I have been traveling since I was 3 months old and have done a great deal of travel for business in my life. I have used, Expedia, Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, and Kayak, to book flights but I keep getting drawn back to a real human travel agent. I have had my fare share of agents over the years and like the idea that there’s someone available to me to help me out in a jam.
I have been told while sitting on an airplane that I would not make my connecting flight and that as soon as I can get off to go stand in line to be rebooked. I have no affinity to lines so what do I do? I whip out my trusty Nokia mobile phone and call my travel agent back home while sitting in my seat still on the airplane and tell them what’s happened. I am on hold for a few minutes and then get told it’s all taken care of. They tell me I’m rebooked and give me the gate I’m supposed to go to next, my travel agent even sends me an email so I don’t have to write any of the info down (I’m a bit forgetful).
Now this is just one of the many reasons I still like using a travel agent. I recently flew to Barcelona, Spain for Mobile World Congress on very short notice. I didn’t have a hotel room for my first night and all but 5 hotel rooms were booked up in the entire city. Well when I landed I got on my email and found that as requested my travel agent sent me the names and numbers of the hotels that still had vacancy. None of the online travel websites will do that for you.
Of late I haven’t even found much of a difference in the pricing of tickets purchased via a travel agent versus an online site like Expedia. I am such a believer in travel agents that I gave my current travel agents number to my sister and she used them just this evening to book a round trip ticket to Argentina. She actually saved a few dollars by going with the agent.
Right now my travel agent company of choice is the Flight Centre located at the Block in Anaheim.
They have offices all over the world and I think they are headquartered in Australia.
Do you use a travel agent or on line bookings and why?
By the way, if I am not using a travel agent I generally just book directly with the airline I’m flying.
2 responses so far ↓
1 John // Jul 9, 2008 at 8:28 am
After EXPEDIA tried to scam me (click on my name to read about my case) I use Kayak as search engine and then I book directly with the airline or hotel. It is cheaper and saferthan any other online travel site .
2 Barcelona » Barcelona journal: Rumble in Las Ramblas // Jul 22, 2008 at 9:53 am
[...] I still like using a human travel agent and this is whyNow this is just one of the many reasons I still like using a travel agent. I recently flew to Barcelona, Spain for Mobile World Congress on very short notice. I didn’t have a hotel room for my first night and all but 5 hotel rooms were … [...]
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