It always amazes me when I’m in the market or elsewhere around town and run in to a lifelong friend who tells me, “I just got back from a cruise”. As the owner of a travel agency you’d think they wouldn’t want me to know about their trip, since they didn’t book it with me.
I always continue a conversation like this with 미국배송대행 the question, “Did you use a travel agent to book your trip so you’d get the best value?” Quite often the response indicates that the vacationers booked their cruise directly with the cruise line.
When you need legal advice, you call an attorney. When you need your taxes done, you send them to your CPA. When you are ill, you go to the doctor. So it only makes sense that you go to a travel agent when you need help planning a vacation.
Many times a loyal client who has booked with me for years calls, and almost as a parishioner talks with his priest or pastor, says, “I have a confession to make. I decided to book my last cruise online. I’m sorry and I will never do it again. It was a good lesson for me to understand why I’ve always relied on you in the past. Let me tell you what happened…” From there they go on to tell me their particular story of what went wrong on their vacation.
Cost. Perhaps the biggest misconception I see among the general public is the thought, “If I book directly through the cruise line, they won’t have to pay the agent and they will pass the savings on to me.” Think about that for a moment. Do you think a travel consultant would sell a cruise line that undercuts their prices? Of course not! Cruise lines depend on travel agents to fill their ships. So they give travel agencies tools to help them sell more cruises! In many cases the rate given to the consumer will be the same through the cruise line as it is through the travel agent. But in my fifteen years in the business I’ve never seen a cruise line undercut the price I have provided for a client.
Added Benefits. Even if a travel agent is only able to get you the same price as the cruise line, in most (but not all) cases he or she will be able to get added benefits. An agent with years of experience may know ways to get a rate even lower than that shown by the cruise line via a discount or upgrade. He or she may be able to provide a gift such as a shipboard credit, a bottle of wine or some other amenity. That said, consumers should not expect their agent to get an added amenity on every cruise or vacation.