Originally Posted by
Super Mario
Between a couple of different upcoming events, I've been working with various family and friends to get trips booked. It is simply frustrating. Just in the past week, I've had two different people, on two different trips, argue with me that flight and hotel bundles through OTAs are the best way to overcome expensive airfare. While absolutely refusing to listen that both items separately, add up to the same price (amongst other things). That wasn't the first time that happened. Won't be the last. Some people just lose the ability to think critically when they hear words like "bundle" and "included".
That's why it works for the OTAs - all in the marketing. But yes, it pays to do the research, especially if one has access to hotel rates that can often be cheaper than the standard price (Military/Government, AAA, etc.). My wife and I were recently browsing trips to Maui and the combined Airfare + Hotel bundles were outrageous and actually MORE than what we could book the hotel and airfare for separately (we ended up not booking a trip to Maui for other reasons).
Originally Posted by
Super Mario
I have 1 friend who has any sense with this kind of stuff. We have both shared a lot of great things with each other and have had some awesome travel as a result. Not that I expect everyone to dedicate serious time to this "hobby". However, it is very frustrating trying to book group trips. Just like anything else in life, everyone considers themselves an expert, when they are far from it.
It seems the family members with "some" knowledge can be worse than those with "no" knowledge. The ones with some knowledge think they know more than they know while the ones with no knowledge at least (sometimes) recognize they know nothing and are willing to listen. The other wild card is how price-conscious they are. If they're selecting solely on price, no logic about convenience or back-up options or anything else, even if just spending a few dollars more, is going to sway them another way.
I don't mind playing "Travel Agent" for family members and I don't mind explaining my reasoning or logic or them asking for clarification, but to avoid getting frustrated on the back end and to avoid feeling like I've wasted my time, I've found it helps to know what their preferences are on the front end before I begin the research; i.e. what is going to ultimately drive their decision. Are they someone who is going to take what I recommend and go with it? Are they someone who is simply going off price alone and thus it isn't going to matter what I say other than who is cheapest? I've simply come to accept that people will make their decisions off of what they value despite my best efforts to try to sway otherwise and all I can do is say "I told you so...." if their plans don't work out when they didn't take the advice they were initially asking for.
Originally Posted by
StartinSanDiego
I have many more that are envious of my "free" travel but won't listen to any suggestions about how they, too, could do it. It took years, but I finally realized that some things are better left alone.
That and also the family members/friends/others who don't realize that the "free" travel comes due to other "sacrifices" and/or job/lifestyle choices, in addition to being savvy and taking the time to really know the points/miles game. I'm not complaining about the road-warrior life-style myself as my spouse and I are both okay with it and enjoy it much of the time (and my "road-warrior-ness" is far from the levels of many other FTers) but the reason I've traveled to Europe and Australia and such on miles for "free" multiple times on points and miles is in no small part because my spouse and I spend many weeks apart from each other on the road for work while other family members who can seem "jealous" of us having these "free" trips don't ever have to travel for work. They don't see or want to see that there's a tradeoff (just like with many other aspects in life) - they just see that we can get "free" trips and they don't.