Blogs

ALBERTA FOR THE WIN! Sport teams are not having with most exciting year with tournament travel not happening. Sport travel has become almost non-existent! BUT... Michael Pihach released the below article in PAX news this week, giving Calgary a WIN for its efforts with rapid Covid testing. A very encouraging read to be had below! WESTJET bookings are up thanks to Alberta pilot project, say CEO ED SIMS By: Michael Pihach of PAX NEWS WestJet President and CEO Ed Sims says that Calgary International Airport (YYC) has become a “place of hope” for international travel as Alberta completes its first...

The support is amazing! Over the last couple of weeks, it has been amazing to see how many people have come out of the woodwork to check in on their travel agent friends and those in the travel industry. On the 12th of March 2020 one of our travel agents was sent this YODA picture. On March 12th we truly needed checking in on. Thankfully, we were so obliviously busy helping our clients get home that the devastation of what was happening to our careers, our livelihood was not setting in. It started with Princess Cruise Lines stopping all ships from sailing and within 3 days it seemed like all ...

Recently, Darci Murray our sport team specialist, decided to hit the streets in style! The wrap on Darci's car is very inspiring. One side of the car has Cinque Terre Italy and the other the Sedona Canyon Arizona. If you see her on the streets honk! It's a great car to get stuck in traffic with as you are transported from reality to a holiday. At Personal Travel we really do have travel specialists in all areas...

Personal Travel is honored to play even the smallest role in this young man’s journey. Brendan Wang from the Burnaby Winter Club was recently featured in an article published by the CSSHL (Canadian Sport School Hockey League) speaking of his accomplishments. Top scoring defenceman, scholastic player of the year, multi-sport athlete who is community minded and let's not forget to mention an accomplished pianist. WOW... can you imagine how proud his parents are? Love stories like this!!! It takes a village to raise outstanding people like Brendan and the Burnaby Winter Club is a big part of tha...

11:00 pm and my phone rings! It’s a coach. The flight he was on with 3 hockey teams (64 people) was delayed and landed into destination later than scheduled. Coach is standing at the car rental kiosk and it’s closed. He has 57 hockey players that need to get to their hotel ASAP so they can sleep and perform at the mornings scheduled game. I have to say, I adore this coach. When I answer the phone he is calm, I mean coaches need to be calm right? Games are full of intense moments and players look to the coaches for reassurance. Coach simply says “Darci we have a problem, we have no vans”. I ad...

No kidding this actually happened! A team we represent showed up at their destination to play in a tournament. On the tournament guide the hotel advertised a full hot breakfast was included. Naturally, we booked this hotel as hot breakfasts save teams big dollars. HOWEVER… The hotel was not equipped to provide breakfast. It was a communication error between the hotel and the tournament committee. These things happen. Luckily the team had booked with our agency. We went to bat for the team and had breakfast delivered every morning they were there. As a travel agent we consider it our job to ha...

Where's the bus? Can you say STRESS! Just imagine 19 hockey players and 2 coaches standing outside the Edmonton airport in the freezing cold, waiting for their charter bus to arrive. Coach A thought Coach B organized the bus and Coach B thought Coach A organized the bus. Communication breakdowns happen all the time! Collectively the coaches decided to call us as one thing was certain we had organized the flight. The busless group was picked up within 45 mins of calling us. Connections are everything! Having a travel agent with super connections ensures a seamless trip. Having 1 point person f...