Ask a travel pro: What are charters?
BY AMY BERTRAND
Every Monday we ask a few questions of a St. Louis travel professional. Last week, we talked about a charter to Huatulco, Mexico. We had a number of questions about this whole charter business, so this week, we talked to Joe Lang of Joe Lang Travel of Creve Coeur about charters.
What exactly is a charter?
A charter flight is a flight that a wholesaler such as Funjet has contracted with to offer seats prearranged in order to give you a nonstop flight to a specific destination, such as St. Louis to Cancun, St. Louis to Montego Bay, St. Louis to Punta Cana. Those are some of the main examples. Only a few cities in the country have this charter flight arrangement. One of the big things they do is save you time. Some of those destinations, it's hard to find a direct flight.
What do you mean by wholesaler?
Funjet is a wholesaler that works with the general public and with travel agents and what they do is form a partnership between airlines and hotels in order to create what the general public often knows of as a package. So there are many other components that can be bundled together, trip insurance, ground transportation, rental car, etc.
Who else does this besides Funjet?
You've probably seen ads for Apple Vacation, they do the same sort of thing, and there are many others like Travel Impressions, Pleasant Holidays. But I only work with a selected few, and there are many reasons I do this. I can't work with every company out there; there are too many of them, too many products. I want to stay focused on the product and on my clients' needs.
What is the appeal of a wholesaler package like this?
One of the great parts is that it is all taken care of for you. You don't have to go shopping around for airline tickets, you don't have to figure out how you are going to get to a hotel, and which room category and how to sort prices. And that's where my role comes in so importantly. All someone has to do is give me their basic information and some idea about where they want to go, and I can plan it.
Does it save money?
What it saves is time. But sometimes a charter can be cheaper, but it depends on what is available. Much of the key to getting what someone wants is availability. And that's why it's such a great idea to book six to eight months in advance for a typical kind of vacation. Holidays, as far out as you can possibly get.
You mentioned trip insurance. Tell us more about it:
Trip insurance protects your travel investment in the event of an unforeseen emergency. Say you get sick, or someone in your party gets sick and you can't travel, you can be refunded the money from your trip in a nutshell. There are a lot of caveats, so I'd recommend reading your policy. I strongly recommend travel insurance, especially for international trips.
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