My 2013 Aspirations trip experience with booking the flight for Vegas was a huge disappointment. In my initial email to my Atlantic City host I provided all the information up front to my host. Included were all the people’s names, TR number, FF flyer numbers, flight numbers, current pricing which was $100 below the $750 allowed. Several trades of emails and weeks later with no actual flight confirmations from Passport Travel service the price of the flights rose and was over the $750 and was going to cost me $500 out of pocket. My host eventually got them to find a flight under the $750 and get it booked. I’m about to attempt to book a trip again for 2014 with a much shorter turn around requirement time, I’m hoping I don’t experience the same difficulties as in the past. I was wondering what the current experience was in turn around and response.
There have been some other threads on this recently. Seems there only a few people that work the Passport Travel desk and they are swamped. I think they should put certain requests at the top of the list - meaning if you submit ALL the information up front, they just get it done. Making a reservation when you have all the information takes only a few minutes. Doing it when you do not know what the guest really wants and information is lacking takes way more time.
yes. If you make diamond level 2 in 2014, you have to complete the trip by march 2015. Passport is VERY busy in the few months leading up to expiry......just a heads up.
Hi, I have taken several of these trips now along with Seven Stars Trips. It is really all up to your host. Provide ALL information in one shot to your host (include legal names of all those travelling and their birth dates). Give exact flights that you want and airlines. Your host will probably send your email as is to Passport (but if you do not have everything needed it will be a huge delay). After two weeks go by, I remind my host that I have not received my confirmations of my flights. She will check again. This usually gets them moving a bit. Also, depending on your play, if you go over the amount, it is up to the hosting property whether they will "excuse" the excess airfare or they will charge your TR or you will need to pay the overage. It is up to the HOST property (not your HOME property) what happens with the overage. Also, your Home host has very little control over the limo waiting for you at the airport or what rooms you get. That is all at the discretion of your hosting property. I try to make connnection with a host at that other property and make sure that they have my limo waiting and so on and so forth. Some trips go like clockwork, others do not.
Nothing like this should take two weeks. There us no reason for this level of service. Heck, I would pay somebody $25 an hour to handle it - which should cost me about $5-10. This is simple stuff. Something is seriously wrong that a request for flight reservations takes two weeks - PLUS!
If you dig on the internet enough, you can find the direct phone number to Passport Travel. They are very polite once you get them on the phone and can tell you what the status of your trip is, but they can't do anything without a host signing off on EVERY SINGLE THING, so its a limbo of jumping through hoops and getting approvals. Getting all the stuff coordinated takes a lot of work, especially if your window is small. It also depends on your host. If they are laid back, it can make it much harder to get things finished up quickly.
I certainly know about the every single thing - thing, as I've been there and that's why I asked about current experience is. My host also been through it so i'm sure he's not overjoyed. He's been on vacation and comes back tomorrow and that was another reason I asked because this trip is for a month from today. Funny but my host just sent me email to get the birthday of my friend. Luckily I had just looked it up after reading Localgambler77's post. Thanks you all, I appreciate your posts.
I just wanted to give an update that my host sent me my confirmation for the flight this afternoon. Great turnaround compared the previous experience.