Membership Has Its Privileges

Picture if you will… You worked on setting up the perfect trip for your family or client. You spent hours researching and finally booked an amazing resort vacation. You snagged great seats on the airline of your choice through a third party provider, and you scored an incredible deal on a rental car that seems too good to be true. Sadly, you find out at 4:30am on Friday, an hour before the limo picks you up, that it is.

The weather event that you were watching and hoping would not develop, did while you were sleeping. Flights are canceled and you and 250 other people have to rebook. After being on hold for the last three hours, you finally get through to an agent at the airline only to be told they can’t help you. You need to contact the third party website you booked the ticket with. Same MO with the rental car people when you try to change the pick up date after you rebook your flight. Then, more bad news at the resort.

You just want to inform them you’ll be arriving tomorrow instead of today, however, you prepaid for a special package deal through another third party website for a non-refundable, date-specific vacation. You can try to negotiate with the third party website to see if they will allow you to rebook to a different date, but the resort’s hands are tied. Coming in tomorrow is not an option.

How do the discount, 3rd-party, smoke-and-mirrors, we-got-you advertisements look to you now? Any planners in the room feel your blood pressure rising yet? I have been the person attempting to rebook flights and rental cars for whole teams of people at the wee hours of the morning. I have sat in airports on hold for 4, 5, 6-hours waiting for someone at XYZ Company to pick up the phone because I can’t rebook on their website. I have had to call other event planners to inform them the speaker they are expecting in the next couple of hours isn’t going to make it because we can’t get another flight out of town until Thursday.

An organization I used to make travel arrangements for insisted we use 3rd- party websites because they were “less expensive.” After this was my experience for the second time and I wasted yet another whole day and a half rebooking six people, I politely said we are either booking directly with the service providers, or someone else can help them.

As a professional traveler myself, I book directly with the airlines, hotels, and rental cars. After 2020 and the world of travel changed forever, the reliability of travel became so much worse (see my blog There’s a Difference Between Inconvenient and Inconsiderate). I have had my gate changed multiple times, had to change my flight, and been delayed several hours over and over. I couldn’t imagine trying to change ever-fluid travel plans using a third party website these days.

If you haven’t been loyal to a brand before, you’re missing out. By signing up for the rewards programs with the airlines, hotels, and rental cars, depending on how much you travel, you could receive complimentary upgrades, airport lounge access, or bypass the rental car counter and go directly to the car of your choice. It makes one feel like a VIP.

And, after working at a 3-day conference, being the go-to person for troubleshooting, walking without running, talking until my throat runs dry, and making sure the master account is accurate, it feels amazing knowing I can walk back to my upgraded suite where someone has snuck a tray of chocolate covered strawberries into my fridge and turned down my bed. I can check my phone and go to sleep knowing I’m sitting in first class on the plane tomorrow thanks to a complimentary upgrade. Why? Not because I’m special, but because I have booked with the same hotel chain and airline a number of times. Trust me, this is a WAY better experience than the alternative.

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