Travel like Indiana Jones? You’ve gotta be kidding
I’m baffled by Expedia’s latest marketing campaign, a tie-in to the upcoming film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The other day, my friends over at the online travel agency sent me a fedora in a box along with a note that promised I could “Travel like Indiana Jones, starting today.”
Now why would anyone want to do that?
Let’s be clear. The specials are pretty interesting, which is more or less how other bloggers have reacted to the initiative. (Sorry, but I refuse to post a picture of my kids wearing the hat.)
Travelers visit the locations that either appeared in (or were inspired by) the Indy movies. Horseback riding and camping with the Bedoins in Petra, Jordan (like in “The Last Crusade”); Elephant safari in India (like in “Temple of Doom”); visiting Incan ruins in Peru (like in the new movie, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”) – you get the idea. They’re also designed specifically to visit UNESCO World Heritage sites. They’re pretty awesome.
As a die-hard fan of the Indy movies, I wondered whether the folks at Expedia really thought this one through.
Travel like Indiana Jones? Let’s ponder that for a moment.
- In “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Indiana Jones is chased by tribal warriors shooting poison darts, swims through piranha-infested waters, shares an airline seat with a snake, gets beaten up in a bar, survives multiple assassination attempts on the streets of Cairo, is imprisoned by Nazis, entombed in an archaeological dig and tied up in a cave while the bad guys are fried by the wrath of God.
- In “Temple of Doom,” Indiana Jones is poisoned, shot at by Chinese gangsters, jumps from an airplane without a parachute, plunges off a waterfall and survives multiple assassination attempts. The bad guys try to throw him off a cliff and, in one memorable scene, nearly rip his heart out.
- In “The Last Crusade,” our hero is thrown into a train filled with dangerous zoo animals, including snakes, lions and a foul-tempered rhino. He survives multiple assassination attempts, the most memorable of which is a high-speed chase by machine-gun wielding villains on motorboats through the canals of Venice. He’s tortured by Nazis, and one of them tries to run over him with a tank.
If you want to travel like that, maybe you need help.
In some ways, I think Expedia has unwittingly illuminated a truth about travel in the 21st century. With customer service at perhaps an all-time low, aren’t we all traveling like Indiana Jones today?
Don’t we all feel at times like we’ve been thrown off a cliff — or under a tank?
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Comments
7 Responses to “Travel like Indiana Jones? You’ve gotta be kidding”
Please share your thoughts...
;-)
Your Indiana Jones-like Adventures with EXPEDIA might end up like this
Buy online a flight ticket (Not necessary to an exotic place)
Find out that your EXPEDIA never book your flight
Spend hours in the phone trying to fix the problem EXPEDIA generated.
Buy another ticket to your destination using a “real travel agent”. (At this point you are afraid that other online travel sites like Orbitz, Priceline or Travelocity will do the same and you prefer to go to a real office, and arrange your flight)
Trying to have your money back (The money EXPEDIA charged in your credit card for the flight they never arranged)
Keep asking EXPEDIA to reimburse your money by pone and receive anything else but lies.
Talk to different EXPEDIA representatives in Philippines
Realize that EXPEDIA is trying to scam you
Create a website to alert people about the EXPEDIA scam (www.victimsofexpedia.com)
Find out that EXPEDIA was cheating people (read a lot of complaint about EXPEDIA here: http://www.expedianews.com dating back from 2001
Find out that a nazi sympathizer claims he is working for EXPEDIA and make fun of a customer that apparently was cheated by EXPEDIA (Don’t miss this episode of the adventure, watch the picture of a guy digitally put a picture of his head on the body of a Nazi officer who’s with Adolph Hitler: http://defineyourworld.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/expedias-finest-in-action/ )
Receive insults from someone working apparently for People Support International (A company that promote themselves as service provider to EXPEDIA in Philippines) (I’ll put the whole story soon since I asked EXPEDIA and People Support International to confirm or deny that that guy work for them . No response so far)
Make jokes about your scammer (EXPEDIA)
This adventure is not over. Read soon for more exciting news about the kind of “Indiana Jones” adventures you can have with EXPEDIA. If you are looking for this kind of adventures. GO ahead book with EXPEDIA and have this fun
The only thing that bothers me is that George Lucas agreed to make business with a scamer. I love his movies but this was a cheap , cheap, deal that Mr. Lucas didn’t need it.
Have you ever watched the movies where they show the map while he is going from point A to point B? If you thought it was rough to have to go through ORD to get from coast to coast, look at how many stopovers Indy has to make… He can’t even get to Italy from New York without taking three or four legs.
SirWired
Well, to be honest, he willingly jumped from the Ford Trimotor airplane (which was out of gas) willingly, rather than being pushed.
You’re right. Fixed it.
Thanks for bringing Expedia’s Indiana Jones tie-in to public attention. How extraordinary!
As an archaeologist and filmmaker who takes people on historical tours (to Turkey) I was amazed to read about Expedia’s archaeological adventures in Indy’s footsteps. It will be fascinating to see if the itineraries have mass appeal and are a success.
On the whole I’m delighted that a big company like Expedia is helping to bring the world’s ancient wonders to a wider audience. Historical holidays can only help us to understand the past and get a better perspective on the present and future - provided they avoid piranhas and poison darts!
Peter Sommer
http://www.petersommer.com
try getting half of what Indianna Jones travels with through the security line! Somehow, I cant’ imagine Indie standing in line in his trademark clothing and hat, covered in dust with his whip and gun, being asked to remove his shoes…
Ed
web/gadget guru