Lester prefers relaxing spots
By Jae-Ha Kim
When Yassir Lester isn’t working on the Showtime series “Black Monday” or the animated Fox series “Duncanville,” you can hear him on the comedy podcast “My Brother’s Sneaker,” which he co-hosts with his brother, Isaiah Lester. “We came up with the idea by saying, ‘What if we talked about sneakers, but weren’t losers about it and were actually funny, unlike the other sneaker podcasts?’ ” said Lester, who lives in Los Angeles. Fans can stay in touch with him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ yassir_lester) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/yassir_lester/).
Q: Where was your first stand-up performance?
A: I did my first open mic in the Atlanta area when I was 19, so this must have been 2003. It was at a comedy club that was inside of a go-cart racetrack. I’ll let you guess how it went.
Q: What have you been doing during the pandemic during down time?
A: Walks. Some short road trips with my girlfriend Chelsea Devantez, (who’s the) head writer for Jon Stewart’s new Apple+ show, and our dog. I’ve been drawing a lot again and teaching myself to paint with the help of the phenomenal artists M.K. Komins, Michon Sanders and Taravat Talepasand.
Q: Many actors and musicians have told me that they will never ever complain about having to travel for work.
A: That’s insane. I mean, it’s for sure an inconvenience. Yes, hopping on a plane is mad easier. But also, there’s something to be said about the world making us stop and slow down, and maybe there doesn’t need to be 6,000 planes in the air constantly. If anything, I went the opposite way about work and realized maybe I was focused on it too much. I know I am in a very blessed position, so this isn’t me being ungrateful. I think that as a culture, America values work too much.
Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?
A: I like Big Bear Lake and Palm Springs, California, a lot. I like spots where there’s no expectation of doing anything and you can truly relax. The inverse of that is New York. It is just always fun. Living there or passing through, you don’t have to make plans, something will find you. Like crime.
Q: What are your favorite cities?
A: New York, Washington, D.C., Palm Springs, Columbus, Big Bear Lake and Atlanta, ’cause I’m from outside there — a city called Marietta.
Q: Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?
A: Dave & Buster’s. Or Japan.
Q: What kind of research do you do before you go away on a trip?
A: I look at the “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” website to see if there are any good places in the new location. That’s about it.
Q: What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?
A: I went to Las Vegas once and the moment I got there I realized autopay had hit my account and I had no money. We need to raise the minimum wage in this country.
A: Club Med can’t keep your money indefinitely. I think you deserve a full refund for your vacation.
I also think you were smart to work with a travel advisor. You had an extra layer of protection. Altour should have advocated for a quick refund or offered an acceptable alternative.
It’s unclear what Altour did for you. If I had to guess, I’d say it wasn’t stalling but was probably overwhelmed with other COVID-19 refund cases.
A lot of tour operators offered vouchers after the initial outbreak. And many customers accepted them, hoping the pandemic would be over soon. But this is the travel industry equivalent to “long COVID,” a condition where people continue to experience COVID-19 symptoms for longer than usual.
It would have been easier if Altour had found a way to get your first vacation refunded. Then you could have booked a redo yourself when it’s safer, instead of scrambling to use your expiring flight vouchers.
By the way, your hardearned money doesn’t expire. So why should your flight credits?
You could have appealed this to American Express. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of the Amex managers on my consumer advocacy site at www.elliott.org/company -contacts/americanexpress/. I also publish the Club Med executive contacts at www.elliott. org/company-contacts/ club-med/.
I contacted Altour on your behalf. It made arrangements for a full refund.