It’s been a while since our last episode, but it’s time for a big announcement from us! Check out this episode to hear what we’re up to and what’s next for this podcast.
Also, now that it’s holiday travel season, we give 5 tips to help make your holiday travel plans as smooth as they can be for such a hectic time!
Episode Transcript
Rod: Hi, my name’s Rod. And I’m Jess. And in 2018 we sold most of our stuff, quit our jobs, and went on a global adventure with our two young kids as the Jetsetting Family.
Jess: Yes, it was the best time and we loved sharing it with you guys throughout our season one and season two of the Jetsetting Family Podcast.
And then after taking a hiatus, we’re excited to announce that we are back!
Rod: We are back! So, starting on January 3rd, 2023, we will be coming to you with weekly episodes. It’s no longer a season, we’re just going to do this every week, releasing on every Tuesday, sharing more travel tips, recaps on the destinations that we’ve visited, because since season two, we’ve been to probably 25, 30, maybe, new countries. So, we’ve got a lot to talk about! A lot to share. And also, we want to bring back some of our previous guests & family travel experts,
Jess: and the kids! Guys we’re excited. The kids are old enough and can now partake in the podcast as well.
Rod: Yeah. So, until then we wanted to just provide, I know this is the holiday season, so a lot of people are going to be going on trips and we wanted to share with you five holiday travel tips that we’ve used since we typically travel during the holidays. So, our tip number one is…
Jess: Arrive early to avoid delays. Guys, there’s going to be traffic. There will probably be long lines to get checked into your flights, long lines at security, so definitely go early.
Rod: Tip number two: make sure that you’re downloading the app for whichever airline that you’re flying.
One of the cool new things that the airlines are doing now is being able to make adjustments to your reservation, to your flights on the app itself. I know with this holiday season in particular, there’s a lot of predicted, stormy weather coming up, which might lead to some delays and cancellations on the airlines’ end.
So, before you’d have show up at the airport, realize that your flight is delayed or canceled, you’d either call the phone number for customer service or you’d wait in a really long line at the airport. Now with the apps, you’re able to change your flight to find and see what the availability is on future flights and then make those adjustments without having to wait in line or wait on hold on the phone, for a long time.
So definitely get that app. Make sure that you have your locator number on there. Have all your plans on there so then you can make quick adjustments if you need to.
Jess: Tip number three is: make sure you have a seat assignment. Guys, I know it sucks that these airlines now are charging an additional fee to get a seat, and sometimes we risk it and bypass it, but the holidays is not the time to do that.
So, if you are traveling in the next week or two, I would go ahead and purchase that seat assignment. If you don’t have an assigned seat and the flight gets oversold and nobody volunteers because people don’t want to volunteer to miss out on their Christmas traditions with their families, you are the one to get booted and you don’t want to be left behind because you didn’t pay the $15 for your seat.
Make sure you log in today if you haven’t already, and make sure you have a seat assigned.
Rod: Yeah, and I think that’s one of the things with basic economy now, the new fare class where you don’t get assigned a seat. I guess the risks of that is traveling as a family, you might get different seats if you get those assigned or just have the risk, like Jess mentioned, that you’re going to get moved from that flight.
So definitely take a look at what seat class that you have or what ticket class, and then make those adjustments according. All right. Tip number four is to put an AirTag on your luggage. In the holiday season, there’s a lot of traffic, a lot of baggage moving around, and sometimes that leads to your luggage getting lost.
So, one of the things aside from keeping your confirmation ticket for your number, for whichever that luggage, you can also see that on the app where they track where your luggage might be. But in case that you’re traveling on an airline where it doesn’t have that, then try putting an AirTag or another one of those cellular locators on your luggage so that you can see whether it actually left your home airport, if it arrived to your destination, if it got left in one of your layovers.
So that way you know you have a better sense of where you need to be calling, what kind of information that you can give the airlines for you to get your bags.
Jess: And lastly, guys, this is important to, whether it’s the holidays or not, especially if you’re traveling with kids, you need to be traveling with snacks.
There is nothing worse than being on a plane where they are de-icing in the wintertime and it’s causing delays and your kids are hungry and they’re grumpy and tired. And the hangriness, at least with our children, is a real problem. So, whether it’s you’re stuck in traffic because you’re on a road trip, you’re stuck on the flight, whether you are just at the gate and it’s taking off late, having those snacks is key.
And then I’m going to add one bonus tip because it wasn’t on our list. But make sure your kids go to the bathroom before they get on the plane. And even if they say they don’t have to go make them go, because I don’t know how many times we get on a flight and then the kids have to go to the restroom and there’s some sort of technical delay or whatever.
And if the plane’s no longer at the gate, if it’s on the runway. You cannot get up out of your seat.
Rod: We always have this tense moment between boarding and when you reach 10,000 feet or whenever and they turn off the seatbelt light of like, okay, I’m really hoping that our kids aren’t even going to need to go to the bathroom.
Because that would be terrible. And same with beginning the descent and going into that final approach to landing. You should make sure a lot of the times our kids specifically fall asleep and they wake up during that final approach where you can no longer move about in the cabin. So, make sure that you’re planning, because sometimes when they wake up they have to go to the bathroom right away.
So just, yeah. Yes. Be prepared.
Jess: Yes. But definitely I always try to make them pee before we get on the plane. And like Rod said, right when they say, this is your last time to move about the cabin, we wake them up and make them go then.
Rod: So yeah. This was a super short teaser you know, announcing that we are coming back with weekly episodes starting on Tuesday, January 3rd.
At any time, if you want to reach out to us, you can always find us on Instagram @thejetsettingfamily. Or if you want to shoot us a note, I know a lot of you have been asking us, when’s the podcast coming back? When’s it coming back? And we are so happy to finally be releasing new episodes.
Jess: Yeah. We can’t wait to spend 2023 with a lot of you.
Rod: All right. So, until our next episode, Happy Jetsetting!
