The trip is the easy part
Anyone can book a flight and a room. What decides how a trip actually goes is the dozen things around it — and those are the ones nobody is in the room for at the moment they matter. This is the list Rahul keeps, and when each one is worth raising.
Travel insurance
Priced off the day you book, and impossible to add once something has already gone wrong. A yes or a no both work — it goes on the record either way.
Somewhere to stay either side
A night either side, so a 6am departure is not a 3am start and a late flight home is not eight hours in a terminal.
The things that sell out
The tickets, permits and tables that are gone months ahead. Tell us what you would hate to miss and we will hold it.
Onboard, before you sail
Drinks, wifi, the specialty restaurants and the shore excursions — all cheaper arranged before you sail, and the good excursions go first.
Seats, and whether an upgrade is worth it
Which seats are worth having on a long flight, and what an upgrade actually costs before it goes to auction.
Making something of the occasion
A table somewhere worth the evening, or something waiting in the room when you walk in. It takes one message and it is the part people remember.
A car at the airport
A name on a board when you land, instead of a queue and whatever the meter says.
A car for the week
Worth it where the good things are half an hour apart — arranged from here rather than at a desk in the airport.
Data that works when you land
A phone that works the moment you land, for a fraction of what roaming costs.
Parking at the airport
A fraction of the gate price booked ahead, and one less thing to work out at five in the morning.
Somewhere to wait
Three hours at the gate, or three hours somewhere quiet.
Ask for anything
Not on the list? Ask anyway.
A table at eight, a visa question at midnight, a bag that did not come off the belt. If it is part of travelling, it is worth a message — and there is a person on the other end of every one of these, not a booking engine.