Posts Tagged ‘missionary airfares’

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Preparing Mission Teams for 2012 Airfare Increases

The continued soft global economy has airlines cutting flights and raising prices, and that could have a major impact on missions teams and their 2012 budgets. In addition, with the Olympics coming to London next year (a major transfer airport for missionary teams) airline prices are being driven up even more.

USAToday reported that airfares rose in the U.S. nearly 10% for the 12 months ending in August compared to the previous 12 months, and the major U.S. airlines will cut capacity 2%-4% next year. This means 2012 airfares could go up even more. Baggage and miscellaneous airline fees are also on the rise.

In addition to fare increases, travelers can expect tax increases in 2012, especially on international trips. The White House has proposed travel tax increases, the UK is threatening increases, and various individual countries have already raised their taxes. Bulgaria, for example, just raised one of their travel taxes by 8%.

What does all of this mean to the mission traveler? Here are four things to keep in mind:

You can’t use last year’s mission trip budget. If you base your 2012 trips on what you paid for your 2011 trips you can expect to be greatly disappointed. Instead of guessing, call us and let us give you a no-obligation quote so that you can work with realistic numbers.

You may need to alter your trip dates. It is always true that flexible travel dates often lead to substantial savings; this is especially the case for 2012.

Consider alternate airlines. Some frequent missionary travelers have their favorite airlines and will stick with them even if they have to pay a little more. In 2012, however, you could be paying a lot more. Be open to considering other airlines. Your Ministry Travel agent can give you all the details and let you make apples to apples comparison of airlines.

Watch the luggage weight. It is reported that some airlines are charging as much as $450 for overweight bags on international flights. Pay attention to the airline weight rules and know that if your trip involves different airlines, there may be different weight restrictions. This is especially true if you are transferring to smaller regional or national airlines. For example, with certain tickets a team traveling to Tanzania from the U.S. can have three 50-pound bags, but if they take an in-country flight the national airline limits them to one 44-pound bag. Again, contact us for details on luggage rules and for information on our special tickets that allow for free extra bags.

As always, the earlier you can plan your trips and purchase your tickets the better off you will be, especially going into a volatile 2012. Contact Ministry Travel today at 1-877-541-5726 or www.ministrytravel.com and find out about our airfare discounts for your 2012 international mission trips.

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Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Severe Weather Tops Ministry Travel’s Social Media Updates

Looking back this past month at our daily Facebook and Twitter updates, we see a recurring theme: bad weather.

As we all know, Irene landed a real blow to the East Coast. But travelers also had to deal with Tropical Storm Maria in the Caribbean, Typhoon Talus impacting Japan and Hong Kong, Tropical Storm Lee in the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Nanmadol hitting Taiwan, and so on.

We often note in our updates that airlines have issued “travel waivers.” What this means is that airlines have relaxed their rules for cancelling or changing tickets if you are flying to or through cities affected by severe weather. We’ve noticed that since the storm-related travel fiascos of last year, airlines seem to be a little quicker to issue those waivers–which makes sense since they don’t want to deal with thousands of stranded passengers.

Note, however, that every airline’s “waiver” is different. Some will only allow you to postpone your flight for a couple days, some will let you fly early ahead of the storm, while others will let you cancel altogether without penalty. So always check the website of the particular airline that you are flying for their specific waiver details. And of course, keep watching our social media feeds for updates.

One article that we mentioned in our feeds this month was from the U.S. State Department on preparing for hurricane and typhoon season. They gave an 11 point “checklist” for travelers that bears mention here:

  1. Enroll your trip with the State Dept., (travelregistration.state.gov)
  2. Check with the airlines about travel services (the “waivers” that we mentioned earlier)
  3. Carry an international cell phone that can be used to stay in touch with family in the States
  4. Research the region so that you are familiar with local emergency procedures
  5. Pack an emergency supply kit
  6. Secure extra bottled water and non-perishable food
  7. Know local emergency phone numbers as well as the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate
  8. Have a water-proof container for your passport and other travel documents
  9. Get travel insurance prior to your trip
  10. Leave with family back in the States your detailed itinerary with local contact numbers
  11. Keep with you a photocopy of your passport, driver’s license and any credit cards that you take, and leave a photocopy with someone in the States

At Ministry Travel, we not only care about saving you money on airfare for your missions and humanitarian trips, but we also want you to have a safe trip and effective ministry. So continue to watch our blog and social media sites for all the latest information and tools to help you as you help others.

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Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

How the 2012 Olympics Will Impact Flights for Missionaries

Every four years the world turns its attention to the summer Olympic Games as the world’s greatest athletes assemble in one place to seek the coveted price of a gold medal. London 2012 may be the farthest thing away from your mind right now as you begin to plan your 2012 missionary airfares, but it shouldn’t be. That’s because its location—London—could impact you regardless of your actual mission trip destination.

Many flights for missionaries go through Europe to get to destinations in Africa and Asia. That means that you can expect a lot of company in European airports if you’re traveling just before, during or right after the July 27-August 12, 2012 event. Even if you do not plan to fly on an airline that transfers in London, you should still expect major crowding in all of the key European hub airports during that time. London, of course, will be the epicenter.

For those who do transfer through London and want to explore the city during any layovers, they can expect the subway and other transportation methods to be very congested. According to the London 2012 Organizing Committee, they are aiming for a “public transport” Games, meaning there will be no car parking at or around Olympic venues, pushing even more people into using public transportation. Keep in mind that many of the Games’ events will actually take place outside of London and be spread across the UK, including the cities of Cardiff and Glasgow. So travel throughout the UK will be affected as well.

Besides the crowds that you can expect if you fly through Europe during the Olympics, you can also expect to pay more for airfare, especially if you wait much longer to make your airline reservations. We would expect limited inventory for discounted missionary tickets.

The bottom line is if you typically fly through Europe for your short term mission trips, you may want to consider scheduling your trips to avoid the dates around London 2012. If you do need to travel during that time, ask your Ministry Travel consultant about missionary flight options that avoid London. Also, you should make your flight reservations just as soon as possible, knowing that the longer you wait the more you can expect to pay.

We do have clients that take ministry teams to serve at the Olympics. If that is you, our advice is to recruit your teams right away and book your travel just as quickly as possible. Remember that with many of our special airline missionary contracts you can reserve space now and not have to pay anything until 45 days prior to departure. This is a definite advantage to help you save money during next summer’s busy travel time.

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Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Saving Lives Physically and Spiritually

We love hearing the stories of the changed lives that come through the work that our clients do all over the world. Christian mission trips are great reminders that there are those across the street as well as around the world who need a special touch. Often those touches result in spiritual changes. Sometimes they result in saving lives—physically as well as spiritually.

One of those stories comes from Kimberly, a Ministry Travel client, who shares about her favorite mission trip.

One summer in 1998, we were at the black sea with 90 US youth, outreaching at the black sea coast in Romania. It was hot and humid…My husband and myself saw a young lady smoking and crying watching the drama [we were performing] unfold on the stage. We introduced ourselves to her, sharing why we were there, what we were doing. She told us that she was planning on killing herself that night, but something drew her to the beach, and she decided to go. That’s when she met us. God used us to minister to her brokenness. She told us that she wanted to find a church in the area so she could start a relationship with the Lord. God taught us, that we are all missionaries wherever we are. During our 9-5 job, we are missionaries. If we are traveling overseas and working with non-profits, we are missionaries. If we are business men and women, we are missionaries. We are all missionaries while we grocery shop, while we wait to fill our tanks with gas, while we wait to see our doctors, in our churches, our homes, our workplace, our families and our schools. God wants to meet all his children wherever they are. This was just one of the most important things I have learned while working missions.

That was a great lesson that Kimberly and countless others like her have learned through short term mission trips. Do you have a story from a mission trip that you would like to share? Tell us about it on out Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/ministrytravel.

Do you have a mission trip in the planning stages? We’d love to help you
with discounted missionary airfares. There really are special prices on flights for missionaries. Contact one of our missionary travel
consultants at 1-877-541-5726 or on the web at www.ministrytravel.com.

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Monday, July 25th, 2011

Debunking Travel Booking Myths: What Missionary Travelers Don’t Know Can Really Cost Them

The other night my wife and I hosted a get-together for missionary friends who are home on furlough. This family was passing through town and wanted to visit with their contacts in the area, so we invited them to our home. One of the friends who came was a retired missionary who still actively represents his mission through short term trips.

We got to discussing flights for missionaries, and I asked him who handles his missionary airfare arrangements. “Oh, I just find an Internet site and book it myself,” he replied.

“Are you aware that there are discounts available for international missionary and humanitarian travel,” I asked. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized that for years now he had needlessly been paying full airfare for his international mission trips.

“I had no idea,” he replied.

Before leaving, he thanked my several times for giving him the tip. This veteran global traveler is like many others who have bought into myths about booking missionary airfare. Their assumptions and lack of information are costing them not only money but also time and other resources. Here are three myths that I hear frequently as I interact with missionaries and mission trip leaders.

Myth #1: It doesn’t matter where you buy your airline ticket; the prices are all the same.

Between the proliferation of Internet travel sites and aggressive airline advertising campaigns aimed at driving you to their websites, it would seem that the simplest thing is to just book missionary travel online yourself. Or if you know a guy who has a friend who works at a travel agency across town, why not just call there? Does it really make a difference?

Early in my 20+ years of international ministry travel I discovered that airfare can vary greatly and that who you buy from really does make a difference. I discovered that the “secret” to getting discounted fares is knowing the difference between published fares—what you get from airlines and the Internet sites—and contract fares offered by select travel agencies.

I learned this as a young pastor taking a group from my church to serve for a week in Germany. I called the local office of a travel agency “chain” and was given one price on a particular airline, which was the same as what the airline gave me. I contacted another travel agency that I had heard about and got the same flights on the same airline for a couple hundred dollars less per person. The difference was that the second travel agency had contract fares, which are special arrangements with the airlines to sell a certain number of seats at a discounted price.

Today, most major airlines offer missionary or humanitarian contract rates for sale through a select few travel agencies. By utilizing these rates, it is not uncommon to save several hundred dollars off from each ticket. Africa is especially discounted, but savings are available to other continents as well. So it pays to know who to contact, because you can’t get these discounts from just any travel agent or even from the airlines.

Myth #2: You get the same service (or lack of it) regardless of where you book.

Although we live in a business culture that talks much about customer service, most of us who fly regularly don’t see a lot of that when dealing with airlines. Sometimes it feels like you have been dropped onto a deserted island and left to fend for yourself. When you call an airline, their job is to get your issue resolved as fast as possible so that they can tackle the 10 calls queued up behind you.

A good missionary travel consultant will explore a variety of options that not only help the bottom line, but actually make travel easier. There has been many times where my travel counselor came up with better schedules, found innovative ways to save money or suggested ways to avoid a “forced” overnight stay in a city.

Internet sites, of course, don’t provide personal interactions and there are no experts to review the travel arrangements with you. There’s no one to help catch mistakes that you might make. I know a short term mission team leader who typed in the wrong travel dates while booking online an entire team’s international flights. He didn’t realize it until hours after he had hit the “submit” button and purchased the tickets. His mistake was difficult to fix and cost him many hours and a lot of money!

Myth #3: If there is a problem, the airline will take care of me.

Who would have ever imagined that a volcano with an unpronounceable name way up in Iceland would spew ash all over Europe and shut down air travel for days on end? Yet that is exactly what we saw last year. This year, a volcano in Chile is wreaking havoc in the skies over Australia. You never think about flight attendants, pilots, air traffic controllers or even passport control officers walking off the job and airline schedules being sent into disarray, but we have seen all of this in recent days. Then there are the frequent problems like mechanical malfunctions and weather delays that can leave you grounded. You need someone on your side who will look out for your and explore all options, and you just don’t get that from the airlines.

Having traveled to 26 countries across six continents myself, and managed teams working in dozens of additional countries, I have seen international travel counselors come to our rescue on many occasions. If you are stuck in the middle of Timbuktu, it is nice to know there is someone you can call on who can get you out!

With airfare accounting for half or more of most short term mission trip expenses, and knowing that a bad travel experience can really dampen an otherwise great trip, I’ve found that it is best to leave air arrangements to people who know what they are doing. While missionary travel specialists can’t control volcanoes or airline strikes, they sure can come to the rescue when those or a hundred other things happen. That’s good news for all of us who travel abroad to serve.

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Frank Banfill is president of MaxPoint Ministries (www.maxpoint.org). He regularly leads short term mission teams and assists other ministries with their international outreaches. He writes on behalf of Ministry Travel (www.ministrytravel.com).

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Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Missions Round-up: New Tools for Missionaries

Those preparing for international mission trips will be especially interested in some new tools, training and resources that are being used to impact needy people around the world.

e3 Resources has just introduced the MalariaCube, which is the size and shape of a Rubik’s Cube, but has panels that open with pictures on it. The tool is used to educate people about the prevention and causes of malaria, which affects millions of people each year, especially in Africa. Although the tool focuses on the mosquito-borne disease, there is another use. “Our goal at the end of the day is to share the gospel. And in the area of malaria, it’s such a problem that we can tell this story and grab people’s attention—where their heart beats. And then we share the gospel as well,” said Casey See, Executive Director of e3 Resources in a recent interview with Mission Network News. e3’s other “cube” resources include the Evangecube, which has been used by tens of thousands of people world-wide to share the gospel, and the HopeCube, which teaches about HIV/AIDS.

White buckets by the thousands are heading to Africa to help those ministering to people with AIDS. The In-Home Care Kit program of Baptist Global Response (BGR), an international relief and development organization, has provided medical and hygiene supplies to help Christian caregivers and ease the suffering of people affected by terminal illnesses. According to a recent Baptist Press report, more than 4,700 of the five-gallon plastic buckets have been sent over the past two years to South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Guinea and Niger. BGR is hoping to send 6,000 this year. The buckets are filled by U.S. churches and then BGR distributes them through their African network.

With a large percentage of the world that cannot or does not learn from reading, the importance of using stories to share the gospel is taking on more prominence. Many short term teams are getting training in oral communications strategies, and more and more mission agencies are dedicating staff and resources to it. Several of these organizations sponsor workshops to equip people to use stories to tell Bible events and biblical truths. One organization, Mission Aviation Fellowship, is sponsoring a training next month in Boise, Idaho. You can get more information at http://www.maflt.org.

Just a reminder that whether you are taking a mission trip to Africa, tackling a humanitarian project in South America, or flying anywhere for missionary or humanitarian purposes, Ministry Travel can help you save money on missionary airfares. You can request a no-obligation quote from one of our travel consultants at www.ministrytravel.com.

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Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Layover at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5

The three-person mission team stepped off the airplane from their overnight flight from Africa and walked into Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport. Having spent the last 10 days eating rice, beans and other African “delicacies” the team wanted some familiar food.

After clearing security, one of the guys asked the purple shirt-clad airport information representative where the closest McDonald’s was. “We don’t have McDonald’s or any fast-food chain here in Terminal 5,” the man replied. “This is a new terminal and it was designed to be upscale.”

If you fly through London from the U.S., you probably will spend time in Terminal 5. So that you are not too disappointed when you can’t find a Big Mac there, here are some tips to finding other food and shops in the terminal.

While you won’t find a McDonald’s in Heathrow’s Terminal 5, you will find a Starbucks (guess a coffee chain  is in a different category) and some great specialty restaurants. There is a traditional British restaurant called Huxleys on the Departure (upper) level just past security on the north side. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has a food stop just south of the central waiting area, also on the upper level. Wagamama, which is a noodle bar restaurant, can be found near the north seating area.

Our favorite Terminal 5 restaurant, however, is Giraffe, which features international food accented by global music. The service is quick, the food is delicious and the prices are reasonable. It is located on the upper level near security and next to the London 2012 Store.

Speaking of the London 2012 Store, this shop just opened last month in advance of the Olympics which will be held in London next summer. The store features mostly Olympic apparel but also has a selection of gift items including Olympic trading pins.

Besides the typical airport bookstores, duty free shops and convenient markets, Terminal 5 also has a Harrods Department Store, luggage store, travel store and a large electronics shop. Most of those are located on the Gate (middle) Level.

If you have a long layover and decide to venture out of the Terminal and into the city, there is no need to take your carry-on bag. Just stop by the Left Luggage center in the arrivals area near the rail station entrance. For eight British Pounds they will securely store one piece of luggage for up to 24 hours.

No, you won’t find a McDonald’s at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 but you will discover some great food and unique shops.

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