Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary
Wendy Wants To Amp Up Your Trip!
Find out how to add a surprise WOW Moment to your itinerary — custom-designed for you, and complimentary!
Wendy’s WOW Moments are exclusive insider experiences that help make travel extraordinary. (Here’s a sampling.) Each WOW Moment is totally different. They vary depending on a range of factors, including the country you’re headed to, the timing of your trip, logistics, availability, and more.
After two qualifying trips, Wendy will email you a WOW Moment certificate, which you can then redeem on a future qualifying trip before the certificate’s expiration date. Read the “Program Rules and FAQs” below so that you know how the process works and you don’t miss out.
PROGRAM RULES AND FAQs
1. How do I earn a WOW Moment?
2. Which trips qualify?
3. How can my travel companions qualify?
4. How do I redeem my WOW Moment certificate?
5. Do WOW Moments expire?
6. After my first WOW Moment, how do I get my next WOW Moment?
7. Does a trip qualify if it’s arranged by someone Wendy is testing for The WOW List?
8. Why is Wendy giving travelers WOW Moments anyway?
1. How do I earn a WOW Moment?
You return from two qualifying trips and submit reviews of those trips within 90 days of your return date. Shortly after you submit your second review, we will email you a WOW Moment certificate for you to redeem on your third trip or a different future trip. We automatically email you the certificate; you don’t even have to ask for it! Every set of three qualifying trips gets you a WOW Moment.
2. Which trips qualify?
A trip will qualify if 3 criteria are met:
1. You must use Wendy’s questionnaire form when you contact the Trusted Travel Expert (TTE). That’s how Wendy learns about your trip so that she can monitor it, and that’s what registers you as a V.I.P. traveler. To reach Wendy’s questionnaire, browse The WOW List to find your ideal TTE, then click the black CONTACT button below that TTE’s listing, and you’ll reach Wendy’s form. If you don’t use that form—if your initial contact with a TTE is by phone, for example, or via the TTE’s website—that trip will not qualify. The only way Wendy can ensure you end up with an extraordinary trip is if she’s in on your trip planning from the start. NOTE: The WOW Moments program launched on October 18, 2015. Any trips that began with a form filled out before October 18, 2015, do not qualify.
2. You must review your trip within 90 days of your return date. Shortly after you get back, Wendy will invite you to review the services of the TTE you used. You have the choice of submitting a private review—for Wendy’s eyes only—or a public review that will be posted on WendyPerrin.com for everyone to read. It’s your honest reviews that determine who Wendy keeps on The WOW List and who gets removed.
3. The trip (the portion arranged by a TTE) must be five nights or longer. A small segment of a trip—say, a day tour or a two-night stopover—is not the same thing as a trip. Wendy’s mission is for you to experience the magic of a start-to-finish journey arranged by a WOW Lister. Complete trips—which we are defining as at least five nights in length—allow a TTE to shine and embellish your trip with special touches as your itinerary unfolds. And Wendy and the TTE need at least five nights to work with in order to add a WOW Moment to an itinerary; otherwise time is too limited, and opportunities are too few, to work a meaningful surprise into your trip.
3. I’m traveling with more than one other person. How can those travel companions qualify?
Are you traveling with a group of friends or family? Would those other couple(s) or family member(s) like this trip to count toward a future WOW Moment for them too? If so, one member of the other couple or family must submit Wendy’s questionnaire form at the start of the trip-planning process, the same way you did, and mention that you are traveling together. Have your friend or family member go to The WOW List, search for the TTE you’ve chosen for your trip, click the TTE’s CONTACT button, and fill out the questionnaire.
4. How do I redeem my WOW Moment certificate?
After you return from your second qualifying trip, and if you’ve submitted a review for each trip within 90 days of your return date, then you will receive by email a WOW Moment certificate for use on a future trip.
Redeem that certificate the next time you contact a Trusted Travel Expert (TTE) on The WOW List: When you submit Wendy’s questionnaire form, a box will pop up where you can input your certificate number.
IMPORTANT:
1. Certificates cannot be redeemed on trips that are already in the works. We need to know at the start of the trip-planning process—meaning, at the time you submit Wendy’s questionnaire form—whether the itinerary will include a WOW Moment. When a TTE has already made lots of plans for your trip, there is often no opportunity left to squeeze in a WOW Moment!
2. Redeem your certificate for a WOW Moment in the destination/specialty that the TTE is listed for on The WOW List. If somebody is listed for, say, Argentina, that signifies that Wendy is confident that that person can deliver a WOW Moment in Argentina. It does not signify the ability to deliver a WOW Moment in Peru or Colombia!
3. Do not redeem your certificate on a trip arranged by someone who is being tested for The WOW List. See FAQ #7 below: “Does a trip qualify if it’s arranged by someone Wendy is testing for The WOW List?”
4. Do not redeem your certificate on a trip that is primarily a cruise. Ever since the pandemic, which led to many operational changes for cruise lines, it has been difficult for TTEs to arrange WOW Moments onboard ships or during shore excursions. We strongly recommend saving your WOW certificate for a trip that is not a cruise. If you have no choice but to use your certificate on a cruise, the TTE will arrange for a non-surprise gift of shipboard credit, as opposed to a surprise exclusive insider experience.
5. Each certificate covers two people: the traveler who earned it, plus one travel companion. (If a WOW Moment certificate was earned by parents and children traveling together on both trips, and the family would like to enjoy the WOW Moment together, please write to questions@wendyperrin.com.)
6. Only one certificate may be redeemed per trip.
7. Remember, the WOW Moment is a surprise. Travelers do not get to pick their WOW Moment!
8. WOW Moments vary significantly, depending on your destination, trip timing, and TTE.
5. Do WOW Moments expire?
Yes. When your certificate arrives in your inbox, you have one year from that date to redeem your certificate. That means you have one year in which to book the trip; it does not mean you have only one year in which to take the trip.
6. After my first WOW Moment, how do I get my next WOW Moment?
WOW Moments work in groups of three: the two qualifying trips that earn you a WOW Moment certificate, plus the third qualifying trip, in which you may redeem it. After your first three qualifying trips, the count starts over: Once you’ve taken two additional qualifying trips, you will receive a second WOW Moment certificate, which you may redeem on your sixth qualifying trip.
7. Does a trip qualify if it’s arranged by someone Wendy is testing for The WOW List?
Perhaps you weren’t even aware that there are numerous destination specialists whom Wendy is testing behind the scenes for possible inclusion on The WOW List, pending feedback from the travelers she sends to them. Travelers who can’t find the person they need on The WOW List write to Ask Wendy, and that’s when Wendy often recommends one of these WOW List candidates.
Trips arranged by a WOW List candidate count toward a WOW Moment, as long as they meet all the other requirements listed in #2 above. But Wendy does not recommend redeeming a WOW Moment certificate on a trip arranged by a WOW List candidate—for the obvious reason that Wendy does not know yet whether that person can deliver a true WOW Moment, since that person is still being tested. In such cases, Wendy advises waiting and using your certificate on your next trip arranged by a full-fledged Trusted Travel Expert listed on The WOW List, so please write to questions@wendyperrin.com so we can postpone your certificate expiration date.
8. Why is Wendy giving travelers WOW Moments anyway?
First, Wendy wants to thank you for trying out her unprecedented WOW trip-planning system.
Second, Wendy wants to incentivize you to submit a review every time you use a travel specialist who is on The WOW List or being tested for it. It’s your reviews that determine who earns a spot on, or gets removed from, the List. It’s your reviews that keep The WOW List up-to-the-minute accurate and reliable.
Third, Wendy is well aware that, as travelers continue to use WOW List experts for trip after trip, their standards and expectations grow higher and higher with each trip. WOW Moments are a way to ensure that your trips arranged by Wendy’s recommended experts just keep getting better.
If you have any other questions, please write to questions@wendyperrin.com.
Happy travels!
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WOW Moment: A Surprise Pastry Class and Picnic in London
The first reader to earn a WOW Moment through Wendy's "WOW Moments" project reviews the experience.
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Is there an additional charge added on for going through your WOW trip request form rather than dealing directly with the WOW agent? Thanks.
Of course not. Be sure to read “How To Get The Best Trip Possible,” which are my FAQs for using The WOW List. See FAQs #5 and #7 in particular.
We are going on a Regent cruise Dubai to Singapore on Nov 14th and have 2 days in Dubai and 3 days planned in Abu Dhabi. We also have 2 1/2 days at Inle Lake in Myanmar. Do you have any suggests for what to do in these locales or a WOW experience ?
Hi Mary Lou,
If you click over to Ask Wendy https://www.wendyperrin.com/ask-wendy-question/ and answer the questions I ask there, then I will be able to give you recommendations suited to your particular needs.
Best,
Wendy
Oh bummer, I just booked 2 trips with WOW listers, but went direct. Oh well, at least I have fabulous trips planned!
Hi Kathy,
There are three reasons, not counting Wendy’s WOW Experiences, to use my trip-request form:
1. You get my trip-monitoring service. That means you get important advice from me at key phases of the trip-planning process (or whenever you happen to need it) and you can reach out to me for help. After all, I can’t track your trip if I don’t know about it.
2. The Trusted Travel Expert will know that Wendy sent you and make you a priority. That’s no small thing, given that TTEs are the best in their field, in high demand, and very busy.
3. Every Trusted Travel Expert has pledged to do the following for any traveler coming via a wendyperrin.com trip-request form:
* Respond to trip requests within 48 hours.
* Make wendyperrin.com travelers a top priority.
* Speak by phone with each traveler who submits a trip request.
* Extend the lowest pricing he/she offers publicly.
* Extend VIP courtesies and benefits.
So, Kathy, there’s no down side to the trip-request form — only up side. It’s all part of my grand plan to provide travelers with trips that are better than they ever thought possible, create a new gold standard that the entire travel-planning industry will be held to, and rehabilitate human-being travel planners in the eyes of skeptical but ill-informed consumers. Wish me luck!
Hi,
We just completed a trip to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan designed by your Central Asia WOW member Zulya Rajabova. We are scheduled to tour with Andrea Ross to Myanmar. Do these count toward your WOW promotion? FYI, Zulya’s trip was outstanding. She took amazing care before, during and after our travels. Hurray for Zulya!
Kathy, I hope you’ll post a review of Zulya here on her review page! Detailed feedback about the Trusted Travel Experts really benefits your fellow travelers.
As for the WOW Rewards program, it only just launched on October 18, so the trips you booked before October 18 do not count toward your total. You’ll earn a WOW Experience on every third trip you book through a Trusted Travel Expert, using our trip-request form, starting October 18. I tried to clarify that above (see point #3). Thank you for understanding. I promise you that the trip you’ve planned through Andrea will contain plenty of WOW. Bon voyage!
Hi Kathy,
I wanted to let you know that we are making sure you have WOW moments throughout your trip to Myanmar and the good news is, since you travel with us in January, that trip will count towards earning a WOW experience from Wendy even sooner! Don’t worry though, we’re making sure your January trip will be exceptional!
Best,
Andrea