Travel Agents
Some travelers use travel agents all the time, while others plan everything themselves. I used to not see the value of travel agents, as I believed I could plan everything myself and take care of it myself. When I went to China for work, our company used a travel agency to help purchase all of the plane, train, and bus tickets for us. If we wanted to upgrade to an Economy Plus seat to have extra legroom, we had to pay for the upgrade ourselves. To do that, we had to go to the travel agency and pay. Also, if we had TSA pre-check, we had to communicate that with our travel agent too. Thus, this trip to China was my first experience interacting with a travel agent.
I, of course, paid out of pocket for the upgrade for more legroom! As a tall female at 5 feet 10 inches tall, I just knew the extra legroom on the 12 hour plus flight would be well worth it! I also wanted to sign up for TSA pre-check, and our assigned travel agent was incredibly helpful with that process.
Since I had a good experience with this travel agent, I reached out to her for help when I flew to Europe with my friends. I asked her to help me book my flights since I had never booked an international flight before, and I didn’t want to accidentally pay for Economy Plus seats for both the domestic and international flights. I only wanted Economy Plus seats for the international flights since they would be over 4 hours long. I feel that if a flight is less than 4 hours long, I can handle a basic Economy seat.
Later that year, I reached out to her for help again when I wanted to travel to Charleston, South Carolina with my mom. I was having a hard time finding good flights for us, as well as good deals on hotels. I figured I would ask the travel agent for help. She did well with getting us good flights and a nice hotel. However, the hotel thought we hadn’t paid yet when we checked in, which was annoying since I had already paid the travel agent. I had to call our travel agent to fix the problem, which was eventually fixed. However, it left a sour taste in my mouth, so to speak, and I haven’t used that travel agency again.
Later, when my sister and I were planning our trip to Walt Disney World in Florida, a co-worker who visited Disney at least once a year recommended a different travel agent to help me with my planning. I reached out, and she helped find me a really good deal on a Disney hotel property and gave me great resources for our trip.
My boyfriend at the time (now husband!) and I wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise. I had been wanting to go on an Alaskan cruise for awhile, and we decided to go together. I had never booked a cruise before and was quite nervous about it. My boyfriend’s aunt is a travel agent and had recently posted a Facebook post about cruising, so we reached out to her for help. She helped us book our flights, our cruise, and our hotel in Seattle since we were flying in a day before the cruise started. She was very helpful, and I appreciated how someone else was taking care of all of the details. All I had to do was tell her our preferences, and she took care of the rest! It was nice to not have to plan everything!
Overall, travel agents can provide a great benefit if you are planning a complicated trip or if you are trying to save money. I definitely will use one if I ever go on another international trip or cruise. For domestic trips, I feel like I can handle everything myself. What have been your experiences with travel agents? Do you like them or despise them?
