By Tom Gannon (of Lynn Travel Inc), Your Resident Travel Advisor and Travel Blogger
Many of us are so glad that things are returning to close to normal. Travel in the “close to normal” range, too. There are some things to consider. First and foremost is that it is generally safe to travel. For those electing not to get vaccinated, it is going to be much harder than for those who are. One cruise line is only allowing 5% of the passengers on a cruise to qualify by submitting proof of a negative Covid-19 test taken three days prior to travel or submitting a doctor’s report that they have recovered from Covid.
Cruise lines and escorted tour companies have not returned staffing to the pre Covid-19 levels. Long wait times are being experienced on the phone. Please have patience. This is especially true of companies that offer premium and deluxe products. Many of the airlines, after feasting on public money to survive, have returned to their post Covid-19 habits of making life difficult for travelers, cruise lines and tour operators. They offer no responsibility for canceled flight and are increasing fares at unprecedented levels. In one case, a canceled flight by an international code share partner, caused the American airline to offer a $600 increase on a $1025 ticket. Is this our taxes at work?
Where is it safe to travel to? The US and Canada, once Canada opens up, some areas of Central America, particularly Costa Rica and Panama, most of Europe, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay in South America, Australia/New Zealand and many of the Caribbean Islands. I would put off, in the short term, trips to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, excluding Israel.
This is the time of the year when the football magazines like to offer their preseason All American teams. This is generally based on how the nominees performed in the pervious season or what the sports “experts” say about the player. To simplify travel for the public, I will attempt to present travel players nominated for the first team and those given an honorable mention designation.
Some may disagree strongly with my predictions which are based on travel writers, travel blogs and my own personal observations. You may wonder why your favorite cruise line, tour operator or airline is not nominated. You can generally have a good to very good experience on the majority of tour operators, cruise lines or airlines, but what happens when there is a problem. This had been exacerbated by the retrenchment during Covid 19. To eliminate several companies from contention, I searched the records of the Better Business Bureau where the travel entity originated.
Here is our prediction for the Post Covid 19 Travel All American Travel Team;
First Team
Airline: Delta
Super Premium Ocean Cruise Lines: Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, Crystal
Premium Ocean Cruise Lines: Celebrity, Disney
Super Premium River Cruise Lines: Crystal, Tauck
Premium River Cruise Lines: Ama Waterways
Value Priced River Cruise Lines: Riviera
Super Premium American Coastal and River Cruise Lines: none
Premium American Coastal and River Cruise Lines: American Cruise Line
Super Premium Tour Operators: Tauck
Premium Tour Operators Small Group-Odyssey’s Unlimited
Premium Tour Operators: Collette
Value Priced Tour Operators: Central Holidays
Hotel Chain: Accor (Sofitel, MGallery, Pullman Swissotel, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis and others)
Honorable Mention
Airline: Southwest, Alaska and Jet Blue
Super Premium Ocean Cruise Lines: Viking Ocean and Azamara
Premium Ocean Cruise Lines: Cunard
Super Premium River Cruise Lines: Scenic
Premium River Cruise Lines: Avalon
Value Priced River Cruise Lines: Amadeus
Premium American Coastal and River Cruise Lines: American Queen Steamboat
Super Premium Tour Operators: None
Premium Tour Operators Small Group: None
Premium Tour Operators: Globus, CIE,
Value Priced Tour Operators: Cosmos, Celtic
Hotel Chain: IGH (Intercontinental, Kimpton, Crown Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and others), Marriott (Westin, Sheraton, Ritz Carlton, Renaissance, W, JW Marriott, Courtyard and many others)
What sets some of these companies apart? One of the biggest items is customer service on the phone to the traveling public or travel agents representing you. The next thing is what happens after the sale? Is the travel provider behind you? Frankly, is the company American owned? Are candid reviews available? Has the company been responsive to suggestions to change the itinerary, hotels or other part of the tour? Who are the tour managers or cruise directors? Some of our first team designees have an average of ten years of experience with the company.
In most cases, the food on river cruises will be superior to that of most Ocean cruises. It is simple, are you preparing dinner for 150 on a river cruise ship or for 4,000 on a mega ocean liner. Travel is becoming the new luxury commodity. What appear as bargains may not be real bargains. The Super Premium and Premium companies featured above have gotten there for offering high quality products. They may charge more but, the cost is incidental to the level of service, food, experiences or comfort provided. I learned a long time ago to gently suggest, stepping up a star in terms of a hotel accommodation or choosing a better tour operator or cruise line and no one ever came back from a trip and had anything to say, but thank you so much. The hotel was amazing or I talked to travelers on other cruises or tours and they had nothing good to say about their experience while our trip was excellent! Do yourself a favor and only seek out a bargain from the elite companies mentioned above.
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