November 20, 2024 • 34 mins
Holiday travel can be difficult or fabulous! Is it all in your attitude? Yes and no. Listen to Travel Advisor Julie Imgrund of Bellevue Travel and you'll get grate tips and stories that will keep you nodding along thinking "Oh I know JUST what she's talking aobut!"
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, It's Lucy Chapman and welcome to another podcast of
Here's More. And Here's More is all about your holiday travel.
And I'm excited to have Julie Ingram in the studio
with me today. She's the owner of Bellevue Travel. Julie,
thank you so much for spending some time with me today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Holiday travel, it can be really exciting or it can
be really scary, am I right?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yes, very much so.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I always tell my people that the two most important
things that you need to take with you when you
travel are your patients and your sense of humor.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And you will need both and.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
They'll both run out.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yes, there will come a.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Time, yes, But the biggest thing is you need to
plan to get there early, whether it's to train, a
plane and automobile whatever. The roads are going to be bad.
I happen to read this Triple A says that for Thanksgiving,
and they go Monday of Thanksgiving to the Monday after.
(01:00):
They say, seventy nine point nine million people will be
traveling more than fifty miles from home, and five point
eight million will be traveling by air.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That is going to put quite a strain and does
put quite a strain on our airports every year, every holiday.
So we're going to talk about some ideas that you
can give us, some tips that you can give us
for holiday travel. But first tell me where are people going?
Mostly are they going to the coast? Are they going
to sch for Thanksgiving or for thanks thanks Through the holidays,
(01:34):
what's the most popular?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Well, honestly, families.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Families are running away from home because nobody wants to
host the meal anymore. You know, nobody wants to have
everybody at their house and then they have to clean
up and whatever. So families, even before the pandemic, but
mostly after the pandemic, families are going. Over the holidays.
Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's are huge for families.
(01:58):
They usually go someplace warm mm hmmm. Because we are
in Nebraska, so we do a lot of family cruises.
We do a lot, of course Florida because people got
to go to Disney World and Universal and all the
theme parks. But we do a lot of the Caribbean islands,
whether it's on a cruise or it's to Mexico or
the Caribbean, but always on the Caribbean side, because that's
(02:19):
the beautiful water, and that's the warm water.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Have you seen the trends change? First of all, how
long have you been in the travel business?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I counted by decades now more than years, and so
a long time. I actually when I first started, I
hand wrote tickets.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Oh my okay, well then you'll be able to do this.
How have you seen the trends change? I think that
there was a time as a kid if somebody was
if I heard somebody was going out of town for
the holidays, it would have just I would have been shocked.
What do you mean you're going out of town?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
You can't go out?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I mean unless you're going unless you're going to visit
a family member member.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
How have you seen the trends change? The thought of
going on a cruise when I.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Was a kid, oh is mind boggling. Yeah, mind boggling.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I have. My oldest brother didn't get on an airplane
until he was in his mid thirties.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I was almost I was twenty two the first time
I got on a plane, So I get.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That I was I was nineteen because I went to
visit my boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
But you know, he's not my husband.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So it's all okay, alligit, it's good, it's alligit.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
But the trends have definitely changed. Do you think that's
a good thing or a. I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And I think just as I was saying before, that
a lot of families don't want to host the holidays,
or for that matter, go home for the holidays necessarily
because there's always, especially in a political year, God forbid,
you know, conversations come up that nobody wants or or
the oh did you cut your hair that way?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Or whatever?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Do I have to bring mashed potatoes because Aunt Bessie's
is way better or whatever. So we run into the
traveling where the family and they come from all different
places too. And that's the other thing is that then
people are traveling to a place that they want to go.
And I don't mean that they don't want to go home,
because please no, I love going home. That's but homes
(04:14):
are different now like my family, my parents now live
in Mississippi instead of we are all from central Minnesota.
So people moved, so you know, going to mom and
Dad's is a different thing now, you know, And actually
they're coming up here for Thanksgiving. But so going on
a cruise and let somebody else cook, clean up, make
(04:36):
your bed. I mean, come on and put a little
chocolate on your pillow before you go to bed. Or
going to Mexico or the Caribbean where if the kids
want to go have a burger, go go to the
beach grill and don't bother me, get out of my son.
I'm I'm you know, it keeps the kids active. The
parents don't have to be if they don't want to be,
(04:59):
especially the tea teenagers, if you have to feed them.
I mean, you know, I have an eleven year old
grandson and I'm telling you he's working on being taller
than me and he's going to be there in a
few short years. But he eats like my husband does,
you know.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So it does.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And so to have to cook for all that and
have the supplies on hand for the snacks afterwards, yeah,
people don't really want to do that anymore. And you know,
it's kind of nice to have somebody take care of you.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I think that I can understand that now, and traveling
would be probably what I would do today in my world,
except that I don't really need to because my family
is so scattered.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It's going to be just my You're traveling to see family, yeah,
and we're going.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
To go see his parents right up the street, and
then that's about it.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
So for us, it's a it's a pretty easy decision.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But I know a lot of people are kind of
struggling with you know, maybe it's their first season that
they're gonna not be with family, so they're thinking, well,
I don't know what to do. Are there still travel
agents out there? I don't see offices anymore, but you
and I were talking a little bit earlier that yes,
the travel agency business is alive and thriving.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It is.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It is really booming. There are a lot less storefronts.
We are still a storefront because none of us really
want to work from home because we found during the
pandemic that we don't work well from home. Some people
do and that is wonderful, but we don't. We miss
the people walking in and talking to I mean, we do.
We love that community. But there are so many travel agents,
(06:34):
travel advisors. I'm sorry, we do go by. Travel advisors
now are from home, are based from home, and some
people are doing it as a second job. We have people, oh,
you know, my family always you know, wants me to
book there or help them with their travel, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I can do it.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
And so I was thinking, I want to be an agent.
Well then they start learning about what all we do
and they kind of go.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
That's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Maybe I'll just hire you instead.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Have to be available and you are as an as
an advisor if one of your clients has a problem,
I mean you're available.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I love I love the app WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
It is free, but you can make international phone calls.
The only the only hiccup is you do have to
be by Wi Fi. But it's app to app. But
so we have people that will text me, you know,
at two a my time, but you know they're you know,
but they're needing something. Well they text me and they
tell me what they need and then I can go
(07:33):
in and take care of it and then text them
back and say it's done. I had two ladies that
were traveling all over Italy in October and they were
we had gone over their documents and everything, and their
flight was like nine o'clock in the morning out of
Rome coming home. So they have to be there at
like six o'clock in the morning, so they were going
(07:55):
to be picked up from their hotel at like four
in the morning or thirty. And so the way the
transfers were done is they considered it a late night
because it was before seven o'clock in the morning. But
when they booked it, they booked it for the night before,
but then picking them up at four o'clock in the morning,
(08:17):
so they were really one day off. Oh so anyway,
she happened to look at it and she texted me
and said, hey, this is not right. And so then
I was able to call the transfer company and get
it set up for the proper time and everything was cool.
But it was just one of those things where I
can see how it got messed up, and she looked
(08:39):
at her documents and hey, we were good.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So I think that is a great lesson. That's a
great story because I myself have booked my own trips
and used an advisor travel advisor, and I have to
tell you when I've had problems, I'm real glad that
the problem came up on the one that I used
a travel advisor, because they were able to help me
through this and with almost seamlessly it got fixed and
(09:05):
I went on my merry way. So it's a great
thing to do if you're considering some holiday travel.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Let's talk about the holiday travel.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Dues and don'ts because there I'm assuming that there are
some things that might be a little different during the
holiday time.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, again, crowds, so go early. Especially right now. Eppley
Airfield has a lot of construction going on and that
is going to go on until they said it will
be complete December of twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Oh I thought it was twenty six.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Okay, yeah, is so, yeah, it's but in the last
part of it will be the international part, which is
kind of sad. I would like that be faster, but
right now they're still doing the canopy, so everything is
closed going underneath it so they don't drop anything. So
we were dropped off on Cummings or Abbit Drive, sorry
(09:56):
abbit drive, and then had to walk through the garage
and then across. But then when we came home at night,
our flight came in late, then the shuttle buses could
pick us up where they normally did because they weren't
working that at night.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So yeah, I mean every time.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Minutes, a few minutes can make a big difference.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well, and yeah, and as the construction gets going more,
they're going to change to where they only have one
security checkpoint instead of one for each terminal. So this
will be fabulous when it's done, but we all have
to live through it.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
In the meantime.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So so so plan ahead, plan ahead for sure. And
I think one of the things people have been talking
about so much as those air tags that you they're
basically like a locator, yeah, tracker, there we go, and
they're putting them in their bags and their carry ons
(10:50):
and every Those are wonderful for finding your bag.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
It will not get it back to you. I mean,
it will let you know where it is.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Now, just in the last week or so, the airlines
are now going to start working with that because they'll say, oh,
well hey, because obviously they lost it in the first place,
so they don't know where it is. So you can
use the air tags and the airlines will find it
through air tags, but they still have to get it
back to you. I mean, you have a better shot
(11:21):
at it because they're not still running around looking for it.
But you know a few years ago when they had
the total debacle over Christmas time and bags and bags
were everywhere, We had a client who said, well, my
bag is still in London Heathrow. Well that's awesome, but
so are five thousand other bags. And her bag was
there for three days and she called the airlines, you know,
and it's like, look, I can tell you this is
(11:42):
where my bag is, and they're like, well great, but
there's however, many millions you know, bags there, so it
doesn't necessarily get it back to you. It gives you
a better shot of it coming back to you because
you know where it is.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Okay, So you couldn't the airline couldn't say we're going
to start using our own air tags.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, we're going to charge a couple books.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
For him, because they're already the bags are already tagged,
so they might be lost, but the airport can go
through every loss bag and say this is where it
needs to be. So an AirTag really wouldn't help the
actual airlines themselves as much as it helps us.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Correct but you can tell them where it actually is.
Last November, my husband and I went to Africa and
we all landed. We went on a tour and we
all landed at the end in Johannesburg and we were
flying home and a lot of other people were going
to different parts of Africa to carry on, you know,
(12:38):
do more travel, and one of the ladies said, my
bag is still in Cape Town or my bag went
to Cape Town, that's.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
What she said.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And our tour director is looking at it, going how
do you know that. She goes, well, it's my air
tag and she said, I can tell you it's in
Cape Town. And she did not pull her old luggage
tag off. We had flown into Cape Town to start
the tour. She didn't pull that off, and so they
saw the luggage tag anyway. So another thing is to
(13:09):
clean up your luggage, clean up your suitcases. Those little
tags that have all those barcodes, yank them off every trip,
you know, because you'll see the little ones too that
are on there.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So you got to yank those off.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But I mean, so she knew where it was, so
they didn't have to start from scratch. But it's also
because she left that luggage tag on. I mean they
should have in they should have pulled that off and
put the new one on at the airport. And I've
seen it happen even in Omaha, people have done that
at the counter. But yeah, anyway, that didn't happen, and
(13:41):
so so the air tags I think are good for
being able to locate where they are. But just remember
it's not going to get your bag back to you
just by using the air tag. It just gives them
a tool to find it and get it to you sooner,
you know. And for bags, okay, I'm one of those
(14:03):
people that I carry on. Yes, same, I would rather
schlup my bag and have it because I don't want
to spend my first day a vacation finding clothes because
it's a god awful.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Thing for me anyway.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
You know, it's not an easy thing to find clothes
or shoes or you know, or a swimsuit if you're
going to the Caribbean. Oh lord, I would not want
to do that. So I always carry on, at least
going now coming home. If they want to lose my
you know, dirty clothes, I don't care. But I usually
bring my souvenirs with me, you know, on back on
the plane. But so if you can carry on, because
(14:38):
then you don't have to worry about your luggage being
lost in London, Heathrow, you know, or wherever, because it's
with you now. Of course, that said everybody likes to
do that, so then the overhead bind becomes really full.
So again, please be smart. You're supposed to put the
big bag up to twenty two inches, that includes the
wheels can go in the overhead bin, and then you
(15:02):
can have a small they say a personal item can
go under the seat in front of you. But in
the winter time, you've got people who you know and
guys with long legs. I should say ladies too have
I'm short, so I can't say long legs. But don't
want anything in front of them, you know, so that
things stretch their legs out. Well, that's nice, but then
when everybody is putting two to three things up in
(15:24):
the overhead bin, then there is no room.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
So that's why I like.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Like we my husband and I each bring a backpack
with our electronics, our drugs, our medications, our medications, medications, electronics,
charging things for the electronics. And I still even with
my carry on bag, I still throw in an extra
pair of underwear and you know, a shirt or something.
(15:53):
But that's that's the bag that we put under the
seat in front of us. And then we have our
your bag for the carry on. Mine is a twenty
inch with the including the wheels.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
But spinner wheels are the best thing.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
We had no old suitcase that had just the two
wheels that were kind of embedded in it. Oh my god,
trying to maneuver that around an airport and.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
People they don't and they.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Don't turn, and you know when you're maneuvering. I don't
mind that.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
One of my.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Brothers would travel with a book, nothing else, including heart
medications that he needed, by the way, and then when
you're delayed, what do you have? You know, so he
didn't have his cell phone with him to even call
because he had I'm telling you, and now you're not
supposed to put your cell phone or anything in there.
(16:44):
But that's why you see at airports, you see everybody's
you know, either sitting on the floor by an outlet
or all the charge places that.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Don't always work.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Those are always crowded because everybody wants to get to
make sure that their charger or their phone is charged.
Because if a flight is delayed and your phone doesn't work,
you know, the world ends. My husband sits and watches
movies on his so he always just has it plugged in.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
But you can get those portable chargers.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Some of them are kind of heavy, but they do
have lithium batteries in there, so you have to carry
it on the plane. You cannot put that in your
checked bags.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But sitting on that tarmac, you talk about delays. Sitting
on that tarmac literally has to be the worst nightmare
I can think of being stuck in an airport.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I can handle it, being stuck in a town. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I can in the plane on the tarmac. Things are
getting better in that in that realm though, right it.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Is supposed to be, yes, because the Department of Transportation
can actually find the airline for having you sit on
the tarmac more than and I cannot remember the amount
of time, to be honest, I belie leave it's three hours,
which to me would be excruciating anyway. Yes, but they
there have been stories of like six hours sitting because
(18:07):
they had no gate to go to, or they had
you know, or whatever. When you're it's different if you
are sitting in line, like in Dallas with thunderstorms, if
there's lightning, they're not going to send you up, right.
So one of my trips it we were like sixth
in line. We had pulled away from the gate and
(18:27):
we were going to the you know, get ready to
take off.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
We were sixth in.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Line, and they said, but nobody is flying right now,
taking off right now because of lightning in the area.
I fell asleep because I had been at a conference
all weekend, you know, And I woke up when our
plane started to move, and it was a half an
hour later. But half an hour was not that big
of a deal. If people have latur.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Exactly, and and you do.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Because another point about airports, pack some snow. It's better
to be commercially wrapped because if you don't consume it
on the plane and you brought like a sandwich or
fruit or something like that, when you get to the
other side wherever you are going. Even in the US,
they can have those little beagles running around. They're looking
(19:16):
for agriculture because you can I don't know if you're
old enough to remember medfly, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, so those kind of things, so bugs and diseases of.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Agriculture can be transferred. So they will have you throw
they will throw it out if you have any agriculture.
But if you have commercially wrapped things or packaged things,
then it doesn't matter. Or if you consume whatever you
have on the plane. But because of the pandemic and
having a lot less people working, a lot of the
(19:51):
restaurants are still closed at airports. It's getting better, it
is getting much better.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
But some of the places where you could just.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Quicken grab food, they're not always manned. I mean there's
a lot of them we are closed.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Okay, so little sandwiches that are already made in the packages, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You know, or or you know the some of the well,
the coffee shops are almost always open because the world
would come to an end. But I can't remember where
we went through, but the Popeyes was closed. There were
just open certain hours because they could only have employees. Yeah,
(20:28):
so be mindful of you may not have a place
necessarily to eat, or if it's super crowded and there's
only two of them on that particular end of your
terminal or whatever, you either have to walk over to
the other one or to the food court or whatever,
or you know, have snacks.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
So that's one that we we still do.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
You know, how do you have any advice for people
who are traveling when they feel like they have been
slighted by either another traveler or possibly by some of
the airplane staff, some of.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
The not stewardess, flight attendant, thank you, or the flight
crew is actually what they call.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, because you don't want to start anything. I have
gotten to the point where I didn't eve want to
talk to them at all because I don't want them
to take anything I've said in any negative way at all, because,
first of all, it wouldn't be but if they take
it that way, then it's going to escalate.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Because you see all these videos.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yes, honestly, for the flight attendants or the flight crew,
it has gotten better since nine to eleven because when
somebody after nine to eleven, when somebody got up to
get something out of their you know, the overhead bind
everybody looked at them, and everybody was making eye and
looking at them and seeing what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
But now if somebody gets drunk.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
And disorderly, they can duct tape them to the seat
or you've seen that too, you know, and they can
call the federal marshals and life goes on. I shouldn't
say it quite that way, but they can actually handle it.
I mean it's being taken care of now and taken
seriously where it wasn't before because when they were stewardesses
(22:12):
and they were you know, somebody patted their butt or
you know whatever, and it was usually a person who
had had too much alcohol. There wasn't anything that they
could do about it. So that has changed. But just
in the last few years, the just out and out
obnoxiousness and rudeness of people, And I think the pandemic
(22:34):
had a lot to do with that, because you know,
all the social media kind of makes us antisocial.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Well, it also brings whatever you're doing to light to.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yes world, Yes, and we don't have that much communication
with real life people anymore, and all of a sudden
you're in a stressful situation or you've had too much
to drink, and you perceive that it's a stressful situation,
or you believe that you just say anything that you
want to with no filters, which is of course not
(23:04):
the way. And so, yeah, the the manners have gone
out the window.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Has that so more than just flying, Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
And that's true, and it's it's incredibly sad. But I
also think that other people, other passengers are stepping up
to of course, the first thing everybody does is grab
their phone and start videotaping whatever is going on, you know,
instead of necessarily helping. But there are some people who
(23:39):
will come to the aid of whoever needs to be helped.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So there's the.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Good and the bad with that. But I think a
lot of it is just out and out bad manners
and disrespect for anybody who's not them, because it's always
about me and I'm the most important person. So why
are you in my way? Why are you taking the
last coffee when it's mine or you have my seat,
or you know, or or the one that has been
(24:07):
happening often is the not families not being seated next
to each other, or even just couples and they're like, oh, well,
you know, my wife and I would really like to
sit together, but we couldn't get seats together, so can
we have your aisle seat?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And it's like.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
No, you know, I mean, if it's that way exactly,
because when you are.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Online getting booking a flight, you book the seat you want.
Now I understand you might already have a full flight.
We're the only thing they have left are middle seats.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, but you can go if you are traveling with somebody,
you can go to the gate agent that those are
the ones by the gate and you can ask them
if there is any way that.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
The two of you could be seated together.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
And because I have in the past, because I'm flying
by myself and I don't really care most of the time,
most of the time where I sit, you know, and
they will ask if they see I'm, you know, a
solo traveler, that if I would move so that these
two could be seated next to each other. If I
am asked by the gate agent and they're nice about it,
(25:12):
I will absolutely change. But not when they're like, I
really want my wife to sit next to me, can
you move?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
The answer is no.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
In a nice way, a different answer if you want
to just ask nice, I know, and.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
That's yeah, that's what I said. It kind of goes
back to manners.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We've lost those, and I think that's what makes traveling
so stressful for people, is that, Okay, you had to
get up at oh dark thirty to catch your six
o'clock in the morning flight, you know, and you want
to you can't remember if you packed everything, or you're
shuffling kids around, or you're trying to get to the airport,
(25:54):
and you want to make sure that you're parking in
the right spot, and then you've got to get to
the terminal, which is under construction, and then you've got
to go through security, and one kid left something in
their pocket and so something beeps or whatever, and then
you meets up with somebody who's like, you're in my way,
or you know, spills coffee on you, or or is
waiting for their shoes to come through, and they're standing
(26:15):
there and getting all, you know, riled up. And I
think that that just causes everybody's nervous system to just
go hyper. And so then any little slight, any little
thing you looked at me the wrong way, you didn't
get out of my way, I got to take my
kid to the bathroom, whatever just gets to be uh
(26:36):
so much more ten times what it needs to be,
or a hundred times what it needs to be, I think.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
And we've all seen it.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And yes, if you've traveled at all, you have seen
somebody that is crabby. And I think if you just
try to focus on your the end destination, you're going
someplace where you're going to be happy, you're going to
you're going someplace where you're going to have a great time.
All of this stuff getting there you already I know
it's coming. You already know you're gonna have grumpy people
(27:04):
exactly already. Know you might have weather delays, especially at
the holidays. So just take all that in and just say,
here's what I expect to happen. Here's what I hope
to happen. Here's what probably will happen. Can I deal
with all of it?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yes? You can.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Well, here I can tell you.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I can give you an example of my my husband,
because I am one of those people that I like
to get to the airport early and then I can
just sit and I can read or you know these days,
play on my phone or whatever, or I can walk
around because I like to walk. And my husband was
always one of those, Wow, we just need to, you know,
get there, and you know, we can leave the house
an hour ahead of time, and we're about twenty minutes
(27:41):
from the airport. And I'm like, m no, and so
i set my alarm early, and of course then I'm
excited and I end up waking up early, and so
I'm getting all ready.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
So he gets out of bed and he goes He has.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Found that life is much nicer and easier if he
just does what his wife wants to do it.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
No, it's his idea to go early.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
No, but now he he is so much better, and
we get to the airport early. And then if he
asked to stand around, he plays on his phone anyway,
or he calls somebody or he sends it whatever, nine
at five o'clock in the morning. But you know, he'll
he'll play games or something on on his phone and
and we're okay then. But it takes out the stress
because I have taken him to the airport when he
(28:24):
had a business trip to go on, and we usually
just go.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
I just usually go up.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Thirteenth Street and then cut over to the airport. And
there there in the middle of the night or you know,
super early in the morning, there was they were doing
construction because you know, that's the time of day that
there's no traffic. And so then I had to turn
around and then and at that we were going at
his time, not my time, and I said, see, this
is why we go early, you know, and you know,
(28:51):
so then I just dropped him off and he was running,
you know, and luckily he was carrying on and it
was it was fine, But it was just one of
those things.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Where see, this is why we leave early, because guess what,
there could be road construction. There could be a car accident.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I don't want to sound like my grandma, but those
things could happen.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I look at it this way, You're just starting your
vacation that much earlier.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Just leave that because you can start your vacation earlier. Julie,
it has been so.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Nice to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Let's talk a little bit about your business, because I
gotta tell you, I don't think that I would travel
anymore without using a travel Advisor. And you have a storefront.
You said you're we do well, so we do you travel?
Tell me a little bit about that. How long has
that been there?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
This particular location, We have been there for six years.
We are right across from Bellevue University on Galvin Road,
so we're right next to Dollar General everybody and Westlake Hardware,
so everybody kind of knows where we are. Before that,
we were half a mile down the road, and before
that we were about one hundred yards away from that one.
(29:54):
So we have stayed no, no, we have stayed in
the proximity of Galvin Road. My husband and I have
owned it since two thousand and eight, so sixteen years.
But I worked for Bellevue Travel several years before that.
So yeah, we absolutely love it. And again it kind
of goes back to what I said earlier is we
(30:15):
like the storefront because we like people, you know, I
mean not necessarily when we're working on something and everybody
decides to come in. We joke about a revolving door,
but you know, when somebody pops in and they just
want to do this, or we've had several people say,
you know, I've gone by here several times and now
we're thinking of doing a trip. Let's stop in, and
we still have some brochures. I know it's crazy, but
(30:36):
in this day and age, I still want to hold
a book. I'm a catalog person. I miss my catalogs.
I'm with you, I you know, you read different and
you see things differently on the screen at least I do,
you know, on online. So I like to hold that
book or hold you know, hold the catalog. So we
do still have some of those and people will stop
in for those, but most of the time they you know,
(30:57):
grab a card and they or some of them will
sit down and talk about a trip. And we don't
do the research while you're sitting there, because it involves
a lot, so we usually get the information from you,
send you on your way.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
And then do it.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
We do a lot of our business by email. We
do have a contact form on our website, which is
Bellevue Travel n dot com because there is a Bellevue, Washington,
so we get a lot of people contacting us on
our website. We have a lot of people who will
(31:34):
do it by email. We get a ton of referrals,
which we absolutely love. Thank you, thank you, But that's
kind of our gig. And Brenda and I have been
around for.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Like I said, a few decades.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And then we now have Brenda's daughter Christine working with us.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
She's been there about two years.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
She still waitresses on the on the side because she
loves that gig and doesn't want to get rid of that.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
But she just came back from Jamaica.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We try to all travel as much as we can
so that we can help people when they go, because
that's the thing is, we can still sell destinations that
we haven't been to, but we have to do a
lot more research where instead when somebody comes in and
starts talking about England, for example, I live there for
three years. My husband was in the military, so and
(32:24):
Brenda has been to Jamaica, like I don't know. I
think we're at about eighteen times now. She does a
lot of the Caribbean because she absolutely loves it and
her husband loves it. So they like to go into
the sun. I like to go to Europe. Love Europe.
So we spend as much time as we can there.
But it's not enough time, right it is, you know,
(32:45):
So we try to be knowledgeable and you know, help you. Besides,
I don't want you to come in, book a cruise
and leave and we'll never see you again.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
That that's not our goal.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Our goal is to we have people who we did
the Disney trip for with the kids and the kids'
spring break, and then we did the wedding and now
we're doing the multi generation with the grandparents and the
kids and the grandkids. But because we've been around that
long and people have thought enough of us and our
service to keep coming back to us, that we've seen
(33:23):
that and that's what we want. We don't want the
one and done.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, that's neat the whole family, the generational thing. I
love it, all right, So final words about traveling in
the holidays.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Okay, I'm going to tell you those two important things
again that I said at the very beginning, Bring your
patience and your sense of humor. You will need them both,
and plan to be there much further or much earlier,
further ahead than you normally would.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Kind of driving on the streets of Omaha these days.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Oh my goodness, yes, yes, I mean anywhere. Even if
you're driving to Grandma's for Thanksgiving, there are going to
be people on the road Tuesday and Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Know that it will happen absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Well, Julie, thank you so much for hanging out with
me on this podcast. You're the owner of Bellevue Travel.
It's Bellevue Travel n e as in Nebraska, Bellevue Travel
ne dot com.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Check it out.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
And if you're planning on doing some traveling over the holidays,
as we've said a thousand times, be patient, be happy,
be kind. You're getting your vacation started with family and
Lucy Chapman on Here's more.
Hi, It's Lucy Chapman and welcome to another podcast of
Here's More. And Here's More is all about your holiday travel.
And I'm excited to have Julie Ingram in the studio
with me today. She's the owner of Bellevue Travel. Julie,
thank you so much for spending some time with me today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Holiday travel, it can be really exciting or it can
be really scary, am I right?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yes, very much so.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I always tell my people that the two most important
things that you need to take with you when you
travel are your patients and your sense of humor.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And you will need both and.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
They'll both run out.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yes, there will come a.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Time, yes, But the biggest thing is you need to
plan to get there early, whether it's to train, a
plane and automobile whatever. The roads are going to be bad.
I happen to read this Triple A says that for Thanksgiving,
and they go Monday of Thanksgiving to the Monday after.
(01:00):
They say, seventy nine point nine million people will be
traveling more than fifty miles from home, and five point
eight million will be traveling by air.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That is going to put quite a strain and does
put quite a strain on our airports every year, every holiday.
So we're going to talk about some ideas that you
can give us, some tips that you can give us
for holiday travel. But first tell me where are people going?
Mostly are they going to the coast? Are they going
to sch for Thanksgiving or for thanks thanks Through the holidays,
(01:34):
what's the most popular?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Well, honestly, families.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Families are running away from home because nobody wants to
host the meal anymore. You know, nobody wants to have
everybody at their house and then they have to clean
up and whatever. So families, even before the pandemic, but
mostly after the pandemic, families are going. Over the holidays.
Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's are huge for families.
(01:58):
They usually go someplace warm mm hmmm. Because we are
in Nebraska, so we do a lot of family cruises.
We do a lot, of course Florida because people got
to go to Disney World and Universal and all the
theme parks. But we do a lot of the Caribbean islands,
whether it's on a cruise or it's to Mexico or
the Caribbean, but always on the Caribbean side, because that's
(02:19):
the beautiful water, and that's the warm water.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Have you seen the trends change? First of all, how
long have you been in the travel business?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I counted by decades now more than years, and so
a long time. I actually when I first started, I
hand wrote tickets.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Oh my okay, well then you'll be able to do this.
How have you seen the trends change? I think that
there was a time as a kid if somebody was
if I heard somebody was going out of town for
the holidays, it would have just I would have been shocked.
What do you mean you're going out of town?
Speaker 4 (02:53):
You can't go out?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I mean unless you're going unless you're going to visit
a family member member.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
How have you seen the trends change? The thought of
going on a cruise when I.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Was a kid, oh is mind boggling. Yeah, mind boggling.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I have. My oldest brother didn't get on an airplane
until he was in his mid thirties.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I was almost I was twenty two the first time
I got on a plane, So I get.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That I was I was nineteen because I went to
visit my boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
But you know, he's not my husband.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So it's all okay, alligit, it's good, it's alligit.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
But the trends have definitely changed. Do you think that's
a good thing or a. I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And I think just as I was saying before, that
a lot of families don't want to host the holidays,
or for that matter, go home for the holidays necessarily
because there's always, especially in a political year, God forbid,
you know, conversations come up that nobody wants or or
the oh did you cut your hair that way?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Or whatever?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Do I have to bring mashed potatoes because Aunt Bessie's
is way better or whatever. So we run into the
traveling where the family and they come from all different
places too. And that's the other thing is that then
people are traveling to a place that they want to go.
And I don't mean that they don't want to go home,
because please no, I love going home. That's but homes
(04:14):
are different now like my family, my parents now live
in Mississippi instead of we are all from central Minnesota.
So people moved, so you know, going to mom and
Dad's is a different thing now, you know, And actually
they're coming up here for Thanksgiving. But so going on
a cruise and let somebody else cook, clean up, make
(04:36):
your bed. I mean, come on and put a little
chocolate on your pillow before you go to bed. Or
going to Mexico or the Caribbean where if the kids
want to go have a burger, go go to the
beach grill and don't bother me, get out of my son.
I'm I'm you know, it keeps the kids active. The
parents don't have to be if they don't want to be,
(04:59):
especially the tea teenagers, if you have to feed them.
I mean, you know, I have an eleven year old
grandson and I'm telling you he's working on being taller
than me and he's going to be there in a
few short years. But he eats like my husband does,
you know.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So it does.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And so to have to cook for all that and
have the supplies on hand for the snacks afterwards, yeah,
people don't really want to do that anymore. And you know,
it's kind of nice to have somebody take care of you.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I think that I can understand that now, and traveling
would be probably what I would do today in my world,
except that I don't really need to because my family
is so scattered.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It's going to be just my You're traveling to see family, yeah,
and we're going.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
To go see his parents right up the street, and
then that's about it.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
So for us, it's a it's a pretty easy decision.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
But I know a lot of people are kind of
struggling with you know, maybe it's their first season that
they're gonna not be with family, so they're thinking, well,
I don't know what to do. Are there still travel
agents out there? I don't see offices anymore, but you
and I were talking a little bit earlier that yes,
the travel agency business is alive and thriving.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It is.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It is really booming. There are a lot less storefronts.
We are still a storefront because none of us really
want to work from home because we found during the
pandemic that we don't work well from home. Some people
do and that is wonderful, but we don't. We miss
the people walking in and talking to I mean, we do.
We love that community. But there are so many travel agents,
(06:34):
travel advisors. I'm sorry, we do go by. Travel advisors
now are from home, are based from home, and some
people are doing it as a second job. We have people, oh,
you know, my family always you know, wants me to
book there or help them with their travel, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I can do it.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
And so I was thinking, I want to be an agent.
Well then they start learning about what all we do
and they kind of go.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
That's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Maybe I'll just hire you instead.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Have to be available and you are as an as
an advisor if one of your clients has a problem,
I mean you're available.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I love I love the app WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
It is free, but you can make international phone calls.
The only the only hiccup is you do have to
be by Wi Fi. But it's app to app. But
so we have people that will text me, you know,
at two a my time, but you know they're you know,
but they're needing something. Well they text me and they
tell me what they need and then I can go
(07:33):
in and take care of it and then text them
back and say it's done. I had two ladies that
were traveling all over Italy in October and they were
we had gone over their documents and everything, and their
flight was like nine o'clock in the morning out of
Rome coming home. So they have to be there at
like six o'clock in the morning, so they were going
(07:55):
to be picked up from their hotel at like four
in the morning or thirty. And so the way the
transfers were done is they considered it a late night
because it was before seven o'clock in the morning. But
when they booked it, they booked it for the night before,
but then picking them up at four o'clock in the morning,
(08:17):
so they were really one day off. Oh so anyway,
she happened to look at it and she texted me
and said, hey, this is not right. And so then
I was able to call the transfer company and get
it set up for the proper time and everything was cool.
But it was just one of those things where I
can see how it got messed up, and she looked
(08:39):
at her documents and hey, we were good.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So I think that is a great lesson. That's a
great story because I myself have booked my own trips
and used an advisor travel advisor, and I have to
tell you when I've had problems, I'm real glad that
the problem came up on the one that I used
a travel advisor, because they were able to help me
through this and with almost seamlessly it got fixed and
(09:05):
I went on my merry way. So it's a great
thing to do if you're considering some holiday travel.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Let's talk about the holiday travel.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Dues and don'ts because there I'm assuming that there are
some things that might be a little different during the
holiday time.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, again, crowds, so go early. Especially right now. Eppley
Airfield has a lot of construction going on and that
is going to go on until they said it will
be complete December of twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Oh I thought it was twenty six.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Okay, yeah, is so, yeah, it's but in the last
part of it will be the international part, which is
kind of sad. I would like that be faster, but
right now they're still doing the canopy, so everything is
closed going underneath it so they don't drop anything. So
we were dropped off on Cummings or Abbit Drive, sorry
(09:56):
abbit drive, and then had to walk through the garage
and then across. But then when we came home at night,
our flight came in late, then the shuttle buses could
pick us up where they normally did because they weren't
working that at night.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
So yeah, I mean every time.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Minutes, a few minutes can make a big difference.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well, and yeah, and as the construction gets going more,
they're going to change to where they only have one
security checkpoint instead of one for each terminal. So this
will be fabulous when it's done, but we all have
to live through it.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
In the meantime.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So so so plan ahead, plan ahead for sure. And
I think one of the things people have been talking
about so much as those air tags that you they're
basically like a locator, yeah, tracker, there we go, and
they're putting them in their bags and their carry ons
(10:50):
and every Those are wonderful for finding your bag.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
It will not get it back to you. I mean,
it will let you know where it is.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Now, just in the last week or so, the airlines
are now going to start working with that because they'll say, oh,
well hey, because obviously they lost it in the first place,
so they don't know where it is. So you can
use the air tags and the airlines will find it
through air tags, but they still have to get it
back to you. I mean, you have a better shot
(11:21):
at it because they're not still running around looking for it.
But you know a few years ago when they had
the total debacle over Christmas time and bags and bags
were everywhere, We had a client who said, well, my
bag is still in London Heathrow. Well that's awesome, but
so are five thousand other bags. And her bag was
there for three days and she called the airlines, you know,
and it's like, look, I can tell you this is
(11:42):
where my bag is, and they're like, well great, but
there's however, many millions you know, bags there, so it
doesn't necessarily get it back to you. It gives you
a better shot of it coming back to you because
you know where it is.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Okay, So you couldn't the airline couldn't say we're going
to start using our own air tags.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, we're going to charge a couple books.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
For him, because they're already the bags are already tagged,
so they might be lost, but the airport can go
through every loss bag and say this is where it
needs to be. So an AirTag really wouldn't help the
actual airlines themselves as much as it helps us.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Correct but you can tell them where it actually is.
Last November, my husband and I went to Africa and
we all landed. We went on a tour and we
all landed at the end in Johannesburg and we were
flying home and a lot of other people were going
to different parts of Africa to carry on, you know,
(12:38):
do more travel, and one of the ladies said, my
bag is still in Cape Town or my bag went
to Cape Town, that's.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
What she said.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And our tour director is looking at it, going how
do you know that. She goes, well, it's my air
tag and she said, I can tell you it's in
Cape Town. And she did not pull her old luggage
tag off. We had flown into Cape Town to start
the tour. She didn't pull that off, and so they
saw the luggage tag anyway. So another thing is to
(13:09):
clean up your luggage, clean up your suitcases. Those little
tags that have all those barcodes, yank them off every trip,
you know, because you'll see the little ones too that
are on there.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So you got to yank those off.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But I mean, so she knew where it was, so
they didn't have to start from scratch. But it's also
because she left that luggage tag on. I mean they
should have in they should have pulled that off and
put the new one on at the airport. And I've
seen it happen even in Omaha, people have done that
at the counter. But yeah, anyway, that didn't happen, and
(13:41):
so so the air tags I think are good for
being able to locate where they are. But just remember
it's not going to get your bag back to you
just by using the air tag. It just gives them
a tool to find it and get it to you sooner,
you know. And for bags, okay, I'm one of those
(14:03):
people that I carry on. Yes, same, I would rather
schlup my bag and have it because I don't want
to spend my first day a vacation finding clothes because
it's a god awful.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Thing for me anyway.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
You know, it's not an easy thing to find clothes
or shoes or you know, or a swimsuit if you're
going to the Caribbean. Oh lord, I would not want
to do that. So I always carry on, at least
going now coming home. If they want to lose my
you know, dirty clothes, I don't care. But I usually
bring my souvenirs with me, you know, on back on
the plane. But so if you can carry on, because
(14:38):
then you don't have to worry about your luggage being
lost in London, Heathrow, you know, or wherever, because it's
with you now. Of course, that said everybody likes to
do that, so then the overhead bind becomes really full.
So again, please be smart. You're supposed to put the
big bag up to twenty two inches, that includes the
wheels can go in the overhead bin, and then you
(15:02):
can have a small they say a personal item can
go under the seat in front of you. But in
the winter time, you've got people who you know and
guys with long legs. I should say ladies too have
I'm short, so I can't say long legs. But don't
want anything in front of them, you know, so that
things stretch their legs out. Well, that's nice, but then
when everybody is putting two to three things up in
(15:24):
the overhead bin, then there is no room.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
So that's why I like.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Like we my husband and I each bring a backpack
with our electronics, our drugs, our medications, our medications, medications, electronics,
charging things for the electronics. And I still even with
my carry on bag, I still throw in an extra
pair of underwear and you know, a shirt or something.
(15:53):
But that's that's the bag that we put under the
seat in front of us. And then we have our
your bag for the carry on. Mine is a twenty
inch with the including the wheels.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
But spinner wheels are the best thing.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
We had no old suitcase that had just the two
wheels that were kind of embedded in it. Oh my god,
trying to maneuver that around an airport and.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
People they don't and they.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Don't turn, and you know when you're maneuvering. I don't
mind that.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
One of my.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Brothers would travel with a book, nothing else, including heart
medications that he needed, by the way, and then when
you're delayed, what do you have? You know, so he
didn't have his cell phone with him to even call
because he had I'm telling you, and now you're not
supposed to put your cell phone or anything in there.
(16:44):
But that's why you see at airports, you see everybody's
you know, either sitting on the floor by an outlet
or all the charge places that.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Don't always work.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Those are always crowded because everybody wants to get to
make sure that their charger or their phone is charged.
Because if a flight is delayed and your phone doesn't work,
you know, the world ends. My husband sits and watches
movies on his so he always just has it plugged in.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
But you can get those portable chargers.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Some of them are kind of heavy, but they do
have lithium batteries in there, so you have to carry
it on the plane. You cannot put that in your
checked bags.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But sitting on that tarmac, you talk about delays. Sitting
on that tarmac literally has to be the worst nightmare
I can think of being stuck in an airport.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I can handle it, being stuck in a town. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I can in the plane on the tarmac. Things are
getting better in that in that realm though, right it.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Is supposed to be, yes, because the Department of Transportation
can actually find the airline for having you sit on
the tarmac more than and I cannot remember the amount
of time, to be honest, I belie leave it's three hours,
which to me would be excruciating anyway. Yes, but they
there have been stories of like six hours sitting because
(18:07):
they had no gate to go to, or they had
you know, or whatever. When you're it's different if you
are sitting in line, like in Dallas with thunderstorms, if
there's lightning, they're not going to send you up, right.
So one of my trips it we were like sixth
in line. We had pulled away from the gate and
(18:27):
we were going to the you know, get ready to
take off.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
We were sixth in.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Line, and they said, but nobody is flying right now,
taking off right now because of lightning in the area.
I fell asleep because I had been at a conference
all weekend, you know, And I woke up when our
plane started to move, and it was a half an
hour later. But half an hour was not that big
of a deal. If people have latur.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Exactly, and and you do.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Because another point about airports, pack some snow. It's better
to be commercially wrapped because if you don't consume it
on the plane and you brought like a sandwich or
fruit or something like that, when you get to the
other side wherever you are going. Even in the US,
they can have those little beagles running around. They're looking
(19:16):
for agriculture because you can I don't know if you're
old enough to remember medfly, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, so those kind of things, so bugs and diseases of.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Agriculture can be transferred. So they will have you throw
they will throw it out if you have any agriculture.
But if you have commercially wrapped things or packaged things,
then it doesn't matter. Or if you consume whatever you
have on the plane. But because of the pandemic and
having a lot less people working, a lot of the
(19:51):
restaurants are still closed at airports. It's getting better, it
is getting much better.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
But some of the places where you could just.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Quicken grab food, they're not always manned. I mean there's
a lot of them we are closed.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Okay, so little sandwiches that are already made in the packages, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You know, or or you know the some of the well,
the coffee shops are almost always open because the world
would come to an end. But I can't remember where
we went through, but the Popeyes was closed. There were
just open certain hours because they could only have employees. Yeah,
(20:28):
so be mindful of you may not have a place
necessarily to eat, or if it's super crowded and there's
only two of them on that particular end of your
terminal or whatever, you either have to walk over to
the other one or to the food court or whatever,
or you know, have snacks.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
So that's one that we we still do.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
You know, how do you have any advice for people
who are traveling when they feel like they have been
slighted by either another traveler or possibly by some of
the airplane staff, some of.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
The not stewardess, flight attendant, thank you, or the flight
crew is actually what they call.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, because you don't want to start anything. I have
gotten to the point where I didn't eve want to
talk to them at all because I don't want them
to take anything I've said in any negative way at all, because,
first of all, it wouldn't be but if they take
it that way, then it's going to escalate.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Because you see all these videos.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yes, honestly, for the flight attendants or the flight crew,
it has gotten better since nine to eleven because when
somebody after nine to eleven, when somebody got up to
get something out of their you know, the overhead bind
everybody looked at them, and everybody was making eye and
looking at them and seeing what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
But now if somebody gets drunk.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
And disorderly, they can duct tape them to the seat
or you've seen that too, you know, and they can
call the federal marshals and life goes on. I shouldn't
say it quite that way, but they can actually handle it.
I mean it's being taken care of now and taken
seriously where it wasn't before because when they were stewardesses
(22:12):
and they were you know, somebody patted their butt or
you know whatever, and it was usually a person who
had had too much alcohol. There wasn't anything that they
could do about it. So that has changed. But just
in the last few years, the just out and out
obnoxiousness and rudeness of people, And I think the pandemic
(22:34):
had a lot to do with that, because you know,
all the social media kind of makes us antisocial.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Well, it also brings whatever you're doing to light to.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yes world, Yes, and we don't have that much communication
with real life people anymore, and all of a sudden
you're in a stressful situation or you've had too much
to drink, and you perceive that it's a stressful situation,
or you believe that you just say anything that you
want to with no filters, which is of course not
(23:04):
the way. And so, yeah, the the manners have gone
out the window.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Has that so more than just flying, Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
And that's true, and it's it's incredibly sad. But I
also think that other people, other passengers are stepping up
to of course, the first thing everybody does is grab
their phone and start videotaping whatever is going on, you know,
instead of necessarily helping. But there are some people who
(23:39):
will come to the aid of whoever needs to be helped.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So there's the.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Good and the bad with that. But I think a
lot of it is just out and out bad manners
and disrespect for anybody who's not them, because it's always
about me and I'm the most important person. So why
are you in my way? Why are you taking the
last coffee when it's mine or you have my seat,
or you know, or or the one that has been
(24:07):
happening often is the not families not being seated next
to each other, or even just couples and they're like, oh, well,
you know, my wife and I would really like to
sit together, but we couldn't get seats together, so can
we have your aisle seat?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And it's like.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
No, you know, I mean, if it's that way exactly,
because when you are.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Online getting booking a flight, you book the seat you want.
Now I understand you might already have a full flight.
We're the only thing they have left are middle seats.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, but you can go if you are traveling with somebody,
you can go to the gate agent that those are
the ones by the gate and you can ask them
if there is any way that.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
The two of you could be seated together.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
And because I have in the past, because I'm flying
by myself and I don't really care most of the time,
most of the time where I sit, you know, and
they will ask if they see I'm, you know, a
solo traveler, that if I would move so that these
two could be seated next to each other. If I
am asked by the gate agent and they're nice about it,
(25:12):
I will absolutely change. But not when they're like, I
really want my wife to sit next to me, can
you move?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
The answer is no.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
In a nice way, a different answer if you want
to just ask nice, I know, and.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
That's yeah, that's what I said. It kind of goes
back to manners.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We've lost those, and I think that's what makes traveling
so stressful for people, is that, Okay, you had to
get up at oh dark thirty to catch your six
o'clock in the morning flight, you know, and you want
to you can't remember if you packed everything, or you're
shuffling kids around, or you're trying to get to the airport,
(25:54):
and you want to make sure that you're parking in
the right spot, and then you've got to get to
the terminal, which is under construction, and then you've got
to go through security, and one kid left something in
their pocket and so something beeps or whatever, and then
you meets up with somebody who's like, you're in my way,
or you know, spills coffee on you, or or is
waiting for their shoes to come through, and they're standing
(26:15):
there and getting all, you know, riled up. And I
think that that just causes everybody's nervous system to just
go hyper. And so then any little slight, any little
thing you looked at me the wrong way, you didn't
get out of my way, I got to take my
kid to the bathroom, whatever just gets to be uh
(26:36):
so much more ten times what it needs to be,
or a hundred times what it needs to be, I think.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
And we've all seen it.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And yes, if you've traveled at all, you have seen
somebody that is crabby. And I think if you just
try to focus on your the end destination, you're going
someplace where you're going to be happy, you're going to
you're going someplace where you're going to have a great time.
All of this stuff getting there you already I know
it's coming. You already know you're gonna have grumpy people
(27:04):
exactly already. Know you might have weather delays, especially at
the holidays. So just take all that in and just say,
here's what I expect to happen. Here's what I hope
to happen. Here's what probably will happen. Can I deal
with all of it?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yes? You can.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Well, here I can tell you.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I can give you an example of my my husband,
because I am one of those people that I like
to get to the airport early and then I can
just sit and I can read or you know these days,
play on my phone or whatever, or I can walk
around because I like to walk. And my husband was
always one of those, Wow, we just need to, you know,
get there, and you know, we can leave the house
an hour ahead of time, and we're about twenty minutes
(27:41):
from the airport. And I'm like, m no, and so
i set my alarm early, and of course then I'm
excited and I end up waking up early, and so
I'm getting all ready.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
So he gets out of bed and he goes He has.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Found that life is much nicer and easier if he
just does what his wife wants to do it.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
No, it's his idea to go early.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
No, but now he he is so much better, and
we get to the airport early. And then if he
asked to stand around, he plays on his phone anyway,
or he calls somebody or he sends it whatever, nine
at five o'clock in the morning. But you know, he'll
he'll play games or something on on his phone and
and we're okay then. But it takes out the stress
because I have taken him to the airport when he
(28:24):
had a business trip to go on, and we usually
just go.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
I just usually go up.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Thirteenth Street and then cut over to the airport. And
there there in the middle of the night or you know,
super early in the morning, there was they were doing
construction because you know, that's the time of day that
there's no traffic. And so then I had to turn
around and then and at that we were going at
his time, not my time, and I said, see, this
is why we go early, you know, and you know,
(28:51):
so then I just dropped him off and he was running,
you know, and luckily he was carrying on and it
was it was fine, But it was just one of
those things.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Where see, this is why we leave early, because guess what,
there could be road construction. There could be a car accident.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I don't want to sound like my grandma, but those
things could happen.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I look at it this way, You're just starting your
vacation that much earlier.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Just leave that because you can start your vacation earlier. Julie,
it has been so.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Nice to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Let's talk a little bit about your business, because I
gotta tell you, I don't think that I would travel
anymore without using a travel Advisor. And you have a storefront.
You said you're we do well, so we do you travel?
Tell me a little bit about that. How long has
that been there?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
This particular location, We have been there for six years.
We are right across from Bellevue University on Galvin Road,
so we're right next to Dollar General everybody and Westlake Hardware,
so everybody kind of knows where we are. Before that,
we were half a mile down the road, and before
that we were about one hundred yards away from that one.
(29:54):
So we have stayed no, no, we have stayed in
the proximity of Galvin Road. My husband and I have
owned it since two thousand and eight, so sixteen years.
But I worked for Bellevue Travel several years before that.
So yeah, we absolutely love it. And again it kind
of goes back to what I said earlier is we
(30:15):
like the storefront because we like people, you know, I
mean not necessarily when we're working on something and everybody
decides to come in. We joke about a revolving door,
but you know, when somebody pops in and they just
want to do this, or we've had several people say,
you know, I've gone by here several times and now
we're thinking of doing a trip. Let's stop in, and
we still have some brochures. I know it's crazy, but
(30:36):
in this day and age, I still want to hold
a book. I'm a catalog person. I miss my catalogs.
I'm with you, I you know, you read different and
you see things differently on the screen at least I do,
you know, on online. So I like to hold that
book or hold you know, hold the catalog. So we
do still have some of those and people will stop
in for those, but most of the time they you know,
(30:57):
grab a card and they or some of them will
sit down and talk about a trip. And we don't
do the research while you're sitting there, because it involves
a lot, so we usually get the information from you,
send you on your way.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
And then do it.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
We do a lot of our business by email. We
do have a contact form on our website, which is
Bellevue Travel n dot com because there is a Bellevue, Washington,
so we get a lot of people contacting us on
our website. We have a lot of people who will
(31:34):
do it by email. We get a ton of referrals,
which we absolutely love. Thank you, thank you, But that's
kind of our gig. And Brenda and I have been
around for.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Like I said, a few decades.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And then we now have Brenda's daughter Christine working with us.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
She's been there about two years.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
She still waitresses on the on the side because she
loves that gig and doesn't want to get rid of that.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
But she just came back from Jamaica.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We try to all travel as much as we can
so that we can help people when they go, because
that's the thing is, we can still sell destinations that
we haven't been to, but we have to do a
lot more research where instead when somebody comes in and
starts talking about England, for example, I live there for
three years. My husband was in the military, so and
(32:24):
Brenda has been to Jamaica, like I don't know. I
think we're at about eighteen times now. She does a
lot of the Caribbean because she absolutely loves it and
her husband loves it. So they like to go into
the sun. I like to go to Europe. Love Europe.
So we spend as much time as we can there.
But it's not enough time, right it is, you know,
(32:45):
So we try to be knowledgeable and you know, help you. Besides,
I don't want you to come in, book a cruise
and leave and we'll never see you again.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
That that's not our goal.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Our goal is to we have people who we did
the Disney trip for with the kids and the kids'
spring break, and then we did the wedding and now
we're doing the multi generation with the grandparents and the
kids and the grandkids. But because we've been around that
long and people have thought enough of us and our
service to keep coming back to us, that we've seen
(33:23):
that and that's what we want. We don't want the
one and done.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, that's neat the whole family, the generational thing. I
love it, all right, So final words about traveling in
the holidays.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Okay, I'm going to tell you those two important things
again that I said at the very beginning, Bring your
patience and your sense of humor. You will need them both,
and plan to be there much further or much earlier,
further ahead than you normally would.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Kind of driving on the streets of Omaha these days.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Oh my goodness, yes, yes, I mean anywhere. Even if
you're driving to Grandma's for Thanksgiving, there are going to
be people on the road Tuesday and Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Know that it will happen absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Well, Julie, thank you so much for hanging out with
me on this podcast. You're the owner of Bellevue Travel.
It's Bellevue Travel n e as in Nebraska, Bellevue Travel
ne dot com.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Check it out.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
And if you're planning on doing some traveling over the holidays,
as we've said a thousand times, be patient, be happy,
be kind. You're getting your vacation started with family and
Lucy Chapman on Here's more.
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