Richard Kerr, founder of Award Travel 101, a private Facebook Group with over 50,000 members, and Toni Southam, one of the moderators of the group approached me back in December. Toni regularly travels internationally with her family of six using points and miles. Despite her love for travel and points, her biggest fear is heading to the airport and taking a flight. We decided to produce an educational podcast/blog series for the AT101 community about Toni and I working together to address her own fear of flying.
I was honored to have the first in our series of podcasts be included in the launching of the new Award Travel 101 Podcast series. In Episode 3: “Meet A Points and Miles Addict Who’s Afraid of Flying“ Toni discusses her worst flight experiences and demonstrates her grasp of irrational versus rational fears. I talk about my favorite free phone app to help control breathing, Tactical Breather. Richard wants to ask me what kind of Emotional Support Animal my daughter tells her friends I am. Toni talks about her first flight after we started working together. It didn’t go perfect.
“I was a few rows behind anyone with my kids and I just jumped up and ditched my kids and ran to the nearest person and sat down and said “Can I please hold your hand?! I’m just so afraid!”
More information about fear of flying, or travel anxiety in general, is available on my website, Travelers Psychological Services. Or, read more about how CBT and Exposure therapy work in treatment for fear of flying.
