Luxury Travel Tips
1) Stamina. Arrive early. Sounds like common sense, but when polled in 2010, most Americans admitted to starting off at least 3 of their last 4 journeys late. Whether you’re traveling by air, sea, bus or taxi- be early. Nothing starts a trip on a more frenetic note than having to catch your breath during the first leg.
2) Air Travel. Tired of traveling coach class? Then consider traveling with an All Business Airline. There are more and more of these options becoming available and believe it or not, their fares are cheaper most of the time, than the big brand airlines. What you get: Business class service throughout the airplane, larger seats, 12volt power, DVD rentals, TV, better food and service and bigger overhead compartments (real size space that can actually hold your business carry on.) And, most offer expedited TSA security lines to minimize the pat-downs.
3) Hotel. Used to be that 4 and 5 star luxury hotels would cost exactly what you would think they should. But nowadays, the business model is evolving. Research on the web search engines, luxury hotels on fifth avenue, or third party luxury hotel management companies and you will find the latest insider. These third party companies often own rooms inside brand hotels or manage rooms for owners of fractional, timeshare and condo hotels- thus they can set their own pricing independent of the large hotel. And thus, a much better deal for the consumer.
4) Rental Car. When booking, choose an economy or size down model from what you would normally reserve. Then, when you get to the counter, charm the employee into asking for an upgrade, free of charge. With rental car companies being hard quite hard by the recession, internal memos have gone out informing employees to offer upgrades whenever available. This way you get the car you want, at the price you want.
5) Overall Experience. Make it a positive one. Realize as you sit on the plane, that there are literally millions of people below you that may never get a chance to jet set to where it is you’re going. (Even if it’s the grand Hyatt conference room in Tucson). Remember to always give your blessings for where you are, remain grounded, centered and calm- and in the end, travel karma will come back to you. Most of the time, in ultra luxurious or surprising ways.