Win Two Roundtrip Tickets Anywhere in the US! See How!

Whoever said there's "no such thing as a free lunch," well, they were wrong. Although technically, this isn't lunch - it's actually a much better deal!

Bestselling author Ramit Sethi, and writer on his site, "I Will Teach You To Be Rich," is giving away TWO roundtrip tickets for anywhere in the US!

Click on this link: http://awe.sm/cGQPe, and you can be entered to win the tickets. All he asks is that you tell where you would go if you won! This awesome opportunity will be over by August 5th, when he announces the winner!

Happy travels!

*Photo from freedigitalphotos.net, called, "Young Man Holding Globe" by stockimages

www.chicksthattrip.com

Woman's Day vs. The Travel Agent Community

Woman's Day vs. The Travel Agent Community

I took a few days to decide if I wanted to jump into the fray surrounding the controversial article that was written a few days ago by Woman's Day magazine titled, "10 9 Things Travel Agents Won't Tell You." Notice, I crossed out the 10 and changed it to 9, because throughout the past few days, the piece that was originally written (with outrageous misinformation) has been changed numerous times; therefore, I've lost track of what the original article even stated, but the non-edited version is still floating around somewhere on yahoo.com. I'm sure you can find it if you are so inclined.

Back in April I wrote a piece, "What's In It For Me When Working With A Travel Professional,", in that piece, I pointed out some benefits of working with a travel professional. I read the Woman's Day piece with much chagrin, because they pretty much trashed the travel agent community as a whole, but rest assured, the travel community took notice, and not just the agents, but numerous travel organizations like ASTA, as well as some of the heavy hitters in the supplier community like Apple Vacations. There were so many comments posted on the Woman's Day piece, as well as on their twitter account, that it was rumored that a lot of the comments had been deleted. Curious. Now that has me scratching my head.

Of course, I may be biased since I am a travel professional, and I take my work very seriously; especially when clients are forking out a few thousand dollars on a vacation, because it is my goal and soul desire to ensure they have the best experience they possibly can - with zero to few problems. While I can't guarantee there won't be issues during a clients travels; I can help to alleviate some of those issues, and essentially put those issues on my shoulders and make sure they are handled as expeditiously as possible, and hopefully in my clients favor.

There are unscrupulous and unprofessional people in every industry, but they are typically the exception, not the rule. Unfortunately, it is the negative or controversial items that seem to get legs and run away; versus the positive stories.  My final comment is that while the piece that Woman's Day wrote was clearly negatively slanted, it was refreshing to see so many organizations and clients of travel professionals, who bandied together to write comments and email the editor(s) of Woman's Day in support of the travel community...which, by the way isn't the dying breed that so many doomsayers have proclaimed it to be.

If  you'd like to stay abreast of this continuing saga, check out Stephanie Lee's site, Host Agency Reviews, which has links to most of the rebuttals to the controversial piece that was published by Woman's Day.

*Photo used from freedigitalphotos.net

www.chicksthattrip.com

See Where Your Luggage is Traveling With Trakdot!

See Where Your Luggage is Traveling With Trakdot!

Have you ever been hit with the sense that your luggage may be having a better vacation than you? Probably not, but the point is, many of us have checked in luggage, and it has theoretically "disappeared." Sure, some of us may get that luggage back...maybe, but for those who have lost their luggage to the wild abyss of airline mishandling, Trakdot is a state of the art device that is placed inside of your luggage so that it can be tracked when it's not with  you.

It is described as:

"First-ever luggage positioning solution with worldwide location reporting keeps you connected to your valuables

• Place the palm-sized device in your luggage and it will send you a text with the location of your luggage as soon as you arrive
• Provides peace of mind over baggage and valuables, used advanced technology to track luggage anywhere in the world from mobile phone or online
• Empowers you with the knowledge of your bag’s location, even if your bag does not arrive with you
• The lightweight design is built for travel and easy to use with a free app that works anywhere, no roaming fees
• Compatible with Android and Apple smartphones" 

(*Information provided courtesy of Trakdot)

According to a February 12, 2013 press release issued by the Department of Transportation, it was stated that:
"The U.S. carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.15 reports per 1,000 passengers in December, up from both December 2011’s rate of 3.22 and November 2012’s rate of 2.64. "

(Press release number: DOT 15-3 "Airlines Report Lowest Mishandled Baggage Rate in 18 Years in 2012")

Despite the fact that lost and/or mishandled luggage is down significantly over the past 20 years; there is still a significant amount of lost and/or mishandled luggage to date, not to mention the stress and time involved with getting that luggage returned, as well as the condition of that luggage once it has been returned. Trakdot's revolutionary tracking device and service can take some of the stress out of worrying about your luggage; especially for those frequent travelers.

*Trakdot photo provided, courtesy of Trakdot.com via Max Borges Agency; photo of suitcase provided by freedigitalphotos.net taken by Victor Habbick

www.chicksthattrip.com