We do have a travel agent that is used primarily to assist on our bookings. She has been helpful in rearranging flights and cancelling reservations in these pandemic times. However, we have yet to have her book a vacation for us, since we primarily use the Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Hotels, or Viking Cruise Lines for most of our travels. I do most of the busy work in arranging our trips. For example, I just scheduled us for Pittsburgh in late September using Spirit Airlines and hotel points for my entire family. My son made plans for the Cubs vs. Pirates tickets as part of our excursion. No, I haven’t yet actually made any Time Travel arrangements!

I’ve used a lot of Marriott points (See Post #1585) over the past few weeks that were essentially Covid accumulated. It’s finally time to travel again and we’ve made lots of plans, starting today. We’ll drive to Tampa this evening, stay at the Airport Marriott and leave our car there for a week in Oakland, Portland, and Eugene. The convenient part about this particular Marriott is that it’s actually inside the Tampa International Airport, where we can walk directly from our room to the terminal. I actually used it one time for just a workout and shower after an overnight flight. When we return late in the evening from Pittsburgh, we’ll stay there overnight again before collecting our car from their lot and driving back home to Venice. 

Over the past few days, I booked my daughter-in- law for a couple of “free” nights in West Palm and my 70th birthday accommodations on the beach after the Tampa Amphitheater Santana/Earth, Wind, Fire concert. I also cancelled an August Marriott Vacation Club reservation that I made by mistake in Panama City and moved it to Singer Island just before the 60-day window to avoid penalties. In fact, I was lucky to discover that I made the error and fortunate that the correct resort still had the dates available that we wanted.  I was the travel agent to blame but it turned out favorably. So, West Coast in June, West Palm in July, Tampa in August, Tahoe in September, Pittsburgh in October, and Disney World, celebrating 50 years, in December, all arranged for this year. We also booked a Japan/Russia/Alaska ocean cruise for 2022 and an Indiana Jones-like, Egyptian, Nile River adventure for 2023. All I had to do was put on my Travel Agent hat.