My Experience With A Human Travel Agent
About a decade ago when my wife and I got married, we were referred to a travel agent. We went to his office, gave him our budget and a few preferences, and about an hour later we had booked every detail of our honeymoon. It was a great experience that saved us a lot of time and uncertainty. He also beat the price I had seen on the “Cheap Caribbean” website and had gotten us a free upgrade!
Despite how smoothly it all went, 10 years went by without me using him again. I like doing things online and the simplicity of booking a trip from my living room was enjoyable, despite the enormous amount of time I wasted researching little details. I also love a good deal and always figured the deals I was finding were better than what a travel agent could give me.
Recently, my wife and I were getting ready to book a trip but dealing with the busy schedules of work and two toddles, so that travel agent once again came to mind. We reached out to him and he immediately responded. As I was heading off the bed, I sent him another email with a budget, dates we would like to travel, and a few preferences. I woke up to an email from him with 7-8 options within the rough framework I gave him and he had highlighted his top two choices for us.
My wife and I thought about it for all of 5 minutes before choosing our vacation. Before I shot him an email back, I did a quick search online to see how his price compared. Similar to our honeymoon, it was slightly cheaper than anything I could find, promo codes included. I was under the impression that I was paying the travel agent either directly or indirectly. But in most cases, it’s actually the resort that pays the agent when a customer stays with them. And because the agent knows the resorts and sends them a lot of business, they tend to treat you pretty well!
Aside from saving me hours of time researching and putting together all the details, the benefits we saw firsthand include -
1) Finding the best deal. I was never able to find anything at a better price than what our agent gave us.
2) Optimizing airfare. When we arrived, we got a shuttle to the resort and arrived about 20 minutes after check-in time. When we departed, our shuttle left the resort 30 minutes before the late check-out, which he arranged for us.
3) Coordinating ground transportation. We arrived to a swarm of people looking for ground transportation, much of what was group shuttles. He had arranged a private shuttle that was ready for us as soon as we landed.
4) Making sure we don’t forget anything. Our agent sent us a list of things to remember to make our trip go smoothly. On the list were things like pre-loading our vaccination cards to a travel app and pre-paying a foreign travel tax so we didn’t have to wait at the airport.
5) Getting free upgrades. This is not something that happens every time but a good travel agent will call to see if anything is available, and given their relationship with the resort, they can sometimes get one for you.
Thank you for reading,
Alex
This blog post is not advice. Please read disclaimers.