Posted Sunday, December 23rd, 2018 On the Sunday, December 22nd Christmas edition of The Travel Guys:
In the Travel News, Google Assistant can now predict flight delays with 85% per cent accuracy, and will notify you of any predicted delays. Alaska Airlines has begun the first-ever flights from Sacramento to the Big Island of Hawaii. They depart 3x weekly. Southwest Airlines has finally gotten the ETOPS certificate needed to fly to Hawaii and will schedule test flights very soon, with passenger flights expected within 60 days. Watch for some incredible start up fares. In the Smarter Traveler segment, we dedicated our time to last minute gift ideas for the travelers on your list. Jeff from Best of Hawaii joined the guys to talk about Southwest's arrival in the islands (BREAKING NEWS: Southwest has received their ETOPS Certificate - allowing them to fly to the islands - test flights should be happening within days, passengers should follow quickly). He also shares wisdom on renting a car (book early during heavy periods because of limited availability and high pricing) and navigating the island roads, which are more rural and require you to pay attention and try to avoid u-turns out of nowhere.... Gwen Duncan from Cordially Yours Travel talks about the need for a Passenger Bill of Rights for River Cruises in Europe, in part due to the different policies employed by the cruise lines operating there. Gwen (and others) feel standardization would help both travel advisors and their clients. We also asked Gwen about the recent change of name at ASTA, from American Association of Travel Agents to American Association of Travel Advisors. Gwen endorsed the change and said, "if your travel advisor is doing nothing more than booking your travel, time to get someone who knows their stuff." Mark also suggested that if you are taking the "bucket list trip," you might want to invest a couple hundred dollars in the wisdom of an expert.
