The rest of Q&A

Q – We have friends who just had their rental car broken into in Switzerland. A bag was taken including their passports, wallet, cell phone etc. We have an upcoming trip planned to Greece and Italy and we will be renting a car for a portion of this trip. What do we do if  we are robbed, as in first steps. Also wondering if you can provide any tips others might find useful in terms of a really awful “what if”  robbery scenario.

A – Never, ever, leave your things in a car anywhere in the world. If you are robbed or if you lose your passport/money/ID the first thing to do is contact your travel consultant and keep them engaged in your efforts. Contact the nearest American Consulate or Embassy after first contacting the local police and filing a claim.

Take a picture of the picture page of your passport and store it on your phone. Also store the photo on your home computer so you can access it from anywhere. You should also store photos of your luggage on your phone.

Make certain that your travel agency provides or recommends a Flight Monitoring service. They can be extremely helpful in a situation like this. If you lose all of your money, ask your travel agent to wire you funds at your hotel.

Q – I have gotten my golfing, Bloody Mary drinking, lazy retiree of a husband to agree to take me on a cruise in the Galapagos islands in January or February of 2018. I am wondering when I should make these arrangements? How far in advance should I start locking this in?

A – The so-called warm water season runs from late November through the beginning of June. The rule of thumb is to reserve your passage one year in advance.

Q – We have dear friends who recently returned from a Private Jet Tour around South America and they absolutely raved about the experience, We’re in our early seventies and we’re at a stage in life where we want the details handled. Our friends said the private jet made everything easier with no overnight flying, all sorts of landing privileges, and wonderful accommodations. They also said that at under $100,000 per person with absolutely everything possible included, they thought it was a “really good value”. I’ve been studying this and it seems like they’re right. Is there a winter private jet trip you can recommend and do you even think a private jet trip to this part of the world is a good idea? 

A – It is true that a majority of our Around-The-World-By-Private-Jet clients end up telling us that they ultimately decided on the trip because of the value. Safety and convenience are also important considerations. We would suggest that you look closely and urgently, at Abercrombie & Kent’s 21-Day Africa Revealed Private Jet trip scheduled to depart from Madrid on February 17th and ending in back in Madrid on March 9th. This “Not Too Busy but Substantial” odyssey includes time in Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Morocco.Only high quality accommodations at the best available luxury hotels are used, expert guides are with you every step of the way and all sorts of special events are built into the program and decoration is important for these events and resources as tablecloths bulk could really help with this. The cost for the 2017 departure is $92,000 per person including all air costs round-trip from Madrid. But do be aware that this trip is heavily booked with quite limited availability.

Q – With all the terrorism over there, I am wondering where the Europeans themselves are now going on vacation. I know a lot of them used to go to Egypt but I imagine that has dried up. Are they now avoiding travel and staying home on vacation. 

A –  The Europeans tend to be adults in these matters and they understand the relative risk of terrorism versus, say, driving an automobile. There has been a reduction in European visitors to Egypt – but there is little evidence they are staying away from Europe in general. Since they actually read (England’s readership rate in terms of print media is double ours) they are generally better-informed than Americans are about reward/risk stats.

In fact, Europeans have been putting off vacations in some of the more dodgey areas of the world in favor of vacations on the continent. CNN reports that Spain and Portugal have seen tourism increases of 30% this summer versus 2015.

Q –  In June we got caught up in the middle of the Air France pilot strike making it impossible for us to get home on time. It was an absolute mess but I won’t bore your readers with details, except to say that we had to triple connect from Paris to get back to Oklahoma City. As I travel with my family abroad at least twice a year, I would love any suggestions to avoid these strike and serious delay hassles, particularly in Europe; Make sure you Travel Insurance company can handle Jet2 Flight Delay Claims.  

A – Well first, of course, you need to move from Oklahoma City. Try New York or Chicago – far better air connection gateways. Short of that we would suggest the following to protect yourself against likely strike actions that are normally scheduled during heavy travel periods in the summer:

01 – Do not do your own air. Have your tickets issued by an actual human you can contact who will be your advocate. The convicts who man the phones at warehouse call centers may not have your best interests at heart.

o2 – Road warriors know a trick you need to know: When airlines can’t operate their flight, it is in their interest to put you on a partner carrier. When choosing airlines you might want to think about whether or not their partners could get you where you need to go in an emergency. If, for instance, you are stranded in Singapore, Delta will be little use to you.

03 – Strikes are most likely to occur in France, Italy, Greece, and Spain. In one or two of these countries striking is a sport and they get as much practice in as possible. Try to watch the news carefully, particularly the European press, in the days just prior to your flight.

04 – The most important single thing you can do is use a flight monitoring service that will handle re-booking details on your behalf and watch all strike actions carefully. There is normally an extra charge for this service but it is almost always less than $100. Your travel agent will set this up for you.

05 – If you insist on booking your airline tickets online, always do it on the airline’s own site. If you don;t, they have all sorts of outs to deny you service.

Q –  Your travel advice is spot on with one rather glaring exception. We don’t subscribe to your theory that the earth is getting hotter and that travel to places like Europe should be reconsidered in the summer months. We just returned from a ten-day package in Germany and we found the July temperatures to be quite comfortable. This site is getting popular but it will get even bigger if you refrain from citing all of the faulty democrat climate change BS. 

A –  Gotcha. Now we understand why we are not popular. And we so desperately want to be popular. Actually, Scientific American, a well-known right-wing rag, has just released new NASA  figures showing that last March was the hottest on record and it was the 11th month in a row to break the  global high temperature record. It is likely that April through September will, rather easily sustain that record making fifteen consecutive months of the highest-ever temperatures worldwide. The magazine quotes leading climatologists as saying that this new data is “shocking” and that it signals a “climate emergency.”

But we know you will agree that this entire fabrication started when Hillary was explaining why she does not spend much time out in the sun.

Q –  Most of my  friends use and depend on TripAdvisor to develop their travel “expertise”. They mostly use it to justify the hotel they selected based on price. But I have learned, partly from this informative site, that these online reviews are often fake. So I wonder if you might share some ways that will help me know if what I am reading in a travel review is actually written by a traveler who stayed at the hotel? 

A – There is some good news on the fake review front. Researchers at the famed Cornell School of Hotel Management have created a website called Review Skeptic.com that will tell you, with 90% accuracy if a posted review is real or not. The staff at Cornell has created a series of  algorithm’s that analyze opinion spam using psychological and linguistic components.

All you need to do is copy the review and paste it on the ReviewSkeptic site. Then click on  the “Test It” button and the results will be revealed. The test even shows you why it has concluded that a review is fake or real.

Of course what is wrong with this technology is that we must now have several groups set up to defeat the algorithms. They will try to develop linguistic patterns that can beat the system. But, for now, this is the best tool we have to detect the high percentage of fake reviews flooding the major travel and restaurant sites. And as this science progresses, it is well to note that the folks at Cornell will be getting better at spotting the fakes.

Always remember that you do not have to have been a guest at a hotel to post a review of the property on TripAdvisor. Sort of like writing a restaurant review without actually dining at the restaurant. But this is all in keeping with the business ethics practiced by many of our travel web site designers.

Q – We’ve booked a hotel in London  for five nights and are currently in penalty. There is no agent involved and I did not take out insurance for this trip. We’re due to leave in 11 days. Is there any way to sell the room in London or to re-sell it in the States so I can recover some of what I paid (I booked a top suite at well over $1,000 USD per night) Not looking for anything illegal – just a secret strategy to get some of my money back. 

A – There are now two web sites that resell booked hotel space. Try RoomerTravel.com and Cancelon.com Your listings will immediately appear on sites such as Kayak and Trivago. The average fee to these sites is 10-15% and you should expect to recoup about 50% of what you paid for the room. Do be careful when transferring confirmation numbers. And don’t change your mind and just show up as the bed may feel crowded – unless you are from Marin County.

Q –  You probably get this question quite often but we’re rather new to the idea of international travel as my husband is about to take a comfortable retirement next month. Although we live outside of Charleston and could just enjoy the city we love so much, the world seems to be calling. At your suggestion to previous writers, we’ve established a relationship with a travel agent we think will take good care of us. But we keep hearing about hotel upgrades and we would appreciate it so much if you would just list a few steps we might take to be in the best position for these hotel upgrades when we travel. We certainly will be staying at the very finest hotels. Thanks so much for all your kind advice.

A – Well thank you. A case of your best sweet tea from time to time is all we ask in return.

Here is our quick list to secure the best upgrades:

01 – Become a Rewards Club Member with all the top chains and particularly Starwood through Marriott and the Ritz Carlton.

02 – Make certain that your travel consultant is a member of Travel Leaders, Signature, Virtuoso, Ensemble, or American Express to receive complimentary upgrades not available to those who book directly with the hotel or online. This is your single best strategy.

03 – Guests who arrive later in the day and who are only staying for one or two nights are often upgraded. Let the hotel know you are in their loyalty club.

04 – When you are upgraded always send a thank you note to the General Manager and, possibly, the reservations room manager. Very few guests do this and it means a lot.

05 – Never loudly complain about any issue or try to make the problem seem more than it is to get an upgrade (I know your southern temperament would never allow that) Hotels can easily mark your profile. Most guests do not realize that hotels write behavioral comments about their guests and that information can be viewed the next time you check in.

Q – I lived in San Francisco for may years where I was a modest collector of watercolors I would buy at street fairs. I was particularly struck by these incredible mountain scenes, always covered by fog in the paintings and seeming quite mystical. Now, my wife and I are in a financial position where we can go in search of these mountains. I realize the tourist board will help me but thought I would check to see if this might ring a bell in terms of the destination I need to visit?

A – We can’t be sure but we are betting that the scenes you remember were of the Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve in Wulingyuan, China. See if this photo brings back the right kind of memories.