Learning About “The Art of Vacationing” with Founder Pam Keystone

I tuned into a webinar last week hosted by Pam Keystone, a very successful travel advisor who’s founded two businesses, The Art of Vacationing and AwardTickets Worldwide.  The webinar focused on several great North American destinations, tours and cruises that are accepting reservations for travel this year.  These ranged from small Alaskan cruises to a Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour to a New England cruise, plus many more. (You can watch the webinar by clicking here and typing in the password  fc2XXec#.  Pam is focusing on North America at this point because of uncertainty about when we’ll be able to visit the rest of the world.

I spoke with Pam afterwards to learn more about what she’s been doing for her clients over the last challenging year.  A lot of them are Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI) owners for whom Pam’s team coordinates the planning of their timeshare usage.  “We started The Art of Vacationing in 2008 focusing on MVCI owners and helping them to book their weeks to best advantage.  We still do that, and they kept us busy last year as the resorts closed and re-opened because of the pandemic.”

While working with her MVCI clients several years ago, she started to notice a common theme.  “We found out that most of them had hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of points or miles, and they couldn’t figure out how to best use them.  We started working with these clients to book business or first class international travel for them using their points and miles.  My team has vast experience finding the highest value for our clients, making any necessary points transfers, and booking the flights.  Most travel advisors don’t do this, and many turn to us to help with this aspect of their client’s travel.  Because of this need, we formed AwardTickets Worldwide to focus on this unique service offering.

Photo courtesy of Award Tickets Worldwide

As members of The Exceptional Traveler community know, we are big advocates of using points and miles to save big money on airfare and hotels.  But it does get complicated, particularly when trying to book international flights.  “Airfares and travel awards change very frequently.  Sometimes we’ll monitor several airlines on a daily basis, for months, to find the best deal for our clients,” Pam told me.  “Because we have so much experience booking these flights for our clients, we instantly recognize when we’ve found the best deal and book it immediately before it changes again.  Once we book a flight for someone utilizing their points very economically, they immediately see the value in what we do, and we have a client for life.”

As we chatted, I asked Pam when she thought borders would start reopening for US travelers.  “I wish I knew that answer,” she told me.  “I think we need widespread vaccine protection before that happens.  And not just for those traveling, but also in the host countries.  Even though many Americans are frustrated by the process right now, we’re still ahead of most of the world in getting those shots into people’s arms.  I don’t see other countries opening up until their own citizens are as widely vaccinated as visitors from other countries.  That’s probably not going to happen until late summer or fall.”

Pam’s travel advisor team also handles group and custom tours, as well as leading small group tours of their own.  They’re a member of The Signature Travel Network,  an elite group of travel advisors.  This year’s Art of Vacationing tours include Costa Rica, a luxury train tour of the Canadian Rockies, and Treasures of Egypt and the Nile (hopefully).  She also books a lot of cruises and already sees large pent-up demand for cruising now and over the next couple of years.  “We had about a hundred people on that webinar last week,” she said, “and we talked about five different cruises we could book for this summer or fall.  After the webinar, we received twenty inquiries from interested clients.  People are very excited to start traveling again.”

We think that Pam’s service-focused approach is the perfect complement to what we write about here, particularly in helping her clients unlock the value of their points and miles for business and first class travel.  We spend a lot of time showing you how to earn the points, and you’ll also see some tips on how to use them, but the finding and booking of award flights can be very tricky and is constantly changing.  If you need help, we recommend using AwardTickets Worldwide.  One of the benefits of being a subscriber to The Exceptional Traveler is that we can introduce you to resources like these. When you contact them, please tell them you’re a subscriber.  (Note:  The Exceptional Traveler may receive compensation from The Art of Vacationing and AwardTickets Worldwide.)

Bordeaux, France, one of the stops on a 2022 Art of Vacationing cruise.  Photo courtesy of The Art of Vacationing.

Have you been frustrated trying to use your points and miles?  Share your story with us by leaving a note in the comments section below.  Thanks for being part of the TET community!