Travel Elias from Liberty Travel joins me this week to talk about airlines changing bookings, getting to Perth more easily, and why one-way flights are actually preferred right now for travel in early 2021.
For more head to americajosh.com/travel or email [email protected] to connect with Travel Elias!
Transcript from Airlines changing bookings, getting to Perth, and one-way flights (twice)!
America Josh: Hi everyone. I'm America Josh, and welcome to travel updates with travel Elias from Liberty Travel G'day Elias how are you?
Travel Elias: G'day Josh. How are you?
America Josh: Oh, man, that is a, I think you've smashed it. That you're even sitting there practicing. No doubt. Absolutely. How are you going? How we're coping with heading into the holiday season?
We're only a couple of days out now.
Travel Elias: Yeah, I can't believe we've made it this far. We were just talking. It's been 11 months now as the us and the travel industry. It's been since January, because we were sending people to Asia even before it came to the U S with all this COVID stuff. And now we're, I'm sitting upstate New York with 38 36 inches of snow.
Now, I don't know if you guys have that much down there, but
America Josh: it's a, it's looking pretty thawed right now, actually looking outside. We've got a couple of spots, so wow. It's cold still. How's the in general, just so I understand, or so everyone understands how busy are you right now is you know, things really ramping up or is it, you know, things settle down when it gets really close to Christmas and the holidays?
Travel Elias: Well, generally January through April is our busiest time of the year. I mean, it's, I mean, three times busier than any other time of the year. But with obviously with COVID, everything's a little hit and miss we're dealing with a lot of cancellations. Unfortunately, we're still dealing with a lot of bookings for people that need to go back to Australia.
But now at this point, once people see this snow on the ground, they're also looking to go on vacation. So it's a little bit of everything at this point,
America Josh: run into that. You were just talking about people going to Australia and I wanted to have a chat. We always talk about. The East coast and people getting back over there and to my beloved hometown, Adelaide what about the West coast?
Getting back to Perth? What is how are things looking for people getting back to Perth?
Travel Elias: There's a little tougher to get to, obviously the big cities on the East coast are a little bit easier. It's not easy at all for the most part, but Perth is a little bit tougher because they're all. Only specific airlines that do that route from the East coast of the U S with one stop.
And that's Qatar and Cathay Pacific 99% of the time. So if you're going to Perth and you want to fly right into Perth, it's going to be one of those two options. If you go over the West coast of the U S make a stop in LA, your first stop is. Over when in Australia is probably going to be Sydney, which means you'll have to quarantine for the two weeks in Sydney before you could fly to Perth.
So if you want to get right into Perth, Sergio a quarantine there, cat Qatar or Cathay Pacific.
America Josh: Gotcha. Yeah, I think it's a really important tip to make sure people understand that you do quantum, wherever you will arrive in Australia. So for. As you said, a lot of people will get there and don't expect that they'll have to get off the plane and start quarantining for two weeks and then do your transfer internally, which can really slow things down.
Travel Elias: Yeah. I just had a question, actually, somebody just said, Hey my grandmother has a flat with a open apartment guy, quarantine there.
America Josh: I wish that would be the dream. You'd get a big place with a balcony and a, I do that. No, it's a, it's all hotel quarantine and it's. Not up to you when you land on that, you know, with airlines, you know, having all these bookings and new being really busy our airlines keeping, you know, schedules, are they keeping bookings or are we seeing a lot of changes still?
Travel Elias: We talked a little bit about this last week and you definitely, definitely Delphi, especially with the snow, especially this being. So last minute now, especially being so busy for travel specifically to Australia in December and January, there's going to be a lot of changes with flights, whether it be scheduled changes that are minor or cancellations that are moving your flights two or three days, you gotta be really adamant on checking that app.
Checking with that, your agent checking on the website to make sure your flights haven't been moved. We do our best to obviously keep our customers in the know, but we have thousands of tickets out there. So just yourself as well, check, check, check. Because right now, unfortunately they are making some moves where they are moving people's flights from the 26th to the 29th, which could obviously enter the amount of time you'd be able to spend with your family is kind of.
Extend your quarantine and all that kinds of stuff. So definitely check for flight delays, cancellations and those things.
America Josh: Okay. So we're saying that airlines are basically just having to reshuffle you know, people in bookings. Is that why we're saying delays?
Travel Elias: Yeah. So it's a little bit of airline kind of doing their airline thing.
Air New Zealand, which has been one of our go-to is, and we continue to sell them. They're really good. Airline they've specifically been Moving flights and Auckland to non quarantine flights, which means that if you haven't been in Oakland for 14 days, you cannot get on this flight. So they randomly kind of choose for us.
It's random for them. They probably have a science to it. We've chosen this particular flight too. Be a non quarantine flight, which means because you're coming from the U S you can not be on this flight anymore. Here's your other option. And that option can be days difference. So obviously it could make a difference in work.
You can make a difference and just. Being able to travel in and out. Yeah.
America Josh: So for the people that like my I'll be leaving this year, so for the ones that are planning on getting back to Australia early next year in sort of January, February, March, but you know, a lot of the people that you and I speak to don't know exactly when they're going to be coming back to the States.
So they might have to go through visa processes or they just want to make sure they've got time for quarantine and family. What advice do you have for them if they want to, you know, make their bookings now in advance for the next year?
Travel Elias: So I would definitely recommend for people that don't know, if you do know when you're gonna come back, book your ticket, most people do not.
Most people say, Hey, I'm going to come back in July. Hey, it might be September. I'm going to work out this visa thing and then I'll figure out when to go home. But if you book your return ticket and you decide to change it, they're probably going to charge you a fee or a fair difference. So if you're leaving in January, February, March, and you realize your round trip tickets four or $5,000 And say you're coming back in September.
Why don't we just book you a one-way ticket owl. Save you half your money. And then when things hopefully get better with the vaccine and with it being a little bit of a low on travel out into the summer and fall months, then we can buy you a one-way ticket back home specifically a flight center.
We have contracts where sometimes you'll see it online and One way ticket. Oh, it might be three, $4,000. We do have some contracts. That'll get you some really good rates on one way. Tickets. Shout out to Elizabeth Harding. I booked her just yesterday, last night. Same exact scenario. We saved her about $1,300 in the long, long run.
Yeah. Yeah.
America Josh: Fantastic. Cause that's something that's I would never, you know, back before all this started, I, I want my ticket was sort of that thing that you never touch and you're always told there. The never worth it. So it really is because right now, you know, you're paying as little as possible because it's not paying for a return flight, but with the idea that as things ease up and become a bit easier down the track, it's going
Travel Elias: to be 90% of the time.
I would never asked you to book two, one way. Tickets, did you just end up paying more? But because the rates are so high right now, They're probably going to go down in September, October travel when you can come back home.
America Josh: Yeah. Yep. No. Got it. And absolutely great tip alas. Thank you very much for a fantastic three months of videos.
And you know, as you head into the holidays, I hope you get some time off and get to enjoy and take care of yourself while you're taking care of all these other people traveling all over the world.
Travel Elias: Yeah. Happy holidays. Thank you for having me. This has been great.
America Josh: Fantastic. Thanks a lot. We'll see you next year.
Travel Elias: Okay.
