Travel Elias from Liberty Travel talks to me about travel updates, notifications about weather and cancellations, traveling with pets, and transiting through NZ!
Travel notifications, weather cancellations, traveling with pets, and transiting through NZ transcript.
America Josh: Hi, everyone, I'm America Josh, and welcome to travel updates with Elias, with Elias Mukhtar from Liberty Travel. G'day Elias!
Travel Elias: G'day! How are you? Josh, how are you?
America Josh: I'm very well met every week. It's going to be a little bit better. I have absolutely no doubt. I love it. it's, I mean, we're both in New York state and, I was just saying to you, I got a notification on my phone the a few minutes ago that there was a blockbuster snow storm headed our way.
So I hope you're, safe and, and bunk it down somewhere.
Travel Elias: Yeah. So we were an upstate and we get it technically a lot worse than you guys do downstate. but luckily it hasn't come in yet. So over the next couple of days, we'll be checking those cues for, airline cancellations, unfortunately. So we just want everybody to be aware of that, about that coming up over winter.
America Josh: Yeah. Yeah. And that's a really good point. I mean, we've been talking a lot about, you know, keeping on top of updates and making sure. you know, people will know about like when they got flat. So do you have a few tips for people just in general, but also related to the fact that, you know, with the weather rolling in and it becoming winter, what they should be keeping an eye on for their flights?
Travel Elias: Yes, definitely. So it's, especially for you guys heading to Australia, you know, this is peak season generally for Australia travel. So most of them are aware of it. It's usually winter time here. There's a lot of snow, especially in the Northeast. but you have to be a little bit more vigilant than usual.
Usually you would check in that day before your flight check to see if your times are okay. But at this point, You have to check, I would say a week in advance, two weeks, weeks in advance. You want to make sure your flight is still on schedule. And aside from all the cap limits that once a snow storm hits that nothing's been canceled, because there aren't a lot of flights to move you to generally, there would be three other flights that day that they could move you to the flight the next day that they could move you to.
But now those are all spoken for. So you want to make sure you're on your apps. You're calling your travel agent to make sure Hey. just making the flight still going. Are we still at the same time? Just so you're aware of, you show up on time. So just stay vigilant. That's my biggest advice.
America Josh: No, and it's good advice.
I always in the saying no, but it's sort of us. Yes. That's great advice. because I know for me thinking back, you know, you check your flight a week before and then you might sort of just make sure of the time a couple of days later, but it now really is, you know, check every day, check a couple of times a day, make sure you've got notifications turned on on your, Your, the airlines will have apps which can notify you and push notification for you when something changes.
So make sure you're attuned to all of those updates and yeah, if they've booked through you guys, then that's something that you can jump on and quickly help with. in terms of helping people, you were also mentioning to me earlier that you've had a few people get in touch about moving pets at the moment.
So do you have any, information about if people want to take their very friends home or abroad?
Travel Elias: Yes. Nephi. So we've got a lot of questions about bets, obviously, people moving home now, and you want to take your best friend home with you and not leave them back. But, Australia is welcoming pets, and as long as everything, all the rules have been abided by there.
Perfectly fine. The problem is a lot of these good airlines that we've been recommending over the last few weeks, Delta American United, and even the air New Zealand are not taking pets right now. So you have to look into a freight forward service that would take your bet. So when you, a lot of people will call and say, Hey, Oh, I got it.
Me, the two kids, the wife, we all want to go with the pet. And unfortunately we got to let them know we can not help with your bed. You have to go through the freight forward service. You would let them know, about your particular itinerary. You already have booked, so they can kind of match it up and make sure you guys as close as possible and together.
But, that would be the best way to go about that.
America Josh: Okay. So it's using a third party service that specializes in moving pets. That's sort of a key take home cause he used to be able to just sort of say plus pet. But that's not an option anymore, at least for the
Travel Elias: moment. Yeah. For the moment. So, I'm hoping, I mean, as this vaccine rolls out and, when we're looking into March, April may travel, things seem to be opening up a little bit and I would recommend waiting if you are planning on traveling then, but, cause it gets, it'll get just as bad as it is now, but hopefully, we'll have more of these things open up.
Like we talked about last week with, the lounges and things like that. That, hopefully we get more and more of these services back.
America Josh: Yeah. Okay. Fantastic. one question that I have had, and I'm pretty sure you've probably had as well is around New Zealand. And, for, you know, I was reading an article this morning that said that New Zealand is so open and the economy is rebounding and it's, you know, a hundred percent or 0% COVID rate, which is absolutely fantastic for them.
what are
Travel Elias: the,
America Josh: what are the rules around traveling through New Zealand, going to New Zealand on the door? You know, if you want to get back from the U S to Australia flying potentially in New Zealand, can you commute through or, you know, what, what can you do?
Travel Elias: So, this is the one thing I've been getting a lot just because people are seeing on the news.
Hey, New Zealand is open. So everybody, all my American friends are saying, Hey, let's go to New Zealand. It's the one place that is that's open. That's completely. COVID free. Let's go ahead. Over there. Unfortunately, they're COVID free because they don't have us there yet. So right now you can transit through the airport to go to your final destination.
If you're an American, if you're an American with a Australian spouse, then you need to go home. you can transit through New Zealand. So it's still a great option, but a lot of people are getting a little scared when they see the NZ ETA that they have to fill out. And it says you Zealand's borders are closed.
That is generally just for leaving the airport and trying to go about a regular vacation, but you can transit through the airport and get to Australia.
America Josh: Okay, so you do need an ETA to transit through or.
Travel Elias: Yes. Yes. I would definitely get the NZ ETA to transit through because one, it gives you a lot more information.
even if you don't need it at the end, but they have all the information you need. So definitely jump on the website and if you need to give them a call because they'll get, everybody has a different situation. So some people are married, some people are. They're not married and have kids together and things like that.
So you want to just make sure that, all the situation, unfortunately, I don't have all those answers for everybody's situation, but definitely giving them a call.
America Josh: Okay. Fantastic. And it's important to also, I know when it comes to U S esters, just like New Zealand ATA is make sure you're on the government website.
so look for the.gov, gov T I think it is in New Zealand, because there are lots of companies that'll say, you know, we can help you out with this. the S the CTA or this Ester, you don't need them. it's a, uh, a set up also the government. So make sure that you're going direct and applying that way so that you don't cause yourself any issues.
when you're trying to transit through New Zealand or in ultimately one day traveling
Travel Elias: lights, and we do, vacations and we do business stuff, but when it comes down to, visas government stuff, definitely go to the right guys.
America Josh: Absolutely. And I, yeah, I've seen too many people fill in forms and saying, I paid my $200 now, what?
And it's like, that shouldn't be the case. So yeah. Make sure you look for government websites, make sure you look for the official sites. And I always include all of those links below in the description and on our blog. So thank you, Elias mate, as stay warm, stay safe and, Ignore the blizzard for a few more, few more hours while it happens outside.
Thank you very much for joining us
Travel Elias: until next week.
America Josh: Thanks man.
Travel Elias: Bye bye.
