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Travel Agent/Self-booking

mimee03mimee03 member
10 Comments Name Dropper First Anniversary
edited October 2013 in Honeymoon Discussions
How do you find a good and trustworthy travel agent?

Or if you think it is better to book yourself...then how do you book a cruise or resort so far in advance? You can not even look at the airfare yet so I am unsure of how people go about choosing dates. 

Thanks!! :)
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Re: Travel Agent/Self-booking

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited October 2013
    I've booked all our trips myself. We figure out when we want to go (generally our big trip is early spring)where we want to go(place), what resort/hotel and then book it. This I generally do a year out from our travel date.

    As for airfare, I make sure the place we want to go has resonable flights to it (time wise...no big and/or overnight layovers). I also look at the current prices for the days we will be traveling (Fri-Fri, Fri to Thur...) this gives me a guesstimate on price (I always add a couple 100$ just to be safe). I then wait until airfare is available for our travel dates (331 days from our return date),find the flight I want,pop it into yapta and track it. When the price drops or when I see the seats starting to fill up (whichever comes first) I book it.

    I've done St. Lucia 2x's, Jamaica 2's, Cancun 2x's and Key West 3x's this way.


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  • Jells2dot0Jells2dot0 mod
    Moderator Ninth Anniversary 5000 Comments 500 Love Its
    edited October 2013
    I do a mix of booking on my own versus a travel agent. If you are taking a cruise, agents can often times give you perks like extra on board credits that you can't get on your own. If the air isn't available yet, but the cruise is, I recommend booking with an agent, purchasing their insurance, and then amending the booking with the air is available so it's all under one booking. To find a cruise specialist, just Google "cruise travel agent specialist" or "X cruise line specialist", contact a few of them, and go with the one that you mesh with the best. Also, other knotties can provide recs via PM based on who they used.

    Eta- I thought your post was just cruise centric. I'd figure out what area you want to travel to and then Google for that area. Or by resort. So "Secrets resort specialist" or "Couples resort specialist". Sane goes with them- the agent can add air on later under the same booking. Keep in mind that depending on how far out your're looking, the resort may have not released all rooms and also the best specials may not be out.

     







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  • JoanE2012JoanE2012 member
    5000 Comments 500 Love Its Fourth Anniversary 5 Answers
    For simple airfare/hotel, I book my own via Expedia or the like.  For a more complicated trip (ie multiple flights, interisland flights, transfers, multiple hotels, etc), I will use a live travel agent.  
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  • delujm0delujm0 member
    Fifth Anniversary 1000 Comments 500 Love Its Name Dropper
    If you LOVE to research trips, like I do, you can likely book on your own.  If you don't have the many hours necessary to research this trip fully, or you aren't an experienced traveler and would feel better using a professional, go with an agent.  I would make sure to find one with a lot of favorable reviews.  There are also some agents who specialize in Honeymoons, so you may also want to find someone like that.
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  • GiaspoGiaspo member
    Knottie Warrior 1000 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    If you're traveling during hurricane season, definitely use an agent. We had to rebook our honeymoon not once, but twice and change destinations. It was so much better to have her do all the research and work, no sitting on the phone with the airlines, etc. and at no cost. As PP mentioned, our agent is a honeymoon specialist and was able to provide a bunch of options based on our budget and what we wanted to do. Good luck.
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  • alithebridealithebride member
    Ninth Anniversary 2500 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper

    i've booked what seems like hundreds of btrips on my own and i've also booked with Tas.

    It has nothing to do with liking to research etc.. i still do all of that and tell her what to book but often if there are many components to the trip (like our 21 nighter to italy a few years ago-6 hotls, 5 flights  (international and italian domestic) a plethora of airport transfers, private drivers, rental cars etc..._) it savedme a TON of time having her do it. and she got me a better price than i could find online too. i've also booked a simple one week trip in italy with just one round trip flight and 2 hotels but since she's awesome she got us an upgrade at the 2nd hotel. no difference in price but sometimes they can do far better in other ways. 

    imo good TAs are worth their weight in gold.

     

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