Anyone have any experience using a travel agent? Is there any use for one these days? What do they know, what can they do that I can’t do myself? Are these people clinging on to a dying or dead industry?
I tried once to use one, but they so clearly had no idea what I was looking for that it was pointless. My wife and I were going to Belize and I wanted to stay in some off the beaten path places and they kept proposing resort type places that were ridiculously expensive. Finally, I just did some web research and put together a great trip for less than half of what they were proposing. That was the first and last time I ever tried to use one.
We use them here in Bangkok but mainly for air tickets. They really do seeem to get us some very good deals, at least the ones here do. There’s one in particular we use who is good, but she has no website. TV Air is a long-running local outfit we’ve used occasionally and had good luck with.
Not on small trips around the country, but for big trips, yep. It’s more to cover my ass and make sure someone’s there if something goes wrong. Get to the airport and there’s a problem with your flight? Sic the travel agent on the airline! Lose your Traveller’s Cheques? Call the travel agent! I’m naturally cautious, a travel agent makes me sleep better at night in a foreign country.
I used one a few years ago to book a rather complicated flight – Boston to Baltimore, National to Jacksonville, Jacksonville to Boston.
My husband took a European business trip year before last, and I went with him a week early so we could have a vacation. His company uses a travel agent, and so we used them to find us hotels and a rental car. We were 100% satisfied: we got a wonderful mix of boutique and historic hotels.
I’ve used them for cruises, but otherwise not for personal travel.
I am a big traveler and for the first few of my very large, grown up trips I did, I tried to meet with an agent each time to get ideas. Without fail, they’d offer up whatever packaged trip they are marketing for Travel Company X, full of tour buses and tourists with fanny packs. No amount of me explaining that I do not like that kind of travel would make them understand.
In the end, I always end up booking everything myself after copious amounts of online research. Every single time, I’ve booked a FAR better trip than what was offered by the agents for literally less than half of their quoted price.
With Tripadvisor and Kayak, there’s literally nothing that the agent can do that you can’t for much cheaper. Sure, you have to do the leg work, but it’s definitely worth it. Check out Groupon Getaways and LivingSocial Escapes, too-- they always have a rotating array of unique trips that are AMAZING deals.
We took a trip earlier this year: we flew to Washington DC, took a train to New York, and flew home from there. We figured it might be easier to use a travel agent since the transportation was a bit complicated, and figured we might get some good tips on things to do, interesting places to stay, etc.
What we got was “OK, here’s the trip we’ve booked for you, and here’s what it will cost.” When we asked for a couple options so we could compare, we were somewhat reluctantly provided with some, so that we had “A”, “B”, and “C” to choose from.
In the end, we used Expedia, looked through several dozen hotel choices before we found what we really wanted, and wound up taking a direct flight that the travel agent apparently didn’t know existed (she wanted to book us a one-stop flight with only a 70 minute layover at O’Hare). And we wound up spending several hundred dollars less on the reservations.
I wonder if maybe we just had a completely inaccurate picture of what a travel agent does. We wanted someone who would work with us to put together a vacation that suited our individual needs. I think the travel agent was more used to booking “packages” and really didn’t want to work so hard. I don’t know if our experience is the norm, or if we just got a bad agent, but I think we’ll stick to doing it ourselves from here on.
I owned travel agencies for almost 25 years. Add growing up in my mom’s agency and I have almost 40 years experience in the travel industry.
A good, experienced agent is still valuable. Yes, the internet has given access to the world like we never imagined in the past, and you can do great research about places and hotels, but there’s still more to it than that.
First, your agent will bust their butt to get you the lowest fares and costs they can. It’s a competitive business, even more so now.
Second, they (should) know details about destinations and tour companies and hotels, and customs and the locals that you can miss on Kayak or Hotels.com.
Third, if they know you, they can match you with a hotel, destination, activity or whatever, better than you know.
Yes, I know the internet is a wonderful font of information, but your agent is your partner, and frankly, your employee. You will do better for virtually any trip in many ways if you work with one, rather than compete with them.
There’s 2 reasons why travel agents take so many trips all over. One is to drink and get crazy, and the other is to intimately learn as many cities, markets, hotels, customs, and information as they can so they can share with you. Who the hell are you to just ignore their hard work, huh?
They’re there to help you at virtually no cost if any. Chat a few up, and you’ll find the right one.
It also depends on an agent’s speciality. I can’t find anyone here who can build me a trip to Japan, because it isn’t a big destination for people here and travel agents don’t focus on it. If I wanted to know everything about Disneyland? Travel agents here are all over it because it’s such a popular destination. My mom works at a AAA sort of business but not in the travel department, but they sent her to Disney anyway just so all the employees had an idea of what it was like. Travel agents here are also well versed in tropical vacations because it’s big business for a place experiencing cold winters.
If you travel for a living a travel agent can be a OG send.
We used to have a travel agency that had an office in our headquarters. I got to know the ladies, and OMG they saved me so much time, effort and when things went sideways, they were a lifesaver.
I used to tell people that if my TA called me on the air phone in mid flight and told me to jump out of the airplane, that there would another plane below me to catch me, I would head for the exit. Those ladies were that good.
Also when my daughter traveled to Sweden, the girls arranged for her to use the SAS lounge during her layover at Newark Airport.
Then we got rid of them when Ford bought Volvo, and we had to use Ford’s travel department. What used to take me 3 minutes then took an hour.
Mostly I do my own research. However, I have had three different vacations that had some complications and wrinkles that I thought it would be worth pursuing with a travel agent. For those three times, I gave them what I needed, and what I had found on my own, and said, “If you can *beat this, I’ll purchase it thru you.” Three times out of three they were able to.
*In this case, “beat this” means come up with better departure/arrival/connection times at the same or lower price or a lower price for similar departure/arrival/connection times.
I used one years ago for my honeymoon; they did a nice job of lining up hotels and packages. Haven’t used one since; we don’t travel a lot, though, and usually it’s within driving distance.
I used to be a corporate travel consultant, for over 20 years. I know dick about leisure travel, but if your company is sending you to JFK, JNB, DKT or NRT I was your man. Hotels, limos, trains and rental cars. Also Visas, passports and currency advice.
Good times.
When travel plans go awry, an agent is gold. I once had a layover in Phoenix, and was on my final flight home. The plane that was turned around due to weather and headed back to Phoenix. Once back in Phoenix, everyone was in line at the gate trying to sort out the next flight (which was complicated because while the entire flight was booked on American West (yeah, it was a few years ago) the last leg was on an American West Express flight (which was actually operated by Mesa air). Anyway, American West Express was refusing to book people on the next American West flight that left in two hours, and insisted that everyone take the next American West Express flight which was the next morning, and by the way since it was weather related American West Express was offering nothing in the way of hotel and meals. While most folks were waiting in a long line trying to deal with American West Express, I was on the phone to the travel agent who easily had me on the next flight that evening.
But the best was when I went with a group of friends to Kingstown, Jamaica, to see Sunsplash (it was the first year it moved from Montego Bay to Kingstown). Simply put, Kingstown is a shithole; we were ripped off, threatened with violence, etc. (After we were mugged at gates at Sunsplash, a woman was stabbed in the same area 10 minutes later). The next day, our travel agent has us in a van and headed to Ocho Rios (which absolutely rocked, by the way) at a condo on the beach for no additional cost, other than the long distance phone calls.
Only once, in 1991, for our first major trip. We were going to Hawaii to see the solar eclipse, and spending time on three islands. This was prior to my access to the internet, or any travel-related sites.
I used one just two weeks ago, to book a complicated flight that I just couldn’t put together myself on any of the airline websites. (I refuse to use companies like Orbitz for business travel, which this trip is, because they often leave you high and dry if anything goes wrong). And a few years ago, I used one to book a small ship Alaska cruise.
These days, you can probably do 95% of your travel planning and booking yourself (especially if you’re an experienced traveler). But for that other 5%, a good travel agent is worth his/her weight in gold!
I recently used a travel agency to book a flight from Asia to America. The cheapest prices on Kayak were double what I’ve paid by booking through the agency. A reputable travel agency will have a lot of connections when it comes to booking flights and hotels. I’d be wary of any vacation packages they try to sell you, but they can definitely find you better deals (on certain expenses) than you’d be able to find yourself.
Not true. It was Kayak that I was using when I was researching my upcoming business flight, and it couldn’t find a way for me to book the needed ticket directly with an airline rather than with Cheaptickets.com or Orbitz.com. And God help you if something goes wrong with your flight schedule and you’ve booked through one of those big online travel websites, because neither the airlines nor the website will. That’s a risk I’m willing to accept for some leisure travel, but NOT for work-related travel. The travel agent I used (who specializes in business travel) was not only able to get me an equivalently-priced ticket, but I also have a 24-hour emergency hotline number to call in the event anything goes wrong. by working with the travel agency, I’ve made it more likely I’ll actually make it to my meeting on time.