Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008 - (Page 6)

EDITOR'S LETTER Controlling the Experience A Be sure that the details of the final moments of your clients’ itinerary are checked and double checked so that they’ll end their vacation on a peaceful note. s I write this, I’m sitting in a hotel room, having returned from the airport I went to 11 hours ago for a return flight from my trip to Mexico. The flight was canceled after a slow and painful process, and I’m spending an extra night away from home. Everything started relatively smoothly: I was flying JetBlue, an airline I like very much, even though my seat was in the very last row, right in front of the bathroom. I was on the plane, seat belt buckled, playing with my iPod and deciding which novel I’d read on the way home, when, moments before takeoff, the pilot announced, essentially, that the plane had a flat tire. Three hours later, after a series of updates and additional snafus, we were very politely told to gather our stuff and deplane so that we could be comfortable while they sorted everything out. After two or three hours passed, we learned our flight would leave at 8:30 that night, a full eight hours after our scheduled departure. But hey, after another hour or two we received meal vouchers, which were rumored to be for $15 but were only for $12 by the time I got mine. But then something funny happened: Our flight disappeared from the departures board altogether. No one was around to update us, so someone in our by-then-hysterical group called the airline’s central reservations system and was told the flight was canceled and rescheduled for the following day. But this is not meant to be an “it’s so difficult to fly these days” diatribe. What I really wanted to do was to point out something odd that happens to some couples when they’re faced with extreme adversity for hours on end. Even though they’ve just spent a full week swimming, laying in the sun, enjoying cocktails and really starting to like each other again, they turn on each other. At the airport tonight I witnessed some of the worst scenes of domestic distress I’d ever hoped to see because one spouse didn’t understand what was going on and attributed the day’s trauma to the other spouse’s utter stupidity. (This is what happens when you’ve been holding a three-foot-wide souvenir sombrero and carrying two heavy bottles of duty-free tequila for 11 hours.) What I wondered was whether these couples would be speaking to each other upon returning home after those terrible exchanges. Would it wipe out the joys of a tropical vacation and possibly 14 years of marriage for some? Now, as luxury travel advisors, there is little you could do to assist in a situation like this, unless you have a private jet that you’re able to personally deliver to your clients in times of strife. And so my advice to you is to control what you can, and not just at the beginning of a trip. Be sure that the details of the final moments of your clients’ itinerary are checked and double checked so that they’ll end their vacation on a peaceful note. Confirm the length of stay so your clients don’t get a note under their hotel room door two days before they’re leaving telling them that their car will be waiting for them at nine o’clock the next morning. Check and re-check the room rate you’ve quoted them—the hotel may swing into high season halfway through your clients’ trip and their bill may be hundreds of dollars more than expected. And be sure that their transfer to the airport is confirmed so they’re not left jumping into a cab with only an hour to make a drive that typically takes 90 minutes. As for the airport experience, well, I’m not sure what you can do there, but one thought is suggesting to them that they have their hotel prepare a lunch for them so they don’t have to wait on line for a voucher for chicken quesadillas. An important note: I’ve already received a voucher for another trip from JetBlue; they certainly are absolutely true to the Passenger Bill of Rights they established a year ago. I’m impressed. Off to my next adventure! RUTHANNE TERRERO, CTC Editorial Director rterrero@questex.com 6 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | June 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008

Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008 Contents Publisher's Letter Editor's Letter Paris Shanghai New York Takeover Hotels Townhouse Galleria Florida Spas BVI Bliss Athens, Greece Rainforest Excursions Nigel Page The Pulse Jetset Report Just Back On Location Sightings Agent Access Source List

Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008

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