Travel
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Does anyone use a travel agent?
One of my co-workers raves about her travel agent, but I don't really understand how it works. Does anyone here use one? How are they compensated?
Re: Does anyone use a travel agent?
Blog Sale
<a href="http://s582.photobucket.com/albums/ss262/hzswanson/?action=view
I just used a travel agent to book a trip to London/Paris, and would so far recommend it. From what I understand (and I may be incorrect) travel agents work on commissions from the hotels/airlines that they book you for.
Our travel agent quoted us some prices for hotels/airlines and just to make sure I wasn't paying through the nose I independently researched the prices and they were honestly about the same. (I.e., she told me Le Hotel was $X for 5 nights and when I went to Le Hotel's website they quoted me about the same price.)
I would recommending asking co-workers, friends, etc. if they would recommend a travel agent in your area and calling him/her. Just ask some questions about how they work, etc. Worst case scenario, you decide you're not into it and venture out on your own.
for our last trip to italy (sept 2010) 19 nights, 4 hotels, 1 car, 6 flights, numerous transfers I told her where we wanted to stay and which flights (as i love planning the trips) and let her book allof it. it saved me so much time especially iwth airport transfers etc ..
actually for next weeks trip back to italy-just a week, 2 hotels, 3 flights, i used her as well. my thinking is i'd much rather give the commission to someone i really like tahn some unknown person behind a website. again-i told her where i wanted to stay and when the flight should be.
of course you can still do that with a TA, i do. they can either plan it for you or just book what you've planned.
I have used a TA a few times when it involved international vacations with multiple cities, planes, transfers, etc with my Mom. She only uses a TA. Her mobility isn't good so just winging transfers when we get to a destination doesn't work for us. We also are specific on hotel needs and where she needs to be on a plane.
Only time my husband and I have used a TA is our honeymoon to Greece. They were amazing. We told them where we wanted to stay on which island and what we wanted and they handled the rest. It was very nice actually.
You need to find a trustworthy one that have great reviews.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
Mark Twain
My Travel Blog
We used the same travel agent for our honeymoon and 2 all inclusive resorts that our friends were getting married at.
The only other time I used an agent was for our safari and zanzibar stay in Tanzania but she wasn't exactly a travel agent and was more of a Tour Operator that also booked flights and hotel stays for Tanzania.
We use a travel agent for some of our vacations. She's awesome and extremely knowledgeable. Some of our vacations are through MH's work or if we're taking an easy domestic trip, we don't need a travel agent. But, for anything international, we use her for flights, hotels and land transportation/transfers.
We don't pay her anything and since she is affiliated with premier travel/hotel accrediations, we get sweet bonuses from the hotels by booking through her.
Blog: Call Me Imelda
We use a travel agent for all of our international travel. That way, if there are any changes we need to make, they take care of it. We do, however, research a bit on the specific routes we'd like to take, then forward that to our TA, who will give us a quote for that routing and suggest others we might consider.
We've used the same TA for about 4 years now. Most of her deals work out to be less expensive than booking it ourselves online.
a girl from Hawaii, living the expat experience in India.
I do for trips outside the US.
The one I used quoted me the exact same price I would have paid if I booked it on line ( she actually asked me if I checked!) I like using the TA because if there is a glitch, they help you.
Before I left on vac. I called with a question and she said she had to call me back. She was dealing with a medical issue with someone on a trip outside of the US. She got everything straight for them so they could come home immediately.
Try handling that on your own along with dealing with either yourself or fellow traveler being ill!!
I've just found being the single point of contact is easiest - less chance of miscommunication. Plus, if I've done all the research, what's another hour or so online booking it. We travel quite a bit and so far the only glitch we've encountered was when we used a TA so we're find doing it on our own.