Let’s talk about what you get with Travel Protection, because you may be missing out!

Mary Yohannan on

You have been saving up your money for a few years to take your dream vacation. You are at the airport and the gate attendant announces the flight will be delayed due to mechanical issues. This delay causes you to miss your connecting flight to your final destination. Many hours later you get to your destination, and you slipped on a wet spot in the lobby landing flat on your back. You feel a pinch, and have trouble standing up straight and walking. At this point you wonder if the universe is telling you that you shouldn’t have taken this vacation, then you remember, YOU HAVE TRAVEL PROTECTION! You can use your travel protection to cover all of these weird occurrences.

Facts show that 17% of those who traveled had their travel impacted by medical problems, natural disasters like a hurricane, or mechanical/carrier caused issued which delayed their trip for more than 3 hours. When you have purchased travel insurance, also called travel protection, there are three main services that you are getting:

1. Medical Coverage

Most insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicad, do not cover a person outside the borders of the United States. Your credit card may have some medical coverage, but you may have had to purchase your trip with that card, and even then, the coverage amount is minimal. Hospitals outside of the United States will require a person to make full payment before they are allowed to leave the hospital, no matter how much the charges may be. This could lead to a financial hardship on the whole family. With Travel Insurance, you have several tiers of medical coverage and it can either act as your primary medical insurance or secondary medical insurance.

2. Travel Arrangements

There are many things that can happen including trip cancellation, trip delay, and trip interruption. Life happens and sometimes things happen right before a trip that forces you to cancel but the supplier might have 100% non-refundable cancellation policy. But your travel insurance doesn’t and you can recoup the cost of that trip not taken. Did you know that when you have trip interruptions you can be reimbursed for meals, lost luggage, and missed connections?

3. Concierge services

Most people don’t realize that travel insurance companies offer this service. Want to go golfing? Call the travel insurance company and they will set up a tee time for you. Did you forget to send flowers to your mother for her birthday before you left to go on vacation, call the travel insurance company and they will send flowers, balloons, or a cake. There are so many possibilities to use this service and it is all part of the plan you purchase.

Travel Protection is for everyone who is going to take a vacation or even a small trip. If your credit card offers travel protection, you really need to make sure you check what is covered, how much is covered, and if you need to have purchased your vacation with that card to get the coverage. Since becoming a travel consultant, I have been purchasing travel protection for myself and my family even when we take small trips here in the United States. Why do I do this? I know that it is there if I need to use it, I know how much I am covered for, and if I need any reservations somewhere I can call the concierge services to do it for me. Oh, and it also gives me peace of mind.

Stayed tuned for next week’s newsletter about knowing what you get when to purchase travel protection. Also, if you know someone who is about to take a vacation and haven’t purchased travel protection, please forward this email onto them and tell them to sign-up for my HIGH CONTENT newsletters about travel BELOW….

The Top 3 motivators for purchasing Travel Protection, which one do you say?

Mary Yohannan on

In my last newsletter I discussed the importance of making sure to give your friends, family, or neighbors a printed copy of your itinerary in case something were to go wrong on your vacation. It is great that they have this, but what do YOU have to protect yourself and your family when something goes wrong? Who are YOU supposed to call when you have to go to the local hospital or medical express station? Who do YOU call when you missed your connecting flight which also caused you to miss boarding your cruise?

Your travel agent should be there to help with you some of those concerns, but we don’t always know the nearest hospital or medical facility that will ensure your best well-being. When you have travel protection, the travel protection company is who you call!

Before 2001 only 10% of leisure travelers purchased travel protection. Since 2001, each year the amount of leisure travelers who have purchased travel protection has exponential grown. At Life is Better Traveling, 95% of our clients who book their vacation with us also purchase travel protection. Why do they book travel protection? There are three main reasons why someone purchases travel protection:

1) I want to cover my hard-earned money because the trip was expensive and/or I had to pre-pay a large amount.

2) My medical coverage does not exist outside of the United States and I want to make sure that I am covered.

3) I am nervous about unforeseen events occurring and I know that travel protection will give me the peace of mind I need.

I bring up three good points that most people will ask or say to themselves right before or right after they have purchased their vacation. I am sure even you have asked yourself one or more of these three things. With so many online travel agencies, airlines, and other suppliers making it so easy for you to purchase travel protection for your vacation purchase. They tell you all the reasons you should purchase it and it sounds so appealing to purchase it, but do you know what you are ACTUALLY getting when you press the shiny “Purchase Travel Protection” button?

Stayed tuned for next week’s newsletter about knowing what you get when you purchase travel protection. Also, if you know someone who is about to take a vacation and haven’t purchased travel protection, please forward this email onto them and tell them to sign-up for my HIGH CONTENT newsletters about travel at LifeisBetterTraveling.com.

Why Your Next Vacation Should Be Customized?

Mary Yohannan on

Vacationing the way you too!

At Life is Better Traveling we always say “Connecting Friends and Family through Customized Vacations.” But what is a customized vacation? A customized vacation is a vacation that fits your needs, desires, and overall goal of the vacation. When you first start to plan a vacation, you get on the internet and start browsing different sites for the destination you want to go to. All too quickly you are confronted with multiple options and many suppliers who all sell vacation packages to that destination. It seems like an endless task to continue trying to do more research so you start asking friends. You hear about amazing stories of their travels and you want to go more than ever. Reality sets in that you again have to get back on the internet to do the research. The truth is you don’t.

There are many different reasons you want to travel to a particular destination: the food, the sites, the people, etc. What if you could do and see all the things that you wanted to do and see without having to choose a preset tour? Well, that is where our travel agency comes in. We put together customized vacation packages for what you want to do and see. You contact us with which destination or destinations you want to see and put together a tour package that is only for you. Do you want to fly to London on business class stay 2 nights then fly to Italy for 5 nights and then onto Portugal for 4 nights? Guess what, we can do that for you and even recommend sight-seeing tours, provide transfers, rail, accommodations, and travel insurance. You pick the destinations and we put it together.

Why not a preset tour? I have personally done the preset tours. I had to have my luggage set outside my hotel room by 4:30am to get on the bus by 6:00am. I had one hour to tour a city that had so much history I had to pick which single spot I wanted to see because I didn’t have time to see them all. Did I still enjoy myself? Yes, I did but I learned from that experience that I wanted a more relaxed vacation and I wanted to see the sites the way I wanted to see them. I would have loved to have had a private tour guide of the Roman Baths in Bath, England, absolutely. You better believe that next time I go, I will have a private tour guide!

A customized tour must be more expensive than a preset tour, right? I am finding that when you customize a tour it is actually less expensive then when you do a preset tour. I have to preface though, that a customized tour is not an apple to apples comparison to a preset tour. You are not paying for a motorcoach, driver, and tour guide for an entire vacation. You are picking accommodations that fit your needs, tours that you want to do, and restaurants that fit your palate. When we breakdown the pricing, it typically does come in a few hundred dollars less which helps you make the easy decision of buying travel insurance.

But what if I am a bit nervous about doing my own thing? That is ok. Even though we can plan your hotel, rail, flights, car rental, etc on your own terms, we have plenty of sightseeing tours that you can do with a group. Most of them will be half-day or full day tours, but you will be either with a small group of people to see the sights or a larger group of people, typically no more than 30 people. This way you can have the best of both worlds!

Do you have a form I need to fill out to put together a customized tour? No. You simply call me and we discuss where you want to go and what you want to see. One of my favorite things to do on the phone with you is to really get a good understanding of why you want to take this trip or vacation. Everyone has a reason for their trip whether it is a Whiskey tour of Scotland or island hopping on Hawaii. Whatever your reason is to take the trip, then that is what we want you to be able to do. The trip or vacation is really what you want to make out of it.

Now that you have a better understanding of what our travel agency can do for you in putting together a customized vacation, give us a call today and let us help you start connecting friends and family through customized vacations.

Request a Travel Planning session today for FREE!

When and How to Buy Travel Insurance

Mary Yohannan on

Travel Insurance,

When and How to Buy

You plan all year, sometimes even two years in advance to take that big trip. You have been slowing putting money aside, saving up, and right before you are supposed to go on this amazing journey something happens. You can’t go! What are you going to do? You read through all the cancellation policies and most of them say “100% non-refundable 6 days prior.” Oh no, you are within that time frame. No refund! All those hard earned dollars down the drain.

Most of us are lucky that this scenario does not happen to us. However, life has a way of throwing curve balls at us so you want to make sure that when that curve ball comes your way you know exactly where to hit it, with travel insurance.

There are many travel insurance companies out there selling only travel insurance. The question now becomes, Which one works best for you? Your travel agent is the best guide as to which company will provide the most coverage for your needs. You don’t need to purchase the “Platinum Plan” to get good coverage. Most times their basic plans, or gold plans will cover up to 100% of your non-refundable costs and give you very good health coverage also.

Some things you want to make sure you do when buying travel insurance:

Tip #1: Buy travel insurance within 15 – 21 days of your initial deposit to ensure coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

Tip #2: Only buy “Cancel for Any Reason Coverage” if you really are on the fence about going on the trip. Most medical issues for both travelers and immediate families is covered under their reasons for cancellation plus, this is an added cost that you may not need to pay.

Tip #3: Check what your medical insurance covers for out of country visits. Don’t buy additional medical coverage if you already have good medical coverage.

Tip #4: Renting a car? Check what your credit cards and car insurance coverage for any damage to vehicle overseas. Consider buying additional coverage if you already have high premiums here in the states or you don’t have enough coverage.

Tip #5: Make sure to get a comprehensive copy of your purchased policy from your travel agent. Each state has different policies so make sure you have received the correct one for the state you live in.

Tip #6: READ OVER YOUR POLICY!!! The more you know before you go the better. If you have any questions about the policy call the travel insurance company directly for a full explanation.

Click Here to check out the Life is Better Traveling Team!

Congratulations to Mary!

She recently earned the distinguished Certified Travel Associate (CTA) designation from the Travel Institute, the travel industry’s oldest education organization. She completed a comprehensive exam-based training program that demonstrates extensive industry knowledge and experience, and she must continue to fulfill stringent education credit requirements each year.

Have a Great Week!

Questions Answered by a Travel Agent

Mary Yohannan on

The Travel Agent is Alive!

I am going to answer all those questions that we commonly get asked…

John, did you know that unlike the caveman, the travel agent is not extinct? I hear this all the time, “I thought travel agents were extinct!” We are here to stay and becoming larger in numbers. Home based travel agents are popping up everywhere. Some people think it will be an easy way to make money and get into this profession for all the wrong reasons. I always tell anyone I meet, “If you have a travel agent you like, don’t let them go because good travel agents are hard to find.” So the question becomes, if you aren’t booking with a travel agent/consultant, then WHY NOT? Here are some common questions my team of consultants and myself here when people find out what we do and our honest answers:

Why should I book with you because I can do it online?

This is a question we often encounter. When looking at deals online or pricing shopping for your next vacation be sure that it is an apples to apples comparison.

When booking online beware of the various “Hidden Fees” from the major online companies.

You can book online. Sometimes travel agents will not be able to beat the PRICE available online but please make sure that you are aware that if something goes wrong while you are on the vacation, you do not have an advocate or voice to better or fix the problem.

When booking online make sure you understand the Terms and Conditions of cancellations and refunds. It can become very confusing and you may have to pay heavy fees to change your itinerary in addition to any fees you must pay the resort, airlines, hotel, train, cruise line, etc.

What should my travel agent being doing for me?

Travel agents should be doing all of the work for you. They should be comparing different resorts, cruise lines, hotels, airfares, etc. We will NOT always be the “best deal” but we should always be getting you the best VALUE!!!

Your travel agent should be available to talk with anytime you need them. Automated systems are fine as long as you get to talk with someone.

Your travel agent should have all your details on hand so when you book with them they know exactly what you want.

Your travel agent should keep you updated on any and all changes to the itinerary including air or train departure times, resort or hotel renovations, cruise line issues.

Your travel agent should take care of any cancellations and refunds if for some reason you would have to cancel.

Your travel agent should send you all your documents either via mail or email.

Your travel agent should call you a few days before you leave for your vacation to make sure that you have everything you need and update you on any last minute changes.

Are travel agent service fees common?

Yes! Travel agents are providing a service to you. They are experts in their field or niche and this type of expertise is what you are need to make the most out of your vacation.

Most chain travel agencies and online travel booking engines charge fees. You are paying for the computer to book your vacation with little to no understanding of what you are looking for out of your vacation. Instead, work with a travel agent who really knows your vacation needs.

Most travel agents charge a fee that is reasonable to the amount of work they will be doing for you. Some travel agents have a flat service fee that can be upwards of $500 per person going on the trip. These fees are usually associated with high end luxury travel that requires a lot of personalization.

Group travel fees will also vary. Again, a lot of work can be put into putting together an itinerary for groups so the fees may be more.

Don’t travel agents make commission, so why the service fee?

Yes, travel agents do make commission from suppliers and vendors as a thank you for referring clients to their establishment. Service fees are for the many hours a travel agent is researching so they can put together an amazing itinerary, answering questions from you and the supplier, and the many phone calls to suppliers to get you the best price and amenities. .

If the vacation is cancelled by the client, the travel agent may not be paid commission. The work was done but the travel agent did not get paid. Most people don’t work for free so travel agents charge service fees to ensure they get paid for their work.

What if I don’t like my travel agent, can I leave?

Absolutely! If your travel agent is NOT listening to your needs or wants for your vacation drop them immediately and move onto someone else.

Even if you have booked a vacation, you can switch travel agents. Most bookings are transferable as long as you consent to the booking being transferred to the new travel agent.

Bookings cannot be transferred if full payment has been made, which is usually 60 to 90 days prior to departure. If you are unhappy early on then don’t wait to change!

I have to cancel, who do I call?

Your travel agent. You don’t have time to be calling every supplier to cancel your trip or you can’t. This is why you have a travel agent. Peace of mind knowing that it will all be taken care of and your refund is on the way, of course if you bought travel insurance.

Click Here to check out the Life is Better Traveling Team!

Congratulations to Mary!

Have a Great Week!

Six Tips to Protecting your Credit Card Information on your Next Vacation

Mary Yohannan on

Protecting your credit card information on vacation can be a full-time job!

These Six Tips will help you protect your credit card information from being stolen…

On my recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina our hotel had a laminated sheet on the desk warning clients that there has been a scam occurring in their hotel. Someone will call your room and ask for personal information and your credit card information saying they are verifying what is one file with the hotel. What I found amusing was that no hotel has ever asked me for my social security number, but these scam artists are asking for that information too. I have heard of this scam at hotels with different variations, but do know that you should never give your personal information over the phone to anyone posing as a travel supplier, especially your social security numbers.

Besides the scams by phone, there are times when you are on vacation where someone will steal your credit card information. I personally do not carry more than two credit cards with me when I travel and I only use one credit card with the other card as my back up card. This helps me keep track of all my purchases and in case someone would steal this card, I will have the other card with me. The real question is how do you protect your credit card and personal information when you travel? Here are some tips on how to do just that so you have don’t have to worry.

Tip 1: Designate one card to use on your vacation. Put all your charges from the planning stages to the time the vacation is over, on one card so you can keep track of all your vacation charges.

Tip 2: Avoid any fee based items that will be charged to your card during your vacation. Hotels love to charge you for room service, movies, WiFi, etc. Try to avoid paying for these additional services that would be placed onto your credit card.

Tip 3: Take your own computer. Many hotels and airports have computer terminals in their business center that you can use to print airline tickets, check email, etc. Avoid using these computers and bring your own to check your email and bank information. Never check anything on a hotel computer that requires you to put in a password that will access your personal information.

Tip 4: Temporarily change passwords to accounts that you think you will be checking during your vacation. By changing the passwords you will help protect your accounts when you get back and change the passwords again.

Tip 5: Get a pre-paid Visa card for your vacation. Pre-paid credit cards are great because they are not linked to any of your personal information and some of them may have travel protection in case you lose it. Try to pay for your hotel stay, souvenirs, etc with this card.

Tip 6: Keep your room key from your hotel after you check out. In 2003 a study was done by the Southern California law enforcement professionals and what they found was the hotel key has your name, your partial address, your room number, your dates of stay, and your Credit Card information including expiration date! If you lose this card and someone can read not only will they have your credit card information but they may also be able to get into your room.

Next time you travel make sure to protect your credit card information with these few simple steps.

Safe Travels!!

Click Here to check out the Life is Better Traveling Team!