Good questions,
straight answers.

VLX Travel is a boutique luxury travel company made up of a team of ten advisors who have, between them, travelled and planned in nearly every corner of the world. We design trips around the people taking them, and we stay with you from the first conversation until you are home again.

What sets us apart is the combination: a team that knows you personally, specialists and on-the-ground partners in every country we send you to, and technology that keeps your whole trip in your pocket.

One advisor leads your trip and stays your main point of contact. Behind them is the rest of the VLX team, including our operations specialists, so your plans never depend on one person's inbox. You can meet everyone on our team page.

Virtuoso is a global network of leading luxury travel agencies and advisors. Its members have access to preferred relationships with hotels, cruise lines, tour operators and on-the-ground partners around the world.

For you, that usually means more than a room or a ticket: the added benefits that come with booking through a Virtuoso advisor can include things like room upgrades, breakfast, resort or spa credits and early check-in or late check-out, where the property offers them. VLX is an affiliate of Coastline Travel Advisors and Virtuoso, which is how we are able to offer these to our clients. Specific benefits vary by property and sailing date, and we confirm exactly what is included before you book.

Our typical planning fee is $500. It reflects the time and expertise your advisor invests in researching, designing and refining your itinerary around you.

That said, every trip and every traveller is different, so we evaluate the fee on a case-by-case basis. If you are wondering what would apply to your trip, just ask. We are always happy to talk it through before you decide anything.

Our rates are on par with booking direct. VLX has rate parity with the hotels and suppliers we work with, so the price you pay through us is the same as you would find booking on your own, for the same room, dates and terms.

If you ever come across a lower publicly available rate, please bring it to our attention and we will look into it right away. And because we book through our preferred programs, you will often receive added benefits that you would not get booking independently.

Yes. Our dedicated air team books flights for our clients, working alongside your advisor so your flights fit the rest of your journey, from the timing of your arrival transfer to the first night of your trip.

We book through our agency air contracts. These give us a direct line to the airlines, so we can negotiate on our clients' behalf and get answers quickly when something urgent comes up. Your advisor shares the options with you, you choose, and our air team takes care of the ticketing.

Yes. We charge a ticketing fee of $50 to $100 per ticket, depending on the routing. It is shown clearly in your quote, alongside the fare, so you can see exactly what you are paying before you decide.

The fee is what pays for the support that comes with the ticket: our air team, and 24/7 flight monitoring (see the next question).

Once your flights are booked with us, our air team keeps an eye on them around the clock, including nights, weekends and holidays. If something goes wrong, from a delay or cancellation to a winter storm, a hurricane or a volcanic eruption, we are already looking at it, and we rebook and reroute you so you are not left queuing at an airline desk or waiting on hold.

It is the part of booking flights that you do not notice until you need it, and it is the one thing you do not get by booking directly with an airline.

Not always, and we would rather be upfront about that. Airlines decide each day which fares they release to travel advisors and which they offer only on their own websites. Sometimes our contracted fares are lower than what you will find online, and sometimes they are higher.

If a fare is meaningfully better when booked directly with the airline, we will tell you, and you are welcome to book it yourself. What you would give up is our air team and 24/7 flight monitoring, so we simply lay out the choice and let you decide.

This is something we are actively working on. We are renegotiating our air contracts, so our fares may improve over time.

It is one of the questions we are asked most often, and it is a fair one. Here is our honest answer.

The rates are not ours to itemise. Most of our destination partners work with contracted, proprietary rates with hotels, guides, drivers and other suppliers. Those arrangements are built on long relationships, and they are shared with us on the understanding that they stay private. A line-by-line price list is simply not something we, or they, can pass along.

In our experience, it rarely helps. When a trip is broken into individual line items, the conversation tends to shift from the experience to the arithmetic: comparing single numbers that are not like-for-like, and spending a great deal of time trying to trim each one. That energy is better spent on making the trip itself exactly right.

It keeps things smoother. Presenting one clear total lets us design, adjust and book faster, with fewer rounds of back-and-forth, and fewer places for details to fall through the cracks.

What we do instead is the checking for you.

Every proposal is price-checked against published rates and comparable options on our side, so we know the hotels are in line with the public market and that the overall value is right for the level of service you are receiving.

Let us know. We are always happy to adjust a proposal to a budget. Rather than an itemised bill, we will talk you through where the biggest investments are and where there is room to flex, such as a different hotel category, a few fewer private experiences, or different dates, so that you can decide what matters most to you.

Always. You will see the full cost of your proposal, and what is included, before you decide to book anything.

No worries! We are happy to take over your reservations.

In some cases, we can add VLX Travel perks to what you have already booked. And even after something is booked, we will do our best to look into VIP status and other added benefits for you. What is possible depends on the property or supplier and how the booking was made, so send us the details and we will tell you honestly what we can do.

Tell us what you have booked, and we will take it from there.