Ask the Experts

Joel Widzer

Joel Widzer’s travels have taken him to more than thirty-four countries, logging over 125,000 air miles a year, and accumulating more than 2 million frequent-flyer miles. Joel has developed the unique ability to approach travel from the point of view of a consumer as well as from a business perspective. He regularly speaks to travelers and business people, sharing the secrets of crisscrossing the world in luxury while paying coach prices.

A sought-after speaker and media presence, Joel’s innovative approach to travel has received extensive media coverage. He has appeared on CBS, NBC, and ABC networks, MSNBC News Network, The FOX News Channel, The Travel Channel, CNN, Inside Edition, and in print media including USA Today and The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Joel holds a doctoral degree in the field of industrial organizational psychology. When Joel is not off on one of his many global journeys, he can be found sailing his boat or flying as an instrument-rated pilot. More information on Joel and The Penny Pincher’s Passport to Luxury Travel can be found at www.jetready.com and TravelersTales.com.

Joel is based in Southern California.

Kathy Borrus

Kathy Borrus, the Fearless Shopper, is a specialty retail marketing consultant and freelance writer. She traveled (and shopped) extensively as former merchandise manager and buyer for the Smithsonian Institution Museum Shops. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe and The Business of Crafts, a resource book. She is the author of The Fearless Shopper: How to Get the Best Deals on the Planet and lives in Washington, DC, with her son Josh.

James O’Reilly

To James O’Reilly, books are as important as water, air, and food. He writes: “I would be a sad fellow indeed without them, and this has been true for as long as I can remember. They are as rivers flowing through a universal mind that doesn’t know the bounds of time. I can be with the dead as easily as the living—Homer or Stephen King, Sri Aurobindo or Isabel Allende, Wallace Stegner or Jan Morris, Mary Shelley or Redmond O’Hanlon. Books are the aqua vita of the spirit; they form a kind of background radiation against which I measure my life and my endeavors. They buck me up when I’m down, inspire me out of torpor, galvanize me when I am ready to walk the fire.”