Talk about on a wing and prayer.
The latest trip trend has vacationers heading to the airport with no destination in mind to experience a phenomenon known as “mystery travel.”
How it works — rather than planning their own adventures, flexible folks are outsourcing the job to an agent (remember travel agents?) who books flights, hotels, restaurant reservations, and the works without their knowledge.
All voyagers need to do is give a few broad location preferences and show up at the airport on time.
“It’s a really fun way to explore destinations that might not have occurred to you as a vacation destination, but you might fall in love with,” Lillian Rafson, the founder of random travel company Pack Up and Go told Good Morning America.
Rafson’s service will organize an excursion — they start at $2,300 for three nights and two people — and will lend some advice on packing, but not much more. Partakers are given a sealed letter to be opened at the airport.
So far, over 40,000 people have used the company for a spontaneous getaway and a similar agency named Journee boasts that nearly 10,000 have done the same.
However, plenty are embracing the idea of DIY mystery travel.
Thank Jim Carrey
Two twenty-somethings from Queens recently explored their own independent mystery travel adventure — all due to the 2008 comedy “Yes Man,” where the trend truly began.
It’s in that laugh-out-loud flick where Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel’s characters board the first flight out of LAX to Lincoln, Nebraska for a romantic getaway.
That memorable montage was enough to inspire 28-year-old Neil Carousso to bring his pal Christian Ladigoski, 30, on a trip to anywhere last November for his birthday.
“We did the whole, let’s just pack up our bag and hit LaGuardia thing like in the movie,” Ladigoski, who packed for all climates, told The Post. “The flight attendant at the front desk said she never had that happen. She was so excited for us.”
Just like with an agency, the dynamic duo gave a few preferences and let the Southwest Airlines counter know they would prefer to avoid any cities.
“We said ‘Just put us in the middle of nowhere,’” Ladigoski, owner and CEO of marketing company Harris Digital, added.
After being handed their boarding passes face down 15 minutes later, Ladigoski and Carousso later learned they were bound for Bozeman, Montana — and that they may have uncovered a secret travel hack.
“They even gave me a bottle of champagne at the flight gate,” Carousso, who owns media production and events company Carousso Enterprises, told The Post. “Later, I tagged Southwest in a social post sharing what we decided to do and they gave me 10,000 reward points.”
In total, their trip — planned in LGA and the sky — came out to nearly $800 each for the Friday to Monday.
That included airfare, an “awesome” Airbnb on a farm, pickup truck rental, food, plus a trip to nearby Yellowstone National Park. And, just like the “Yes Man” scene, they bought tickets to see the arch-rivals University of Montana duke it out with Montana State on the gridiron.
The hometown Grizzlies beat the Bobcats 37-7 and the city boys were a hit with celebrating locals later on, they bragged of the “incredible” experience.
“This was purely for fun, but after I thought maybe we could make a business out of this and the perks with it,” Carousso joked.