FTCO's Travel Expert Spotlight Featuring Matt Kondrup of Matty K Travel Group

Join us today for the latest travel deals and tips for active travelers from our trusted travel experts.

Transcript

Intro:

Welcome everyone to the Friends That Carry On podcast where we dive deeper into our trips, unpack tips and everything in between. Now, sit back, relax and get ready to go on a trip with your favorite group of friends.

Jim Scott 

Hello and welcome to Friends That Carry On. We’re a group of friends who like to travel the world and try to create FOMO not only amongst ourselves, but in our listeners, too, and hopefully inspire them to travel. We have a regular podcast, as you all know, and we are starting to do a new segment where we bring in our travel experts to just go over latest happenings in the travel industry, business, news, etc., and obviously, their own travel deals of what’s going on and what people should be booking, and that type of stuff. So today, not only do we have Tony Price, Brian Roman, and Eric Fargo in the house, but on the line, we have Matt Kondrup, Matty K, from Matty K Travel in Long Island, New York. Welcome to the show, Matty.

Matt Kondrup 

Thanks guys so much. Yes, it’s Matt Kondrup and that is how Matty K came about because nobody can say that right. Matty K, as everybody knows. Thank you so much guys for having me back today. Happy Friday as it is 5:00 somewhere, very shortly. And, I hope everybody had a wonderful week. Say, exciting end to a very crazy month here.

Tony Price 

Yes, it has been. So, we’re getting ready. This will drop typically on Tuesday, so we’re getting ready to go into the first week here of July. It has been a crazy week, all kinds of spiking with the virus. How’s that affecting you guys right now, Matt?

Matt Kondrup 

Well, depending on which news station you watch the news, apparently, some of our popular destinations are seeing a spike. One of the biggest places, obviously, that everybody’s talking about is Florida and then right behind that is California. Disneyland was slated to open July 17. That got definitely put on hold due to some of the spikes. Disney World is still slated to open on July 11, but we don’t know now with Florida travel. We’ve seen a reverse now where the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are now requiring a quarantine when you return to the New York tri state area or if you’re coming to the New York area from one of those hotspots right now. So, that’s kind of thrown a little bit of a damper in our travel plans that we have going on right now. But, we still have people looking to travel and they’re still willing to go away.

Tony Price 

I knew we were talking about before, wait, what do we call us, the crazy ones. We don’t care. We’re just going to travel as soon as we can. I know we were talking about some short term things that we’re opening up, obviously domestically, but we were talking about some stuff, some deals in Mexico and a few other things. Anything else opening up that you have going on?

Eric Fargo 

How about a non-hotspot destination?

Matt Kondrup 

Well, Mexico opened June 8. They’ve been open. Last time we were on, we had friends at El Dorado Maroma. Karisma has Margaritaville opening up. They’ve still got some great deals left. Just to the end of the month, Hard Rock had their voucher program, which I think, if somebody listens in, they might extend that a little bit. Palace Resorts had that two for one deal. You buy one room, you get a second room for free, and you don’t have to use it at the same time. You can travel whenever you want as a second trip this year. Jamaica is opening the gates slowly. July 22nd, you’ll see Turks and Caicos’ opening. Each island is starting to open slowly. If you listen to all the islands, their reporting that there’s very few, if any, hotspots down there. So, that’s a good thing.

Jim Scott 

Yeah, that’s great.

Tony Price 

Very good. Well, how about your agency? Do you have any specials or deals going on for those spots that you’re promoting right now?

Matt Kondrup 

Well, till the end of the month, yeah, we’ve definitely been pushing the Hard Rock Pay Now and Travel Later promo where you can basically buy a three, four, or five nights certificate for 2020 or 2021. The two for ones at Palace was incredible. The next thing people are starting to think about already is winter break next year. We always say up here in the northeast, as soon as it’s warm here in New York, we’re thinking and planning what we’re going to be doing for the wintertime when it gets cold here again. But, we’ll have to see what comes out for July. You’re going to start to see more destinations open up. We’re going to start to see a lot of deals. Disney released its 2021 packages, some strange things that you have to make park reservations now. You can’t bounce from park to park. The other big announcement, I just booked my first one, is Eastern Airlines is back in the game. Eastern Airlines is going to be flying nonstop JFK to Los Cabos. I just booked my first client on that flight for mid-August, but Wednesdays and Saturdays, direct from … looks like from the seat map, looks like it’s going to be a 767. But a five and a half hour flight, it’s not an everyday thing you find a Los Cabos direct flight from JFK.

Jim Scott 

All right. Nice.

Matt Kondrup 

Yeah. So, that’s pretty exciting. We’re going to be sending a semi our first group of direct flight clients over to Hard Rock Los Cabos.

Brian Roman 

Very cool.

Jim Scott 

Awesome.

Tony Price 

With some of these deals that they’re putting together in coming back, are they given any cancellation policies different than normal or let me reschedule if something happens and if I get conflicted and now they don’t take me because we’re in a DC hotspot?

Matt Kondrup 

Everybody has very liberal cancellation policies at this point up until 24 hours before. It used to be 30 days, you’d be losing deposits. There’s a lot of flexibility. The airlines are still waiting, change fees. There is that misconception that if the flight you have is $400 and you’re changing it to a different date, that you don’t have to pay a difference. If there’s a difference in cost of the fare, you still have to pay that. What they’re waiving is any change fees that might be associated with that. If you had an inexpensive flight, now you want to go there on Christmas week, obviously, the flights are going to cost more money. You still have to pay that difference.

Tony Price 

That’s cool, though. We were talking about Jim booking one of those down to Mexico, Shelly and I, figuring we won’t want our money back. Well, we’ll just go whenever it frees up again. So, might as well jump on some of these opportunities while they exist.

Matt Kondrup 

Everybody’s got great deals. I think Iberostar just sent out a tweet or Instagram alert that a bunch of their resorts had opened up in Mexico. So, they’re rolling. The next big thing is we’ve got Jamaica open. Punta Cana is opening. I believe it’s July 7, I believe it’s the date when Punta Cana airport opens. Somewhere around that point, I believe. I believe it’s July 7, the day that was opening up. So, the resorts will be right behind it allowing guests. The other thing to keep in mind is whatever island you’re going to, they do have these new procedures. Some are requiring COVID test, some aren’t. So, keep that in mind when you’re getting ready to plan your trip to whatever island that is, whether you need a COVID test or not.

Jim Scott 

So, is the test prior to boarding a plane and going to the country or is it upon arriving there, they make you take a test?

Matt Kondrup 

Each island has different policies. The Bahamas, you have to show on prior. That’s also Turks and Caicos, you have to have a negative test within 48 hours prior to arrival. Then you have some islands where you get a temperature check and a health questionnaire upon arrival and if there is a change or something wrong with your health questionnaire or health check, they would further examine you upon arrival.

Brian Roman 

Some of the tests they have out, and they may not be so available for the travel industry, but just within the hospital systems, they have a two hour turnaround. So, I wondered if there was enough supply. That seems to me to be the way to do it. You could just get tested and you hang in the terminal and wait two hours for your results.

Tony Price 

Yeah, I see a business opportunity.

Matt Kondrup 

I’m already five steps ahead of you on that one because we’ve got places that, unless you have symptoms or unless you have a particular job, you can’t get a test. I was looking into, I’m like, “We could do this here in the travel office, in our storefront. We could do a specific COVID testing for travel.” You come in, we’ll swab your nose, we’ll book your airline tickets. One-stop shop.

Jim Scott 

And you’re on your way.

Tony Price 

I’m seeing like a little travel van in the mobile parking spot at the airports, like a drive up COVID test.

Matt Kondrup 

That’s definitely something to keep in mind and there’s no answer. What happens if you get to one of these spots and you fail your questionnaire or you fail your temperature check? They’re talking about doing temperature checks in Disney and I think we said this last time. It’s 100 degrees on a summer afternoon. You’re going to check me. Of course, I’m going to be higher than 100.

Brian Roman 

I have the solution. I mean, there’s enough positive tests. You just send everybody that’s positive to the same resort. They can all vacation together.

Matt Kondrup 

There you go. And now it’s crazy. They’re saying that there are so many people that have the strain that are asymptomatic, they have no symptoms, at all. It’s definitely going to be interesting to see what happens with the people that are asymptomatic and showing up.

Jim Scott 

I was thinking of popping ibuprofen on the plane ride down so when they did take a temperature, hopefully, even if I had a small temperature, it’s bringing it down.

Tony Price 

Get some ice right before you take it.

Eric Fargo 

You come in at 82 degrees. You’re dead.

Jim Scott 

I’ve been told that before.

Eric Fargo 

Oh my.

Jim Scott 

So, Matt, are there any domestic deals going on? I know we’ve got a spike in the southern states going on right now but are there any places or deals that are going on across the US or Alaska, or anyplace like that?

Matt Kondrup 

There’s tons of deals to be had. Florida, everybody was flocking. I was getting probably five or six requests for Dustin, Florida a day. Fort Lauderdale, obviously right now, they said with the spikes and people, there’s some nervousness. We’ll see. I’m not going to question what’s on the news, what’s not on the news, or what’s real, or what’s fake, or what’s not. Everybody makes their own opinion on what they’re comfortable with. But there are definitely some good deals to be had if you want to head down to Florida still, if you are still comfortable doing so. Universal has been open. They’ve got some great deals going. But the domestic travel partners are realizing that people do want to stay and travel domestically. You’re getting a lot of travel by car. I got about four requests this week for Pigeon Forge, all inclusive. I said there’s no all-inclusive in Pigeon Forge. I mean, that might change after this podcast. But beyond that, there’s still people ready to rock and roll and head to Disney. I got a lot of requests still for Disney. We’ve got a big Disney agency and even those who don’t mind wearing a mask in the Florida sun, they’ll be there at rope drop for opening day, as soon as it opens.

Tony Price 

Nice.

Eric Fargo 

That’s pretty cool. Matt, can you tell us where our listeners can go to check out your website and check out some of the great deals that you have right now and upcoming?

Matt Kondrup 

Sure. You’ll find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @mattyktravel. We run a Facebook group about best travel deals anywhere. The other easy way, mattyktravelgroup.com. We’ve always got specials and deals popping up, and you can join our email list, and keep up-to-date of all the travel that we have going on.

Brian Roman 

There we go.

Jim Scott 

That’s great. And I know one other deal that you had going on because I know you are tied to the medical industry, you do have deals for first responders or the medical people. Can you expand on that a little bit?

Matt Kondrup 

Yes, absolutely. So, for those who don’t know my background, being a paramedic, my wife is the Assistant Manager of an emergency room here in New York. We felt it was extremely important to be able to give back to the healthcare workers who have busted their butts and gotten their butts beaten, handed to them the past couple months with everything that’s gone on. So, we do have some special unpublished off the record deals available for your healthcare workers that we’ve worked out with some of our travel partners. If you’re a healthcare worker, for starters, thank you very much for everything that you’ve done to help us. You definitely reach out to us and we can go over some of those specials that we have available.

Jim Scott 

Great, super. Well, Matty, we certainly appreciate you joining us to give us some of the travel insight and travel tips, and travel deals through Matty K Travels. Really appreciate it. We look forward to talking with you again soon. Anything else, guys?

Tony Price 

I think we’re good. But, yeah, Matty, we’ll catch up again here in a couple weeks.

Matt Kondrup 

Yep. Thank you so much, guys. Have a good one. Enjoy the weekend and we’ll see you in the skies real soon.

Tony Price 

Absolutely. All right.

Brian Roman 

Thanks. Matt.

Eric Fargo 

Take care.

Tony Price 

And for our listeners, again, you can catch us at friendsthatcarryon.com, and of course, across all social media platforms @friendsthatcarryon. So, we’ll catch you guys soon. Thanks, everybody.

Outro:

Be sure to join the friends next week for another great discussion. Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already. You can also find the friends and other content at www.friendsthatcarryon.com or check us out on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching friendsthatcarryon. Thanks again for joining us and don’t forget to carry on, friends.