Travel Agents are a Godsend!

Sharpschruter22 · November 2012

FI's friend just became a travel agent and was more than willing to help us find a honeymoon deal. She didn't cost anything and doesn't get commission off of our trip, she is paid by resorts and other companies so it didn't cost anything extra to use her. She found us a great deal!

We told her we had a 2 thousand dollar budget, wanted an all inclusive resort with a great beach for a week or so. She found us an oceanview honeymoon site with balcony, canopy bed, and jacuzzi at an all inclusive resort in Punta Cana for that price! 5 days including airfare! We couldn't believe it and booked right away. I'm so excited!

Use a travel agent!

yellowrose314 · November 2012

Tell me about it! Our travel agent is a family friend, and we were wanting to do a week in LA/Anaheim to go to Disneyland and 3-4 days in San Francisco on a $2000-2500 budget, and after looking online, thought it was pretty much impossible and that we'd have to choose between the two. Lovely, amazing lady that she is, got our hotels/transfers/airfair/tours etc all under budget! We're so excited

alithebride · November 2012

i agree!! a great travel agent is worth her (or his) weight in gold.

Jells2dot0 · November 2012

I see a lot of negative posts on here about travel agents. I have deal with some awesome travel agents over the years that have really provided me some fanastic guidance and advice. I am so glad that you found someone that was helpful!

kay136 · November 2012

Good to know!!! I was debating whether to go to one after looking online so much about prices! After this post I will def go and see what they can do for me. Any tips on finding a good one?

Jells2dot0 · November 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_travel-agents-are-a-godsend?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:16a71866-4b0c-46c9-9ef9-d73da023a313Post:e19417aa-161d-4062-b70b-ef48b86902d4">Re: Travel Agents are a Godsend!</a>:
[QUOTE]Good to know!!! I was debating whether to go to one after looking online so much about prices! After this post I will def go and see what they can do for me. Any tips on finding a good one?
Posted by kay136[/QUOTE]

Kay- where are you looking to travel? A lot of countires have tourism boards that have ways to search for agents that are specialists. For example, you can go to tahiti-tourisme.com and find a Tahiti Specialist or gohawaii.com to find a Hawaii Specialist. I also recommend gathering 2-3 agent names and contact all of them. By the second e-mail or phone exchange, you should be able to have a good idea of who you would like to move forward with. Be wary of agents who don't really listen to your needs and push a certain resort brand. There are a lot of agents out there that get huge commissions from places like Sandals, so that's all they will try to sell you. So, unless you are dead set on a certain resort and want to work with an agent who is a high seller of that resort, then you may want to move on to someone else. You can also do some pricing yourself on the side (depending on the destination- things like Fiji or Tahiti or Europe are hard to piece together unless you know exactly what you need for transfers or rail, etc.). Any good agent will price match a package you find online as long as it's EXACTLY the same- same flights, same days, same hotels, same dates, etc. I have priced matched before without issue. If an agent gives you an attitude about it, then I'd move on to someone else.

Jells2dot0 · November 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_travel-agents-are-a-godsend?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:16a71866-4b0c-46c9-9ef9-d73da023a313Post:524b930b-4130-4e03-a40b-d75265d70665">Re: Travel Agents are a Godsend!</a>:
[QUOTE]If you are using Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Vacations to Go, etc. you ARE using a travel agent! How do you think those online sites make their money? They are simply huge travel agencies.
Posted by CMGr[/QUOTE]

Yes, they are agencies, but as we have all experienced, you are doing all of the work yourself. So, they can take the commission that would normally be paid to a human and take half of it pay for overheard and half of it to reduce the cost of the package. So, that is why it's always good to still look up things on there and have a real human agent price match if needed. That way, you get your cake and eat it, too- best price and expert advice.

marston258 · November 2012

We went to Liberty Travel and found their quotes to be way higher than what I am finding online. We are finding it hard to get what we want on our budget/make a decision on what we want to do, ect, so I would be willing to talk with someone again, but I am not sure how to find someone that can match or beat what I am seeing online...any suggestions?

kay136 · November 2012

Thanks for the tips! Very helpful. We are going to Hawaii so I will def look at gohawaii.com. I've done a lot of research and def know what prices are online. I'm hoping a travel agent can get me something better. We shall see how it goes. Thanks!!!

Jells2dot0 · November 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_travel-agents-are-a-godsend?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:16a71866-4b0c-46c9-9ef9-d73da023a313Post:022c24b1-3b19-4d4c-adb4-84ebb72bed09">Re: Travel Agents are a Godsend!</a>:
[QUOTE]We went to Liberty Travel and found their quotes to be way higher than what I am finding online. We are finding it hard to get what we want on our budget/make a decision on what we want to do, ect, so I would be willing to talk with someone again, but I am not sure how to find someone that can match or beat what I am seeing online...any suggestions?
Posted by marston258[/QUOTE]

As long as what you are pricing online is exactly the same as what Liberty gave you, print out your online package and sit down with Liberty and ask them to price match it. Again, it has to be the same flights (airlines, times, days), same number of nights, same resort, same hotel room, and same inclusions (a lot of online agencies have you add transfers at the end; liberty would have them already rolled in). If Liberty refuses to match and it's exactly the same, then either book online or contact another agency.

thurmanpowell · November 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_travel-agents-are-a-godsend?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:16a71866-4b0c-46c9-9ef9-d73da023a313Post:022c24b1-3b19-4d4c-adb4-84ebb72bed09">Re: Travel Agents are a Godsend!</a>:
[QUOTE]We went to Liberty Travel and found their quotes to be way higher than what I am finding online. We are finding it hard to get what we want on our budget/make a decision on what we want to do, ect, so I would be willing to talk with someone again, but I am not sure how to find someone that can match or beat what I am seeing online...any suggestions?
Posted by marston258[/QUOTE]

I had the same issue. I've spoken to travel agents twice about two seperate vacations and each time I was able to find something that better suited my needs and was cheaper by myself. And by "by myself" I don't mean through expedia or orbitz, I mean though contacting hotels/airlines directly.

It's my understanding that the value of a TA isn't in price, but in familiarity and experience with a region, so depending on your traveling style that might be worth the hassle.

dazyabbey · November 2012

If you are looking for a travel agent I recommend asking your friends and family. When we booked our trip to Mexico we used a local travel agent and they got us a great deal! I preferred meeting in person though versus over the phone so we went with a local one that many people gave us recommendations for. However when we went to book our honeymoon to Europe he was not very knowledgeable. We got several quotes but ended up booking online through a website called EuropeanDestinations.com because after almost a year of researching they had the best prices and I was confident that it was the best option for us. I checked reviews on the company and double checked my reservations before leaving and we had a great honeymoon. You should check out both options and listen to the advice of the other ladies on this board, they are very knowledgeable.

smartlypretty · November 2012

I used one for the last trip. I'm usually cool with sluething around the internet for hours looking for a great deal, but our last trip involved multi-city air tickets, 3 hotels, 2 transfers, and 4 train rides. No thank lol. I wrote everything down that I wanted and they made me it happen and I just had to pay one price.

Travel Agents are a Godsend!

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