For those of you who do: Why do you use your Travel agent?

[Sue L]

Well not only did I get one "I love you" but I also got a bouquet of flowers today from clients today.

 

My client's flight was canceled the other day and he called from the airport in San Juan with about 200 people ahead of him in line. He called me I rescheduled and rebooked his flight from here and emailed the confirmation to him before the line had moved 10 people. He sent me a bouquet of flowers today and he said he will always book his trips with me

 

And the "I love yous" came from 3 couples who I found 1 pricedrop yesterday (on my day off) for 100$ per person and then today found a senior rate that upgraded them from E3 to an E2 for additional 100$ per person off. So I saved them 400$ per couple in the last two days.

[ubdkjrb]

Because we all know if a company cuts their cost then they pass that savings on to the customer and rarely do they keep it themselves ;)

 

I think cruise lines should just go direct as well. Forget the distribution system. It's worked pretty well for the airlines. Look what a joy it is to fly. Look at the great customer service. And look at the loyalty to airlines. Yea, that's a working model.

 

If you would read the post instead of rushing to post another pro-TA remark you would realize that I was making the opposite argument. If the cruise line originally gets the booking but sees it transfer to a TA, that keeps the costs increasing which will result in price increases. So my question was to ask if people really think they are saving money.

 

As for your other remarks - if you aren't having a "joyful" experience flying, I doubt that it would be any different if you booked it thru a travel agent. Same comment for customer service; only it would be worse. We would have to have three way conversations instead of two way. As for loyalty, do you book your airline tickets with one particular carrier or do you book the cheapest fare from point a to b? Me too! Do you belong to a discount store like Costco or Sam's? That's the direct business model at it's best.

 

Peter:)

 

Peter

[John Bean]

My wife is close friends with out Travel Agent so if I want to keep cruising.............

[Richiebaseball]

If you would read the post instead of rushing to post another pro-TA remark you would realize that I was making the opposite argument. If the cruise line originally gets the booking but sees it transfer to a TA, that keeps the costs increasing which will result in price increases. So my question was to ask if people really think they are saving money.

 

As for your other remarks - if you aren't having a "joyful" experience flying, I doubt that it would be any different if you booked it thru a travel agent. Same comment for customer service; only it would be worse. We would have to have three way conversations instead of two way. As for loyalty, do you book your airline tickets with one particular carrier or do you book the cheapest fare from point a to b? Me too! Do you belong to a discount store like Costco or Sam's? That's the direct business model at it's best.

 

Peter:)

 

Peter

 

I did read what you wrote but it seems perhaps you didn't read what you wrote. My post wasn't a pro-TA remark it was simply an observation about an extremely old and an extremely successful business model. That model is a distribution system. See unlike you, I don't think people are somehow less intelligent simply because of the way they choose to book their travel. Direct, a traditional TA, an online TA, a travel club, it makes no difference to me.

 

And your argument appears to be the same argument you continue to try to make and that is a distribution system is inferior to a direct model. That if everyone would just book direct then prices would go down because the cruise lines would have no commission to pay. And it seems that cruise lines insist that the distribution model is the best model for their particular business. And since most are publicly held companies I have to guess that those decisions are made with the bottom line in mind, which the shareholders will certainly hold them accountable for. Nothing personal however I'm guessing smarter minds than yours have made that decision.

 

As for the airlines, there are many reasons that industry is in the state it is in today. Increased fuel prices are certainly part of it however they weren't in very good shape prior to the rise in fuel costs. It takes a lot of money to run a customer service department for a large company. How would the experience be today if instead of a huge reservations and customer service department and all the overhead that goes with it, the airlines instead used a distribution system and then spent their time, energy, and money on running an airline? I don't know the answer however that brings me to this little gem;

 

As for loyalty, do you book your airline tickets with one particular carrier or do you book the cheapest fare from point a to b?

 

I usually book my airline tickets with the carries that offers the best fare. Because let's face it, once inside an airplane they're all pretty much the same. Like you said, point a to point b.

 

So if that's the way you think the cruise lines should be then I would imagine everyone except Carnival should just go ahead and close up shop because most of the time they are the least expensive.

 

By the way, I don't belong to a Costco or Sam's however those are perfect examples of a distribution model and not a direct model. Costco and Sam's are the middlemen for thousands of different companies that have chosen to use a distribution model to get their products and services to the end-user.

[LuvSushi]

I use a travel agent because she also happens to be my favorite auntie. I trust her to find me the best deal possible.

 

She retires next year. I'm not sure yet if I will try and find someone else or go it alone. She has taught me lots!

[CL-JW]

We use our TA for several different reasons.

 

1. Service - she is available to us, even at strange hours (if necessary :))

2. She keeps us informed of upcoming itineraries that she knows may be of interest to us.

 

3. We like having a relationship with our TA, i.e., she knows what lines and / or itins we like or would like to try.

[dellas1000]

Great to hear some good stories and comments. A good Travel Agent is someone that knows there clients and will go the extra mile. There are some Cowboys out there and it ruins it for the ones who do love their job and their clients and always put their clients first. :)