IN LIGHT OF PARIS, WOULD YOU CHANGE YOUR PLANS?

After the evil murders last week in Paris, the thought inevitably occurs to me: At what point would I consider cancelling a trip due to something that has already happened or some concern that it might happen? Many iconic buildings worldwide paid tribute to Paris with the colors of the French flag.  Click here to see more. This is especially relevant as this Friday, the hubby and I are on Air France flights stopping in Paris (both directions) en route to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I'm not sure what it is about, but we have had more than our fair share of travel and major catastrophes colliding. For years we have taken our big trip of the year right after tax season ends on April 15.   Witness what horrific events have all happened in April:  Boston Marathon bombings (4.15.13); Virginia Tech murders (4.16.07); Oklahoma City bombing (4.19.95); Columbine murders (4.20.99).  For that matter, President Lincoln's assassination and the Titanic sinking both occurred in April, but I'm focusing on more recent events ...  Obviously not in April, but the mother of them all was on 9/11/01, when we were in Washington, D.C. We had just entered the Capitol building for a tour on that splendidly clear Tuesday morning when reports started coming in from NY.  Many of you know the rest of the story: being evacuated, seeing the smoke from the Pentagon, then driving across country to get home (we left Thursday and got home Saturday). Nothing could have gotten me on a plane in the days that followed.  Roughly two months later, I took our then 12-year-old son up to San Francisco for a few days via a short Southwest flight. We were about to depart for home when we heard of a plane crash out of JFK. Even though terrorism was ruled out, I immediately cancelled our return flight, rented a car and drove us home ...  With all the trips, only once did we cancel -- to Greece in 2011, but that was because of their chaos and instability.  We went to the UK instead and had a great time.   So that brings us back to the present.  Air France's website has daily updates: All flights are status quo except allow more time for security (FINE with me); no closures or cancellations; if you choose to cancel or change your flight within France, there are no change fees.  In answer to the question I posed, it would have to be more than these horrific events.   Were my mother still alive, she would be begging me not to go.  But you know what?  We don't have a helluva lot of control over our fates, so I'm going to continue checking out the best information available and then go about seeing the world ....

TRAVEL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

True story:  On the recent trip to NYC for a Broadway binge (see last post), I was delighted to sign on to FlyFi, the excellent and free WiFi service offered by JetBlue.  It was by far the best connectivity I have experienced in the air.   The plane was remarkably empty for this mid-week, mid-afternoon flight from LAX to JFK so I promptly took advantage and moved to a completely empty row, if you can even imagine such a thing in today's world!

I decided to share this unique circumstance (room to spread out) and posted the photo below on my Instagram and Twitter feeds with the copy:

travelwithteribAnyone remember a time when you had the entire row to yourself?#JetBlue #toogoodtobetrue #watchingbaseball #upintheair

What's remarkable is that not more than a minute passed when I received JetBlue's response via Twitter: "@TravelwithTeriB  All to yourself? You're sitting next to RiRi!" And we communicated a bit more as you can see from the post on the right. So what is the takeaway?  1) I actually do understand how hashtags work (will wonders never cease??); and 2) If you want to put yourself, your goings-on, your travels out there, it's not that difficult ... but do we really want to??? And why???????????

I think JetBlue is really smart to have personnel committed to social media so as to jump on any mention of the company -- either from direct communication or from reference via hashtag -- in real time and with a sense of humor.  If their future business relies on tech-savvy flyers, then best be "on board" and all in.  

In my day job as a printing broker (providing printed communications and logo products to different corporate clients via the company I founded in 1999, Print Technology), I have great admiration for two clients who are both incredibly shrewd when it comes to social media (Duff's Cakemix @DuffsCakemix and Olive & June @oliveandjune).  While that is used for their businesses, I still learn some "tricks of the trade" for my travel posts.   

My quest for staying up on social media is a daily endeavor.  My favorite is Instagram for stunning photos, brief(!) comments, and a peek into others' lives and others looking at whatever I choose to share. 

  

   

At left is a screenshot of an Instagram post from the recent NYC trip. As an aside, I'm so pleased with myself that I can finally create a screenshot from my phone when I actually want to and not inadvertently! 

What is noteworthy is I used hashtags to highlight the show titles, among which was: #curiousincidentofthedoginthenighttime

Next to the "heart" symbol are other Instagrammers who saw the post and liked it, among whom is "ty_lea"  ... someone with whom I wasn't previously connected but is Tyler Lea, the (phenomenal) star of the show!  I thought it was very cool that he found the post and liked it.

So before I lose every reader, I will sign off by saying look for the next post from far, far away as the hubby and I depart soon for Dubai and Abu Dhabi, certainly a first to be over Thanksgiving!