A cautionary tale about online booking

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Travel columnist Chris Elliott has a great article today that illustrates exactly what can happen when you trust your all-important vacation to a discount online booking service.

I feel bad for the person involved (especially since they made her cry!) but I hear SO many stories like this, and I just wonder what the people were thinking?

“Cheapo Air”?  Seriously?!

Without a travel agent, you’re on your own.

Travel Gadgets for Your Holiday Wish List

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I’m really not that much of a “gadget girl” (my kids can attest to this…they make fun of me all the time), but there are some exciting new “toys” out there this year that have even caught my attention.

Travel and Leisure magazine just ran a great article about some of the best new travel gadgets, from smart phones to netbooks and more, and it got me thinking about my own Christmas wish list. I’m definitely in the market for a new phone, so I’ll be asking Santa to give me one with some nifty available travel apps.

And, for my birthday a few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to receive a new Flip video camcorder. I gave it a tryout on my recent trip to San Francisco, and it was really cool! Lightweight, simple to operate (a key consideration for me!), great image quality, tons of memory, and it comes with built-in You Tube software that makes it super easy to upload video to the web. It’s perfect for someone who wants to be able to capture those memorable sights and sounds from vacation and share them with friends and family.

So, what’s on your travel gadget wish list this year?

Honeymoon Advice

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Some honeymoon advice is really self-evident. Do you really need someone to tell you to bring fewer clothes and more spending money than you had planned?

But it’s not all just common sense.  Those of us who have planned a few honeymoons in our time do have some wisdom worth sharing — and it just might get your marriage off on the right foot!

Since I just updated my “Annie’s Top Ten Honeymoon Tips” flier, I’ll share one of the tips here:

#7: Save the Best for Last

If you plan on mixing things up with some different types of acommodations, be sure to save the best for last. It’s much better to start out in a basic room or an average resort and then “trade up” to something much more special and memorable for the last few nights. Do it the other way around and you’ll only be left disappointed.

If you’d like to benefit from all TEN tips, shoot me a quick email at annp@AnniesEscapes.com and I’ll send you the whole thing.

Road-testing Southwest’s “Early-Bird” Check-in

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As a follow-up to my earlier post about Southwest’s “Early Bird Check-in“, I can report that I have now tried it, and I think it has its benefits.

On a recent trip to California, I had the opportunity to compare the traditional online (24 hours pre-departure) check-in on the way there, and the new Early Bird check-in (up to 25 hours pre-departure) on the way home.

I chose the Early Bird check-in for my return flight because I did not want to be tied to a computer on my last day of vacation. It was much easier to just pay the $10 per person fee and let Southwest check me in automatically.

So, for my $40 fee (for four people), what did I get? Basically, a little less stress. It did not get me any further ahead in the boarding order (in both cases — traditional and early bird — we were in the A group, in about the 35-45 range), but it did free me from having to rush back to my computer in the middle of the day to check in.

It will be interesting to see if this new service catches on. If a lot of people start using Early Bird, and the regular travellers can no longer get into the “A” boarding group when checking themselves in online, we may see some backlash.

For now, I’ll probably continue to use it for the return leg of a vacation as a convenience. Air travel is stressful enough these days!

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You provided excellent guidance for us. I appreciated that you really had us think about what was most important to us when we were selecting the right cruise – and not to totally focus on what other people had to say. THANK YOU for helping to make this a memorable trip for our family! It really was a trip of a lifetime!

– Clare and Mark (family cruise to Alaska)

The level of service we experienced was out of this world (and we did NOT make it easy on Ann). We weren’t quite sure where we wanted to go, when we would be able to go, or what “vibe” we were going for. After asking us some key questions (what we liked, didn’t like, why, etc.) Ann helped us narrow down our trip details and planned the honeymoon of our dreams. She helped book some of our excursions, answered some emergency questions while abroad and was always available/willing to help. I think it’s safe to say we won’t be using anyone else for future travel planning – Ann is a rockstar!

– Carli (Italy and Spain)