I will admit it was an interesting cultural experience to stand in line for the potty, pay a Euro and get a receipt indicating that we’d paid to go to the bathroom. It was also fun to put the Euro coin in the other bathroom later in the trip to gain access to the stall. Multicultural lessons abound.
This also leads to a related lesson which is, Have Change for the Bathroom.
4) Be aware of national holidays. The day we took the train from Paris to Arles (pronounced “Ar-La”) was All Saints Day. This meant that the tourist information desk at the train station was closed which meant we couldn’t ask about how to get from the train station to the ship. This also meant that everything was closed. When I say every thing I mean every.single.thing. Even the supermarkets and the pharmacies. Fortunately for us on this trip we overnighted in Arles so we got to fully enjoy the town the next day.
5) Be careful of standing in the street. We primarily visited small towns where the roads were so narrow that to most Americans it looks more like a pedestrian district than an actually street where automobiles would dare to roam. With fair regularity, cars would come by and the drivers would be quite frustrated that the tourists were standing in the street. This isn’t a problem in a major city. I don’t think anyone would make a mistake in thinking a Paris street was anything but a busy major metropolitan throughfare.
6) A photo will look better back at the hotel than it does while you’re standing in front of the actual object. My traveling companion and I both have intimidating cameras with which we digest our surroundings. (She is a much much more skilled photographer than I am. I just have the big camera and try hard.) One thing I noticed is that I would be standing in near this impossibly beautiful thing and would take the best picture I could frame up. I would look at the screen on the back of the camera at the picture I’d taken and see a poor represenation of the magnificience before which I was standing. Many times I hit the delete key on the camera. (Thank goodness for digital photography.)
Then I noticed that when I got back to the hotel and uploaded the pictures to my iPad with a bigger screen, and I was away from the actual object of the picture, I was much more impressed with the picture. So, save those pictures and delete them later while looking at a bigger screen. (Now this doesn’t apply if it’s clearly a picture of the back of the person who stepped into your shot, or if it’s blurry, or something obvious like that.)
7) Remember rush hour. Even though you are on vacation, there are many people around you who are simply moving through their normal lives. People around you are going to work, getting groceries for their familes and trying to survive.
At the end of our trip we had to get clear through Paris on the RER train and it happened to be at 5:30pm. We endured a crush of people surrounding us on the train for the two hour journey. Between really popular stops I had to close my eyes, breathe, and try not to have a panic attack. (I don’t have panic attacks, but I was seriously considering an exception.) If I’d been thinking, I would have stowed our luggage and had dinner in Paris and had a much more enjoyable trip later in the evening.
Remember electricity. I always travel with a power strip. This keeps me from having to crawl around a night stand to switch out my cell phone charger to my iPad charger, to my laptop cord. I have plenty of accessible places in which to plug things. My favorite purchase on this trip was a European power strip. I plugged it in and stuck my US adapters in the slots. This essentially gave me my normal power strip (at least for those things that didn’t need a converter – refer to my blog post about Electricity while traveling for more details.)
What lessons did you learn last time you took a trip? Share them in the comments.
Packing for France – In Flight
How do I pack for a European trip?
On this trip, we’ll be nine and a half hours in flight going over and almost eleven hours coming back. That’s a lot of time to try to be comfortable and entertained.
I’m carrying a lot more on board than I would if I were on a 2.5 hour trip to Cancun. Here’s a list:
Scottevest: This is more to carry things IN than an item itself
iPad 2: Movies are downloaded and ready to go. I also bought a headphone splitter so my traveling companion can be entertained too.
Larabars: Healthy snacks in case my hunger schedule doesn’t match the schedule on board. Plus..airplane food….
Stand and External Keyboard for iPad2: To stand the iPad up for easier viewing, or for typing blog posts if inspiration hits.
Paperback book and Photography Magazines: Reading material is very important. I also have books downloaded to the iPad, but you still need paper for before and after you’re allowed electronics.
Fold Up Blanket
Travel Pillow: (I have high hopes for this new pillow I bought.)
In Flight Kit: I put together this kit a few trips ago and it has served me well.
- Chap Stick
- Shout Wipes
- Pair of Fuzzy Socks
- Purell
- Floss
- Toothpaste
- Toothbrush
- Mini Mag Light (so you can find stuff when the cabin lights are down)
- Kleenex
- Cloth Hanky
- Hand Lotion
- Cough Drops
- Stickers
- Sleeping Mask
- Bleach Wipes
Of course, I’m hoping to sleep quite a bit too. Between sleep, what I’ve brought, and the two meals that will be served on board, I should be to Paris in no time. Right?
Do you have any more tips for me? Tell me in the comments.
Packing for France – Clothing
How do I pack for a European trip?
This is the part of packing that I really don’t like. I’m not that into clothes even at home, so deciding what to take a trip is something that I can find myself procrastinating until the last minute. Nevertheless, I felt it was important to force myself to think through everything and get it ready.
On this trip, I’ll need a set of clothes for each day. Daytime activities on this trip will be mostly walking around exploring and taking pictures. I’ll keep it pretty simple. I bought some new turtlenecks and fleece tops from Lands End in bright colors. I’ll wear them each day with a pair of jeans. Pretty simple.
It gets more complicated in the evening. Since we’re on a river cruise we’ll have to go to dinner each night and there are only 136 other people on the boat, so it’s harder to fade into the background. I don’t want to embarrass myself. On an independent trip, if you wear the same thing to dinner several times, no one but your traveling companion would notice. Depending on who your traveling companion is they might not notice either.
I’m a big fan of Chico’s Traveler Collection. I have a good assortment of the basic pieces, then a different way every night to make it seem different. Either a blouse, or a scarf or a jacket can make a big difference. Jewelry plays a big role too.
So, what I did was sit down and create seven different outfits (one for each night of the cruise). I took a picture with my iPhone of each outfit. By going ahead and assembling each outfit I was able to make sure I had everything I needed.
As far as the actual physical packing of the clothes, there are many places where you can read about techniques for putting clothes in suitcases. What I did with my evening clothes was make a big stack of them and roll them all together. Nothing I brought wrinkles badly, so I feel confident that this will do the job until I unpack in the cruise cabin.
For my daytime exploring clothes, I used an Eagle Creek Pack-it Folder. Incidentally, I always use Eagle Creek Pack-it Cubes for underwear and socks. Rather than having individual pairs drifting around my suitcase, There are all together and organized.
What is your favorite tip for organizing your clothing for a trip? Tell me in the comments.
Packing for France – Toiletries
How do I pack for a European trip?
To do a good job at packing your toiletries and not end up on your trip longing for a forgotten item requires forethought and planning. Here are a few tips that will help.
1) Pick the right toiletry kit. Since this series of posts is about packing for a trip to France, one consideration is lack of counter space. European hotel rooms rarely have any at all, and our cabin on our river cruise will certainly not have much, if any. So, it is important to have a toiletry kit with a hook so that it will hang on the wall. You can hang it from a doorknob, the top of the mirror, a light fixture or maybe even a hook. Another great asset in a toiletry kit is lot of pockets or dividers so that you can keep everything in the right place rather than rummaging around a big open bag. The toiletry kit I picked for this trip is the REI Ultimate Shower Kit. I recently retired my Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Wallaby. I would have just replaced it with another Wallaby since it served me so well for so long, but I just wanted to try something new.
2) Small Containers. I hope it is already obvious that it isn’t good packing technique to carry around full size containers of most things. For this trip, I’m using GoToob Silicone Travel Bottles. They are great and squishy and even have suction cups so you can easily affix them to the wall in the bathroom or the shower.
Or, if you want to purchase small sizes of your favorite items and you can’t find them in that section at Target, take a look at http://www.3floz.com/ or http://www.minimus.biz/
3) Planning. I tend to do better if I pack well ahead of actually leaving for the trip. This gives me longer to remember things I’ve forgotten. It also gives me time to really evaluate each choice to see if I really need to bring it or not.
When it actually comes time to fill the toiletry kit I sit and actually imagine the process of showering and getting ready in the morning. As I come to each step in the process I pack the appropriate item. If it is an item that I will still need to use in the days leading up to departure, I put it on a “last minute packing items” list.
I also keep a “need to buy” list so that I can jot down things I still need to pick up (usually at Target).
Unless you’re packing a separate medication / first aid kit, you might also consider including those items in your toiletry kit. Think through some of the ailments that you commonly get either at home or while traveling and bring items to treat them.
Here is a list of the items currently in my toiletry kit:
Eyeglass Cleaner
Chapstick
Hair Clip
Body Lotion
Shampoo
Body Cleanser
Baby Powder
Deodorant
Razor
QTips
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Dental Floss
Hairspray
Enough makeup to make me minimally presentable
Bandaids
Blister Band Aids
One dose of cold medicine (enough until I can find somewhere to buy it if I need it.)
Immodium AD
Small Bottle of Advil
Small Bottle of Benedryl
Alka Seltzer
What toiletry item can you not do without? Tell us in the comments.
Packing for France
How do I pack for a European trip?
Ten days from today I am going on the Avalon Scenery for a river cruise through Burgundy and Provence.
I do travel alot. Usually, though, it is to a beach destination. I can pack for a trip like that in my sleep. Packing for a trip like this will require a bit more thought and planning.
So, I thought I would write a few articles about the process of planning and packing for this trip. Maybe you can learn from my experience.
There are a few primary considerations when starting to think about what clothing to pack. Temperature and activities planned are two important ones.
I checked weather.com and it looks like right now in Paris the highs are in the mid 50′s and night time lows are in the mid 40′s. Now, to this Texan, mid 40′s are pretty chilly. For that matter, mid 50′s are sweatshirt and fleece weather.
The dear friend accompanying me shares my enthusiasm for photography. (Although she is actually talented, as opposed to my hit and miss methods.) I’m assuming much of our daytimes will be spent wandering around taking photographs. That means that I’ll need comfortable warm clothes for daytime. I’ll need seven dress up outfits for eating dinner on the boat. That will be the real challenge.
Another challenge to consider is that if I forget something, it won’t be very easy to replace it. When I recently traveled to Oregon for my nieces wedding I was able to just take my rental car over to the local Target store. Along the river in Southern France there may not be a Target store nearby.
So, how will I solve these challenges? First of all, I will start packing today. In fact, there is already an open suitcase in my bedroom where I place things I think about as I think about them. I find that the more in advance I pack, the less I pack. If I pack at the last minute, I feel less sure of my choices, so I tend to bring everything possible.
So, it’s time to start making lists. Do you have any tips for me? Add them in the comments.
Ten Ways to Be a Good Citizen on a Plane
As I write this, I’m aboard an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Chicago, Illinois. I am folded into a coach seat, although I must admit this plane is nicer than most I’ve seen lately.
We’ve all witnessed other passengers behaving badly while traveling, but I wonder how many of us have been behaving badly and perhaps not even realized it. So, I decided to look around the aircraft and compile a list of 10 tips for being a good citizen while flying.
1. Try not to use overhead bin space. I can already hear things whizzing past my head as you business travelers are throwing things at me, but hear me out. For one thing, I believe that most of my audience are vacation / leisure travelers. When you’re going on vacation or you’re going to attend a family wedding or visit your grandma you are not usually on such a tight schedule that you can’t wait the extra 15 or 20 minutes at baggage claim. As far as the baggage fees, what I hear people say most often is “why don’t they just build it into the airfare”. Well, the same could be said of you. Why don’t you just build those baggage fees into the total price you intend to pay for your trip.
When you’re not worried about getting an overhead bin, you don’t have to worry about how soon you get on the plane and you’ll never get stuck with a seat in row 14 and your bag back in row 27. (How much time are you saving anyway when you have to wait for the whole plane to get off before you can get back to get your bag?)
2. Stay in your space. I know this is easier for some people than others. At the very least, do go ahead and put the arm rest down and respect the fact that the area beyond that arm rest belongs to your seat mate.
3. Get on and sit down. When your row is called, get in line, board the plane and don’t stand in the aisle messing with your stuff. Stand in front of your seat (or at least in your row) and finish whatever messing around you have to do to stow your stuff. Don’t stop traffic to mess with your stuff.
4. Don’t lean back in coach. There is precious little room for each passenger. Don’t lean back and take up the space that rightfully belongs to the person behind you. Also, your leaning back makes it awkward for the passenger behind you to use their tray table.
5. Touch the seat in front of you as little as possible. If the person in front of you is sleeping and you grab that seat so that you can stand up, or you jostle that seat to pull down your tray table, or you play air drums on that tray table, that person is going to wake up. If the person in front of you is lucky enough to have fallen asleep, do you really want to mess that up?
6. Don’t read the screens around you. Maybe your fellow passenger is writing email, maybe they’re watching a movie, maybe they’re reading a website. Whatever they’re doing, I’m pretty sure it is none of your business. Keep your eyes to yourself.
7. Follow crew member instructions. Put your electronics away at the proper time, take your seat and don’t get up while the seatbelt sign is on (unless it is an honest to goodness emergency). Follow instructions and make the flight as smooth as possible.
8. Order promptly. When the cart comes near to you and it is almost time to choose which snack to purchase or which drink to have, go ahead and make those choices so that when the flight attendant asks, you’ll can order promptly and let them continue their cabin service. (There is probably a list of the options on a card in the seat back pocket in front of you.)
9. Bathroom Tips: There are an awful lot of people using those teeny tiny bathrooms. Don’t linger, someone is probably waiting for relief. Also, Drain the basin. Wipe the basin out Flush. Make sure your paper towels go all the way in the trash can without hanging out. Try to leave it in good shape for the next person.
10. Be nice. It isn’t the flight attendants fault if you had a fight with your spouse right before you left the house. It also isn’t your fellow passenger’s fault if you had a really rude clerk at the hotel. Take a deep breath and remember that you’ll always catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
P.S. I just went back and talked to the flight attendants in the galley as they were cleaning up. They added these two tips to my list:
11. Don’t touch the flight attendants. They said that people are forever poking them on their hips and bottoms as they go by on the cart. If you wouldn’t touch a stranger in a certain way any other setting, don’t touch the flight attendants that way either.
12. Please and thank you go a long way.
WHY is My Deposit So Much?
Booking your deposit is smart for several reasons. For one thing, if you book in advance, you are assured of being able to confirm exactly the flights and the hotel that you want. If you wait until the last minute, you may have to choose from everyone elses leftovers. Also, if you book in advance it gives you the opportunity to make a deposit, then pay off your trip over time until the final payment date, usually a couple of months prior to your trip.
Deposits on our vacations are as low as $50.00 per person, which is great. Sometimes though, the deposit is much more. The reason for this has to do with the airfare included in the package. If the airfare included in your package is a “published” airfare (meaning it is an airfare with the same sort of rules as most airline tickets that you would just buy anywhere) then the airfare portion of your trip must be paid in full at the time of deposit. “Bulk” or “Charter” airfares (which have different rules) allow for a smaller deposit.
There are oftentimes both “Published” and “Bulk” airfares available on the same flight itineraries. If you let us know what your goals are we can book accordingly. If you’re looking for a low deposit so that you can pay your trip out over time we can specifically limit our search to flights on which we can secure a “bulk” airfare. Sometimes “bulk” is less, sometimes “published” is less. We just have to look at your particular situation.
Reducing Baggage Charges – Hotel Laundry
My family and I were in Mexico last week on family vacation. We spent a total of $160.00 on baggage charges. Believe me when I tell you that I searched my mind for ways to reduce that amount.
One of the things I considered was packing less things and having things washed mid way through the trip. I had already checked to see if our resort had a washer and dryer for guest use. They did not.
While we were on the trip I pulled out the laundry list located next to the plastic bag hanging on one of the hangers in the closet. As I surveyed the list, I quickly saw that I did the right thing by going ahead and bringing enough clothes not to require laundry.
Here are a few examples of the prices:
T-Shirt: $4.00
Shorts: $5.50
Pants: $7.50
Underwear: $3.00
Dress: $8.50
I believe that these prices are pretty typical of a nice resort.
As you can see, it wouldn’t take very many pieces of clothing to pay for the cost of checking another bag. Now, if the issue isn’t just about expense but rather the convenience of either not checking a bag or lugging around less luggage, then isn’t isn’t purely a mathematical question.
As with many choices in vacation travel….it’s all up to you!
The 8 Most Difficult Things to me About Going on Vacation:
This is not the difficult part.
Not in order of priority:
1. Pet Care: Anyone who knows me knows that I am crazy about my Golden Retriever, Lacy. My care for her includes daily teeth brushing as well as bathing every other day to alleviate skin allergies. She also eats a completely homemade diet. Arranging for her care while I am gone is difficult, to say the least.
2. Child Care: In the early days of being a parent, my mother was a reliable stand in for when my husband and I both needed to be gone on a trip. Since she passed away 7 years ago, though, it has become difficult for the two of us to travel together. For most things these days only one of us will go. If it is important enough that both of us need to be there we have a very nice lady who we hire to come stay with the kids. Each trip requires that I assemble all of the information about the kids schedules and obligations. I also always sign a medical authorization form. Sadly, on our last trip, she had to use that when my son decided to play with my swiss army knife.
3. Laundry: At our house, laundry is an unrelenting tide that requires daily attention in order not to carry me away. When I am gone, even for a few days, I am left dangerously over my head in threat of drowning. It can take a week or so to catch up and get back on top.
4. Remembering to Take Vitamins: I try to be diligent about taking vitamins and various supplements (not to mention a couple of prescription medications). When I am out of my normal routine I almost always miss my doses at least a couple of times.
5. Emails: I keep up on my emails via my iPhone pretty much no matter where I am. Some emails can’t be actioned until I am back at my desk and able to retrieve or research information. So, even though I normally live an “Inbox Zero” lifestyle, on vacation, some emails sit there until I return. That makes me crazy.
6. Voicemail: When I Get Back: My voicemail at work is always a thorn in my side. Even when I am at work, I have to force myself to check my messages and get rid of that annoying red light on my phone. I guess it’s because it’s hard to do something else at the same time I’m listening to voicemail so I have to completely stop everything else I’m doing. I can answer emails while listening to someone on the phone or while sitting on hold, but when checking voicemail I am ONLY checking voicemail. Anyway, voicemail messages from a whole week of being gone can be intimidating.
7. Getting Out of Routine: I am a very goal oriented person. There are a variety of tasks that I engage in every day that help my life move forward in the way I would like it to go. When I am out of town, I am unable to do those things. If I am disconnected for very long, I feel like I am sliding backwards in my life and I don’t like that feeling. As an example, I enter all of our spending in Quicken every morning. I look at budget reports and see where we’re overspending so I can try to get us back on target. (Yeah, right.) Anyway, when I am unable to do that for several days I start to feel out of control. (Uh huh…like I’m in control anyway.)
8. Weekend Activities: Every weekend is an important time of getting ready for the week ahead so that my life doesn’t get out of control. Grocery shopping, cooking for the week, making Lacy’s food, catching up on any laundry, gardening tasks and a million other things fill every weekend. If I am out of town over a weekend and those things slide, our lives get a little messy for a while until I get caught up.
Reading over this list, it seems I have a few control issues to deal with…but there you have it. What are the most difficult things to you about going on vacation? What do you do to overcome the difficulties?
