deco_martini
Contributor
I was on a shop trip once to one of the smaller cayman islands. Connecting flight on non-Cayman Airways partner had a mechanical. Missed Cayman Airways flight to GCM. Caused an overnight stay in Miami. LDS paid for a charter flight from GCM to the smaller island to make the trip happen since all flights from GCM to smaller island were almost fully booked.
The LDS took care of the mess, the group just tried to make the best of their vacation.
Sounds good in some respects, right? Well, as you get more seasoned as a diver and get more familiar with the spots, even you can rescue your own dive.
My dive buddy and I have credit cards that earn airline miles. We charge everything including our property taxes, and the result is we get free tickets every so often to somewhere warm where the drinks are cold. We were flying to Cozumel (free) one year from Memphis. DL plane to ATL had a mechanical. Next flight out would miss our Coz connection.
By the time the gate agents had processed our flight, they had us booked to leave Memphis the next morning because there simply weren't any connections to be made that day directly to Coz. We told them "<colorful language> that" and had them fly us to Cancun instead. We had to fly mem-atl-mexico city-cancun, got into cancun at midnight. Taxi to Playa Del Carmen. 4 hours of sleep in a hotel with beds carved from what we were sure was granite, then up at the crack of dawn, across the ferry, quick hotel checkin, and out to the pier where BlueXT picked us up.
We didn't miss a single dive. When the LDS "takes care of you", they take care of the whole group and keep everyone together which means the next flight out needs to have enough seats for everyone. You get some flexibility when it is just you and a partner in dealing with "fun situations". If you like being the travel MacGyver who bails out the trip with bailing wire and duct tape, that might be your thing. If you want to be pampered and pay someone else to do your worrying, use the LDS and don't sweat that their dive leader went free.
If your LDS can't bail out your bad travel situations, then there really isn't a point to the group trip other than if you aren't comfortable researching, planning, calling, reserving, haggling, and booking. To me and my dive buddy, that is part of the fun (along with trying to find mileage rewards to various tropical locales).
Late September we are going to Grand Cayman. The airfare is free (except for tax/fees). We get a condo on the east end, a car, 2 AM boat dives daily, for 635 bucks apiece. But gosh, the dive shop trip to grand cayman cost 2400 dollars!
The dive shop trip of course can't even get discount airfare anymore. The dive shop trip will pick a "safe" time to go to the locale to avoid having a hurricane piss off 20 paying customers who will then blame the dive shop (versus going in the high risk low season when prices are dirt cheap). The dive shop has to cover the price of the dive leaders 200 dollar a day beer and liquor tab, not to mention his meals.
I still occasionally take group trips from my LDS because sometimes they actually get deals. There is nothing like staying at Anse Chastanet for 1/5 list price because of a handshake at DEMA and the need to raise the island's visibility in the dive community.
There are pros and cons to using your LDS as your travel source, one of the cons isn't the dive leader going free. If that really irks you, feel free to book your own travel.
The LDS took care of the mess, the group just tried to make the best of their vacation.
Sounds good in some respects, right? Well, as you get more seasoned as a diver and get more familiar with the spots, even you can rescue your own dive.
My dive buddy and I have credit cards that earn airline miles. We charge everything including our property taxes, and the result is we get free tickets every so often to somewhere warm where the drinks are cold. We were flying to Cozumel (free) one year from Memphis. DL plane to ATL had a mechanical. Next flight out would miss our Coz connection.
By the time the gate agents had processed our flight, they had us booked to leave Memphis the next morning because there simply weren't any connections to be made that day directly to Coz. We told them "<colorful language> that" and had them fly us to Cancun instead. We had to fly mem-atl-mexico city-cancun, got into cancun at midnight. Taxi to Playa Del Carmen. 4 hours of sleep in a hotel with beds carved from what we were sure was granite, then up at the crack of dawn, across the ferry, quick hotel checkin, and out to the pier where BlueXT picked us up.
We didn't miss a single dive. When the LDS "takes care of you", they take care of the whole group and keep everyone together which means the next flight out needs to have enough seats for everyone. You get some flexibility when it is just you and a partner in dealing with "fun situations". If you like being the travel MacGyver who bails out the trip with bailing wire and duct tape, that might be your thing. If you want to be pampered and pay someone else to do your worrying, use the LDS and don't sweat that their dive leader went free.
If your LDS can't bail out your bad travel situations, then there really isn't a point to the group trip other than if you aren't comfortable researching, planning, calling, reserving, haggling, and booking. To me and my dive buddy, that is part of the fun (along with trying to find mileage rewards to various tropical locales).
Late September we are going to Grand Cayman. The airfare is free (except for tax/fees). We get a condo on the east end, a car, 2 AM boat dives daily, for 635 bucks apiece. But gosh, the dive shop trip to grand cayman cost 2400 dollars!
The dive shop trip of course can't even get discount airfare anymore. The dive shop trip will pick a "safe" time to go to the locale to avoid having a hurricane piss off 20 paying customers who will then blame the dive shop (versus going in the high risk low season when prices are dirt cheap). The dive shop has to cover the price of the dive leaders 200 dollar a day beer and liquor tab, not to mention his meals.
I still occasionally take group trips from my LDS because sometimes they actually get deals. There is nothing like staying at Anse Chastanet for 1/5 list price because of a handshake at DEMA and the need to raise the island's visibility in the dive community.
There are pros and cons to using your LDS as your travel source, one of the cons isn't the dive leader going free. If that really irks you, feel free to book your own travel.
