Meet Jea, the one
behind Journeys with JB.

I'm Jea (Jay-uh), a luxury travel advisor with Fora, a Virtuoso member agency. I'm based in Chicago and plan trips all over the world, from adventure and expedition trips to honeymoons, milestones, and celebrations. I've been to 40 countries across five continents, so most of what I recommend, I've seen for myself.

Care, Advocacy & Travel as a Reset

Before I became a travel advisor, I spent my career as a surgical nurse. In an operating room, you speak up for the person who can't, you double check everything, and you plan for what could go wrong before it does. I still plan trips that way. I'm also training as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Yale, graduating May 2027, which mostly means I'm a good listener. I'll pick up on what you want out of a trip, even the parts you haven't put into words yet.

Nursing has made me a big believer in time away. Getting out of your routine and somewhere new is one of the best ways I know to reset. So I don't just plan the logistics. I plan trips that give you room to rest, disconnect, and come home with stories worth telling.

What Fora and Virtuoso Actually Mean

Those two names appear on every advisor bio in this business and almost nobody explains them. Virtuoso is a by-invitation network of travel agencies and the hotels that partner with them. Fora is the agency my practice is hosted by, and Fora is a Virtuoso member. My Virtuoso advisor profile is number 18340028 if you want to check it.

What that buys you is specific. On a partner property I can add amenities to a booking that you cannot add yourself: breakfast each morning, a credit to spend at the hotel, a room upgrade when one is sitting empty, an early check-in or a late checkout. And when something goes wrong at eleven at night in a city where you don't speak the language, I have a name and a number rather than a contact form.

What It Costs to Work With Me

Three ways in, depending on how much you want handed off. My VIP Desk is complimentary: if you already know the hotel, I book it at the same rate you would pay going direct, with the partner amenities added on top.

A Signature Journey starts at $350 for trips up to 7 nights, plus $50 for each additional night, and covers hotels, flights, transfers, dining, and the experiences that have to be booked ahead. Cruises and all-inclusive resorts are booked through my VIP Desk at no fee. Beyond that, I handle premium and business class fares, private aviation, yacht charter, group trips, weddings, and travel built around a sporting event.

You are not paying a markup for any of it. Hotels pay advisors a commission out of their own margin, which is where my income comes from on those bookings, and it is the thing people misunderstand most often about how this works.

The Trips I Take On

Honeymoons and milestone trips are most of my work. The dates are fixed, the stakes feel high, and nobody wants to spend the six months beforehand with forty browser tabs open. Safari and expedition travel is the other half of it, Tanzania and Patagonia especially, both of which I have done on my own feet before I ever sold them.

I also plan celebrations, where the destination is rarely the hard part. Getting twelve people on four different flight paths to land in the same place on the same afternoon is the hard part.

And I work in points and miles. Most people carrying a large balance have never been told what those points are actually worth or which transfer partner returns the most for them. There is a calculator on this site that gives you the raw numbers, and then we work out what to do with them.