5 Tips for a successful flight ✈️
Let's Get Real 👀
This Summer season has been an absolute blessing. After two years of very little to no business, myself and other travel agents I know have been able to pay off debts, hire help, pay the bills, and hire mental health care physicians. Still, it’s also been wild and overwhelming for the entire travel industry.
While you prepare to pack, make sure you have all documents, cross the t’s and dot the i’s for your 1 or 2 Summer vacations (I hope it’s 2 or 3 vacations and you used all that PTO, you deserve it!), the travel industry helped approximately 48 million U.S. travelers just over the July 4th weekend (Please note, I’m laughing deliriously every time I proofread that line). According to AAA, that’s an increase of 4% from 2021, just 2% below 2019 levels. Keep in mind that 2019 was the most remarkable year in travel for the entire industry! 2019 was a historical high, and 2022 is breaking all kinds of records, and it’s only July!
Key June Highlights from U.S. Travel Association:
Travel spending hit a new pandemic high of $101 billion in May, just slightly above April’s $100 billion
Rising transportation costs concern American travelers and are impacting travel behaviors and spending —41% of American travelers now say rising gas prices will greatly impact their decision to travel in the next six months
Similar to April, as of June, 89% of companies now allow non-essential domestic business travel
In-person meetings are the top business travel expense companies are planning on for the remainder of the year—spending for conferences as a share of overall business travel spend is expected to be up four percentage points from 2019
Why am I sharing these nerdy fun facts? Because I need you to understand what’s happening with air travel.
As I’m typing out this newsletter, I got an email from my Executive V.P. of Air Partner Relations saying, “Heathrow airport has implemented a capacity cut” I just jumped on Instagram to talk about what this means.
Also, I meeeeeean, let’s get real here. How many times have I said, “get travel insurance”? HOW MANY TIMES?
There are also a lot of run-of sentences in this newsletter lol. I need to send this out to you now and deal with the Heathrow airport situation.
Advice on Air Travel
It’s July 13, and I am positive you have already heard the cluster fudge that’s happening with flights before, during, and after. Like I said it’s been really busy on my end and I haven’t been able to update you on the situation.
📣 1. WHAT TO UNDERSTAND
As mentioned above, this is a historic year in travel and we’re only halfway through the year. What you need to understand is nothing is “normal”, nothing is the way it was before and that human beings are running the travel industry. It’s important to be understanding and flexible. Take a breath and understand the situation. This is me preparing you for a possible worst situation. I’ve had plenty of travelers traveling this year and they’ve had very few hiccups but, that was in the month of May and June. I do expect more hiccups but I ask you to throw your head back, laugh, and say “there are worst things in life”. If you don’t have a light heart and don’t understand the situation and have extremely high expectations this is not the time for you to travel.
Everyone around the world is low staffed. Airlines and airports are incredibly low staffed. Restaurants are low staffed. Hotels, including the five stars are low staffed and not providing the service they once did in 2019. Your meals are going to take longer to get to you at a restaurant because there’s 1 chef in the kitchen. Housekeeping might not get to your room in time. You might get the wrong meal at a restaurant, be kind. A flight attendant might ignore you completely because there are more important things to tend to. Wear your mask, and don’t make a flight attendant have to ask you.
Why is everyone low staffed? Because we are still in a pandemic and people are getting sick or they don’t want to go to work and get sick or they have more money with the support of the government, which you can’t blame them with inflation being insane right now. The mask mandate that was removed is making people sick so they can’t do their job because they have to be out for 5 - 10 days. In some cases it’s making people like flight attendants really nervous to be up in the air risking their life and the possible chance of long Covid.
Why are airlines over booking flights? They’ve always over booked flights but more so now because people are getting sick or they’re missing their connections and the demand is so high, airlines want to make sure everyone gets to their destination and that there are no empty seats on a flight.
NOT GONNA GET INTO BAILOUTS, WHY THE AIRLINES DIDN’T START STAFFING SOONER, OR ALL THE OTHER POLITICAL MESS. THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND RIGHT NOW
✈️ 2. BOOKING FLIGHTS, DELAYED FLIGHTS, CANCELED FLIGHTS
Book direct flights! If you can’t book a direct flight make sure your connection is more than 2 hours. Even if an airline like Delta shows a legal connection that’s 45 minutes, don’t believe that! Even before pandemic times you would never make your 45 minute connection without having to run and get shin splints, if you checked your bag it probably wouldn’t make it, and if it did that was a miracle.
Cheema’s travel can book flights for you. You get access to out 24/7 travel emergency number and you’ll have a few sets of eyes watching your itinerary.
International Air Fee - $100 per ticket
Domestic Air Fee - $60 per ticket
If you’ve already booked your flights or choose to book your flights on your own, and your flights been canceled or delayed here’s what you can do:
1. Log into airline app to book new flights immediately
2. Go to airline gate or check in desk and talk to an agent, kindly
3. Call the airline directly and speak with a booking agent
4. Reach out to Airlines via social media specifically Twitter while you are walking to the gates, check in desk or on hold with the airline. They’re more likely to be updating via Twitter and their social media director or whoever will be on that account.
3. TO CHECK OR NOT TO CHECK, THIS IS NOT A QUESTION
You carry-on, find a way
If your flight is delayed you’re not getting your bag back. If your flight has been canceled, it’ll take you quite a while to get your bag back. If you have your bag with you at all times and something unfavorable happens with your flight, you have more flexibility meaning you can get on another flight much sooner than if you’ve checked your bag. Also, if your flight is postponed to the next day, you’re going to need a change of clothes, medication, all of your belongings.
Check your bag on the return because you’re heading home. Bought a bunch of stuff and it doesn’t fit? Ship it or get another suitcase and pack that well and check it. Be smart, just think about your options.
Why are bags delayed or missing when there is a system? With the influx of travelers comes an influx of checked bags. With an influx of delays and cancellations bags have to be taken off planes or put in holding areas. The system doesn’t always work when changes are happening so much and when airports like Heathrow, that are major connection hubs, have millions of pieces of luggage coming through at once and very little staff to help.
It is rare to have a bag that’s completely lost. Airports usually find the bags especially if they are labeled properly.
4. PACKING FOR A CARRY-ON
When it comes to traveling during the warmer months to warm destinations, you don’t need much! I traveled through Portugal and Spain for two months with a carry-on and backpack. I wear a size 16 dress, L-XL shirts, huge bras, and size 11 shoes and everything went into a carry-on and a backpack. I’ve been asked by my followers on Instagram to share how I packed this bag, I will do that one day but I can tell you what was in the bag and how I packed it.
5 dresses, 4 t-shirts, 1 pair of pants, 2 skirts. Tops and bottoms all mixed & matched (15 outfits that I didn’t even wear), packed them flat. No rolling, no “Marie Kondo’ing”, just flat and smooth.
2 denim jackets. I wore one jacket on the plane, and folded another down and packed it in a compression packing cube with my underwear.
6 pairs of underwear, 1 t-shirt bra, 1 light mesh bra, socks. I never wore the socks. All in 1 compressions packing cube.
Keen sandals that I could dress up or down and boots that I never wore.
Liquids like all natural organic sunscreen that I LOVE, moisturizer for my face, toothpaste.
Bars! Shampoo bars, body wash bars, laundry soap bar, face wash bar. BARS ARE THE BEST FOR TSA!
Backpack filled with work stuff and gifts for people overseas.
It’s easy to pack for the Summer, Winter I have 3 suitcase lol. Many things you can buy overseas like shampoo, soaps, socks, etc
5. TRAVEL INSURANCE
Get travel insurance. Make sure it covers lost baggage, delays, cancelations, and medical, know your policy. Most credit cards offer travel insurance if you’ve used your card for any part of your travel. Make sure to get travel insurance the moment you put a deposit down or make your first purchase. You can always update later on if you have more expenses you want to be covered.
NOTE that travel insurance doesn’t cover pandemics (new variants), pre-existing conditions, strikes, war, civil unrest, you’ve changed your mind, etc. Please know what is covered.
Booking with
Cheema’s Travel
When it comes to our Full Trip Planning Service, we are no longer taking new clients or bookings until after September, especially for Greece, Italy, the South of France, or London. Other destinations are possible; just email us.
We offer a 2-hour research service for those who want to use our services but just need support with figuring out what to do, where to stay, where to eat, and what to see.
And, of course, we have our 1-hour brain picking session.
Review all of our services at this link