Our official name is "1987 The Travel Group Ltd."  The original agency was called TFC Tours, which specialized in travel to southern Africa.  This was a multi-national company founded in the 1970s, with branches in Johannesburg, London, and Vancouver.   We purchased the Vancouver office in 1987 and changed the name to The Travel Group.

News

 

Out of province, out of mind?

Did you know that as soon as you venture outside of the province, you can't rely solely on your provincial health plan to completely cover your emergency medical expenses?  Each province maintains its own pricing schedule which outlines precisely what treatments it will cover and how much.  These items vary from province to province; and more worringly there are price caps on each treatment.  Often people who need medical treatment outside their own province find themselves stuck with part of the bill!

Many people take on this risk - either knowingly or more often...

Posted on Friday, May 18, 2012

World's best, biggest, strangest...

Ever wonder where you go to find the World's largest hockey stick?  (Bet you it's in Canada!)  Or where would you find the world's largest teepee?  Believe it or no a small town in Alberta boasts the world's largest UFO landing pad!

 

Visit our semi-secret blog, http://tipsbythetravelgroup.blogspot.ca/, for this and much much more valuable information.

Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2012

When is a special meal not so special?
If you order special meals, vegetarian for example, think twice before doing this when you fly business or first class. From my experience, “special meals” can be pretty dreary stuff - sometimes completely inedible! Many airlines seem to pass off the same "special" meal in business/first as they serve their economy passengers. They just shovel the mucky mess onto fancier plates!
 
Most of the time these days, business and first class menus will already offer a...
Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Perfect Room?

What's your idea of "the perfect room" at a hotel?  My friend & client, Jane, suggested this idea. 

She's a very frequent flyer (Super Elite, and enough loyalty cards to fill two wallets!)  We're not talking about perks you expect from a luxury hotel, but the basic minimum standards you expect from any hotel at any price range.  Simple stuff like a decent bed with non-polyester bed spread or a quiet air-conditioner.

We liked the idea so well we built a...

Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2012

What’s the Point? Are Aeroplan points completely useless now?
Many freqent-flyers in Canada have come to the sad conclusion that our national carrier’s frequent-flyer program, Aeroplan, is next to useless. By this, I mean if you planned to use your Aeroplan points to fly business class somewhere exotic – or even not so exotic (like Toronto!) – forget it. Unless you are in that rarified Super Elite club, it is now next to impossible to come up with a free business class (or “premium”) seat to anywhere desirable.
 
In the past, the savvy...
Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2012

25 YEARS IN BUSINESS: 1987 - 2012

This year, The Travel Group celebrates 25 years in business.  When we started in this business, fax machines were considered the next big thing.  We booked most hotels by Telex!  Ronald Reagan was telling Mr. Gorbachov to tear down the Berlin Wall.  That classic, "Walk Like an Egyption" by the Bangles was the number 1 top hit.

We've all come a long way since 1987; but the fact that companies like ours could survive all the changes and turmoil of the past 25 years says something about our loyal customers as well as our talented staff.  Over the years...

Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Travel "smarter" this year?

Now that smart phones have taken over the world, we need to devise stratagies for using them when on the road, particularly when you are outside of Canada/USA, where one wrong move can land you with a $500+ phone bill when you get home!

Traveling with smart phones, tablets, laptops, and other devices is the greatest thing.  You can now easily look up the phone number or address of that restaurant you meant to reserve before you left town, or plot out where exactly you are within that maze of streets in Venice, or decipher a QR code on an item in a boutique.  But,...

Posted on Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Touring "The County" in Southern Ontario
Touring “The County” in Southern Ontario
 
When I was growing up in Southern Ontario, Prince Edward County (PEC) was a sleepy farming community with a few small villages and towns that no one had any particular reason to visit. In the past decade, however, Prince Edward County, located about 200 km east of Toronto and 200 km west of Montreal, has become a first class tourist destination, as well as a home of some very promising new wineries.
 
...
Posted on Friday, December 30, 2011

Coffee Around the World

One way to experience international coffees of the world is to visit a premium cafe in Vancouver, Seattle, or Portland - where they truly take their coffee very, very seriously.  Another way, of course, is to actually visit other countries and make a point of experiencing how they prepare and serve their coffees. 

 

For a funny and informative guide on this subject, visit MSN.com's "A caffeine addict's guide to the world."  Here' you'll be...

Posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Air Canada's Top Tier Program for 2012

Air Canada Top Tier Program 2012 Analysis

Every year The Travel Group analyzes Air Canada’s “Top Tier Program”, with particular focus on the upgrading privileges for Prestige, Elite, and Super Elite.  In the ...

Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2011

What’s the Point? (Are your frequent-flyer miles any good anymore?)

What’s the Point? (Are your frequent-flyer miles any good anymore?)

 

Everyone seems to have travel-based loyalty programs these days.  Seems like you can't buy a banana without factoring in how this helps you get to Bombay or Barbados.  But whose program is the best?

In the debate between collecting airline miles (such as Aeroplan) or credit card reward points (such as RBC Avion) used to come down to this: do you want to use your points for business class travel or economy? It's not quite so simple anymore.
 ...
Posted on Monday, November 7, 2011

Culinary Tourism?

There's a new kid in the block in our industry.  Some refer to it as "culinary tourism," which is pretty self-explanatory.  There have, of course, always been folks whose chief purpose in making a trip was to try out some great restaurants.  With the advent of all the popular food-related reality TV shows, however, culinary tourism is exploding!

And when you think of it, why not?  Food and travel go together naturally.  Travel is about relaxation and adventure - both great reasons why you'd want to go to any good restaurant - whether tried and...

Posted on Thursday, October 6, 2011

United/Continental Roll Out their 2012 MileagePlus Program

Although in my view Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan is the best secondary points program to have (ie. in tandem with Air Canada's Aeroplan program), in fact probably United Airlines' Mileage Plus program is the second most common airline points program in Canada.  With the merger of United and Continental (parent company is called "United Continental Holdings"), they've revamped their "Mileage Plus" program for 2012.

On change is the tier names, which now are closer aligned to Star Alliance tier names.  Premier becomes "Premier Silver," Executive...

Posted on Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Our New Office in Coal Harbour

Come by and visit us at our new Coal Harbour location!

We are excited to show off our new office at 1455 West Georgia.  You'll find excellent street parking and will enjoy our great harbour and Stanley Park views from our 7th floor location.  Drop by any time for a cappuccino or Americano; or visit us at one famous, weekly Friday afternoon wine & cheese open house (3:15pm onwards). 

Posted on Friday, August 19, 2011

Airlines pocket $21 billion in fees in 2010

 While most airlines continue to complain they are losing money, last year 47 of them collected $21 billion in "ancillary fees" - those extra charges for things we often used to expect to get for free with our airline ticket.  Items like baggage fees, seat assignments, in-flight WiFi, and - of course - food!  Even what used to be called plain old good service has a price: witness Air Canada's "On Your Way" service fee.

Airlines are becoming increasingly ingenious, even devious, about things to charge fees for.  For example, several European low...

Posted on Thursday, August 4, 2011

Travel Pro Tools

People used to ask all the time, "How does the Internet affect travel agents?" I've always said the Internet is the best thing that ever happened to our industry.  It supplies us with endless tools for research; and, while some are accessible only to travel professionals, many are pretty cool public sites.

Here's a random list of some of the coolest or most useful sites that you too should know and use:

1. The Bed Bug Registry: learn where those bed bugs are, so that you can avoid them!  If you read the news...

Posted on Thursday, July 7, 2011

Best Beaches?

Everyone and his dog has a best this best that list.  And that is very true for beaches.  And who wouldn't want to know where the best ones in the world are?  In a future article, we'll post our own agents' list, but for now, let's settle on the latest list put together by Tripadvisor.  According to them (ie. their members), the world's best beaches are:

1. Lanikai Beach (Kailua, Oahu): "An absolutely stunning, tranquil, uncrowded oasis!!"

2. Horseshoe Bay Beach (Southampton, Bermuda): "Clean, pink, powder sand with beautiful blue-green...

Posted on Thursday, July 7, 2011

Kindle - a new travel essential?

Kindle, iPad, BB Playbook, mini-laptop?  If you ask 10 people, you'll get 10 different answers to the question: "What is your must-bring electronic device for any trip."   But consider Amazon's Kindle.

Our Carmen says, "It's the best thing EVER for travel!  Forget about using the iPad if you want to read on the beach.  Kindle, with its unique lighting system reads great anywhere.  You can store up tons of new books and magazines."

Cathy, our general manager, test-drove her Kindle on her recent trip to France, and loved it....

Posted on Friday, May 27, 2011

The Perfect Room?

What's your idea of "the perfect room" at a hotel?  My friend & client, Jane, suggested this idea. 

She's a very frequent flyer (Super Elite, and enough loyalty cards to fill two wallets!)  We're not talking about perks you expect from a luxury hotel, but the basic minimum standards you expect from any hotel at any price range.  Simple stuff like a decent bed with non-polyester bed spread or a quiet air-conditioner.

We liked the idea so well we built a...

Posted on Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Travel Lists

Everyone seems to love a “best of” list. And travel is one of those topics where everyone seems to have an opinion. There are basically three different kinds of lists: the corporate lists, where a large (usually media) company such as Conde Nast Magazine or New York Times compiles its top lists, the individual lists, where a well-known personality, such as Andrew Parker or Karen Brown put together their top-rated places, and finally the democratic or “wiki” styled lists such as you see in Tripadvisor.
 
While public (“wiki...
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011

Air Canada's 1MM Program
Air Canada has launched a "Million Mile Program" (1MM) for Aeroplan
members who have earned 1,000,000 miles on Air Canada-flown flights
(since the start of the status program).  This apparently includes
premium bonus miles, but excludes miles from other Aeroplan partners.
 
Benefits are pretty good - a few extra upgrades, and LIFETIME ELITE STATUS.
 
If you have been an Air Canada frequent traveller for many years, you
might want to check your current status by...
Posted on Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Aeroplan Points Starting to Expire

Air Canada will be sending members alerts this year reminding them that "old" points will begin to expire within 3 years.   All points carry a "date stamp", and have a 7-year lifespan.  This policy was implemented in 2007, so all points earned before 2007 were "grand-fathered" and given a 7-year expiry date - ie. Jan. 1, 2014.  So, the first of your "old" Aeroplan points will disappear on that date, and all other points will start to expire after that.

This is lots of time, of course, to use up old points.  Old points...

Posted on Thursday, January 6, 2011

CRM: Why We Don't Do It!

Our industry is probably like most other retail sectors: everyone tells us we MUST have a CRM system.  Even if you are lucky enough not to know what CRM means ("Customer Relationship Management/Marketing") you've undoubtedly experienced it.  You know - the birthday cards from people you've bought something from, the incessant "newsletters", and those emails informing you of this or that great deal, which just happens to somehow relate to something you bought from that person or that company two years ago.

You've heard of Murphy's Law, well here's...

Posted on Sunday, December 5, 2010

Seeing the World Through its Food

There are many ways to explore this planet.  Some people love eco tourism.  Others are beach bums.  Others love cosmopolitan adventures in the great cities of the world - London, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, New York.  But one thing that almost all world explorers have in common - they love food.  In fact, in surveys of frequent travellers, whether business or vacation, the number one most important issue is ALWAYS food!

With that in mind, our general manager, Cathy, has created a great foodie blog, called "...

Posted on Friday, November 26, 2010

Creative Use of Points

Check out your frequent-flyer programs for unusual and unique gift ideas.

Bearing in mind that it is wise to ensure you are getting good value for your frequent flyer miles (see article "The Mathematics of Points"), you may notice that loyalty programs are expanding their rewards to use some pretty creative alternatives to airline travel.  One of these is Aeroplan's Schokolade Cafe (in east Vancouver), which for 5,000 Aeroplan points will offer a chocolate-making class held once a month exclusively for Aeroplan members.  Sounds like a very cool gift?

Posted on Friday, November 26, 2010

The Mathematics of Loyalty Points

The most common question our points-redemption department answers is what is the value of a point anyway? Generally, and for most airlines and credit card points programs, a point is should have the value of 2 cents. The best way to measure a loyalty program is to determine if the award you are interested in works out to 2 cents a point value.

There are exceptions: the AirMiles program and TD Infinite Travel Card are two programs that make things a bit more difficult to calculate.

The reason people ask this question is they are trying to figure out if it is worth it to...

Posted on Friday, November 26, 2010