Storms are getting bigger, airplane parts are hard to come by, and the aviation industry is understaffed. So what’s a travel advisor to do when air travel is one big snafu and less dependable than ever?
To a certain extent, it depends on where your customer base is. In New York, for example, Laurie and Paul Bahna, owners of a Dream Vacations franchise in Plainview, found an easy option for taking the flying out of the equation altogether: cruising out of your home port.
“Paul and I truly believe that people are really tired of the airline cancellations,” Laurie says. “So many customers are saying that airline prices are very high and the airlines are just not consistent; people are missing their flights and vacations and cruises. They would rather go somewhere they can drive than give up two days of their lives. They just want to drop off their bags and relax.”
The Bahnas are placing their bets, following their gut instinct and holding group space on 13 cruise itineraries. Eleven are on MSC, Carnival and NCL out of New York and two are on Royal Caribbean out of Florida.
“We’re putting up our own money to see if our instinct is right,” she says. “The deposit is $50 a cabin for us to hold them and, if it works, we’ll lock in savings for our clients. And then we’ll do more groups.”
At Bucket List Travelers, meanwhile, high airfares are not an issue at all for some customers. They are just sailing both ways to Europe.
“Air travel is such a mess and so expensive, and there is no telling what’s going to happen,” says Vicki Winters, owner of the Nexion affiliate agency in Brooklyn. “I have one client who said, ‘Vicki, I just don’t want to fly.’ So she’s been taking a transatlantic sailing over, then milling about for a week or two and then taking a different ship back. Last month she did Virgin Voyages to Europe and then Carnival Venezia’s maiden voyage back; in September she’s going outbound from Florida on Cunard and back on Royal Caribbean a week later. Another couple is going to Barcelona in October on Royal Caribbean, then Virgin back so they only have to fly one way.”
Customers of Disney specialist Margie Lenau, owner of Wonderland Family Vacations in landlocked Grand Rapids, MI, don’t really have that option.
“Florida is our sister state, I’m licensed there, and it’s a big money maker for us,” Lenau says. Yet, it’s a long way from Michigan—and driving is not really a viable alternative to flying. More popular this year is Hilton Head, 17 hours away by car—“about the limit of what people will drive, and we sell it frequently.”
Those who are getting on a plane, Lenau says, “want nonstops much more frequently and are willing to pay more for that. You try to stack the odds in your favor with a nonstop—but even then if you are in Mexico on a nonstop that is canceled you are stuck.”
Instead, she often books one-stops to a hub like Chicago, where driving is an option in case of emergency and there are more flights in case something goes wrong.
“You try to do what you can do,” she says.
At Elite Travel & Events in Arlington Heights, IL, owners Dan Sadleir and his mother Melody, who specialize in FITs and small groups, have been planning more back-to-back international trips, so clients can opt to fly once and see twice as much. They now are planning their 2025 itineraries, two back-to-back groups, one in Australia and New Zealand and one in Argentina and Chile.
In addition to the cancellations, “prices are astronomical,” Melanie says, so she also is reaching out to Aer Lingus to see if she can get a group price for their upcoming Ireland trip.
Shawn Graves, owner of Centsible Vacations in the Washington DC area, advised members of her recent group headed to St. Lucia to book the first flight out, at 6 or 8 am, with minimal connections, and to download the airline app “for that double layer of protection.”
Of course, she doesn’t trust them 100% to read the emails she sends—so she follows up with a video she made, leading them step by step through the process of flying to St. Lucia in 2023.
“It’s not just the responsibility of the travel advisors or the travel insurance company,” she says. “The client has to be informed and know how to respond if there is an issue. I send an electronic itinerary and a video walking through the itinerary step by step, showing what they should be aware of: checking in 24 hours prior, arriving two hours in advance, making sure you have Global Entry and TSA Precheck and CLEAR. Of course, they have this information in writing but I believe in communicating the same ideas multiple times—verbal, written, video—and maybe the third time they’ll get it.”
She encourages customers running into trouble to call her as well as the airline. When one recently called after sitting at the gate for over an hour with a mechanical issue, Graves advised her to call a flight attendant and ask to be let off the plane, then go right to the desk and rebook a new ticket with an assigned seat on another flight. Sure enough, 15 minutes later the flight was canceled—and half the passengers could not find another flight out.
“We are advisors and also educators,” Graves says. “I told her I sensed a situation—and she shouldn’t be afraid to hit that button.”
Like Lenau, Graves is based far from Florida cruise ports—so for cruise groups, where air is really the only option, she has begun relying on the cruise line’s air department. That paid off in December when two members of her Disney cruise group were delayed—and in response to a call from her, Disney held the ship until they arrived at 4:30.
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
