Looks like my travel agent wasn't entirely honest with me

[lllGurulll]

I was pricing out flights and value packages myself and couldn't get a reasonably priced flight at all. My mistake here is that I didn't know I could actually book a flight on the Disney website so I was booking directly through the carriers.

I called a travel agent and they came back with flight info that saved me $200 off of what I was finding so I booked a Disneyworld package with her. She set me up with our flight, hotel and tickets. She also told me that park hoppers were included as a convenience to me. I told her I really didn't need them but she said they were complimentary with the tickets.

I was on the Disney site tonight and found the airline booking portion that I never really looked at before so I entered all the info she gave me and came up with the EXACT same price she got. However, park hoppers are not required which would have saved me an additional $230 that I wanted to use toward food.

It turns out she was using the Disney website to book my trip and passed it off as if she pulled strings to get me such a good deal on the package. Maybe this is normal for a travel agent but it has me kind of upset.

I have sent her an email requesting the removal of the Park Hoppers and I sure hope there are no change fees for that because I never asked for them in the first place and really do not want them. It would be nice if I could just call Disney myself and fix this minor mess though. If I understand correctly, when you book through a travel agent, the travel agent has to do everything for you. Is this correct?

I don't know if this is the right forum for this but I really just needed to vent.

Thanks for listening though.

 

[vicki_c]

Correct, only your TA can make changes to your reservation. There should be no charges from Disney for dropping your hoppers as you are more than 45 days out from your trip (by your ticker).

I agree that your TA might not have given you the whole story - but I guess I'd look at it like she did save you $200, even if she failed to mention that she could have saved you $430. If you hadn't done anything, you'd be paying $200 more than she quoted you.

It is often/sometimes better to book the air portion separately by yourself vs. doing it through Disney as part of your package, but not always.

 

[goofy4tink]

And this is why I don't use a TA. Yes, I've used them in the past. The first time I traveled to WDW I used the TA in my town. Man, turns out they didn't know diddly about WDW. Then, I found out how easy it is to book my own airfare. I thought it was going to be hard and iffy to do...yeah, right. A monkey can do it.
The only time I have used a TA other than that first time was when I was working. I used DU since I was looking for some good discounts and wasn't able to be at my computer first thing in the day. And they did a terrific job for me.

It is almost always a better deal to book your own trip, booking each thing seperately.

 

[RainbowsMist]

And this is why I don't use a TA. Yes, I've used them in the past. The first time I traveled to WDW I used the TA in my town. Man, turns out they didn't know diddly about WDW. Then, I found out how easy it is to book my own airfare. I thought it was going to be hard and iffy to do...yeah, right. A monkey can do it.
The only time I have used a TA other than that first time was when I was working. I used DU since I was looking for some good discounts and wasn't able to be at my computer first thing in the day. And they did a terrific job for me.

It is almost always a better deal to book your own trip, booking each thing seperately.

Ditto!

 

[jlewisinsyr]

The only time I typically use a TA is to book complex itineraries, outside of that, with DVC, the only thing I would use them for is car rental (which is VERY easy to book yourself) and airfare, which outside of looking at flight times (I focus on flight times more then price), is pretty easy and quick.

 

[plutolovr]

I can understand about being upset that she added park hoppers at your cost after saying they were compliementary....but....regarding how she booked your trip, of course we use the Disney Travel Agent website to do this most of the time. The only time I won't is if it's something more complicated than I can do online. I would also never book airfare through Disney, but for the most part they get the same prices that anyone can get by going through the carrier themselves.

 

[lllGurulll]

She fixed it today but made it a point to say that there was no option to remove the park hoppers when it was booked and she assumed that they were automatically included in the price. Obviously she knew nothing about Disney.

I just wish I had realized that the online booking engine at Disney actually allowed me to book my own flight because I would have gotten that $200 discount on my flight as well. I just thought that area was to provide my flight info after I booked my flight.

She also said there was no option to add Magical Express to my package. That has been fixed as well.

Needless to say, I don't think I will ever use a TA again. Especially knowing that I lose any and all control over my travel when I do. all I wanted to do was fix the mistakes myself.

At least it is all fixed now. Lets hope there are no more mistakes.

Thank you for your input everyone.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Just a quick comment about not using a TA again, some can be really good, but what you actually have here is two TAs working on the same reservation. The one you are working directly with and Disney. If she's using Disney's booking system, Disney actually owns your flight, although your TA will most likely work with Disney to resolve any issues.

 

[lllGurulll]

Just a quick comment about not using a TA again, some can be really good, but what you actually have here is two TAs working on the same reservation. The one you are working directly with and Disney. If she's using Disney's booking system, Disney actually owns your flight, although your TA will most likely work with Disney to resolve any issues.

The funny thing here is that she asked me if I wanted her to just cancel the entire reservation so I could do it all myself if I wanted too.

Not really an option if I don't want to lose most of my money to cancellation fees.

Cancelling would have meant cancelling my flight too which would cost me a ton.

 

[lllGurulll]

By the way jlewisinsyr, I look forward to the day I get to finally see the castle as it appears in your signature.

Don't know when that will be though. heh

 

[jlewisinsyr]

By the way jlewisinsyr, I look forward to the day I get to finally see the castle as it appears in your signature.

Don't know when that will be though. heh

We're taking my parent's to Disney around Christmas this year, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm not a big fan of traveling during peak times as I don't have kids and prefer the smaller crowds, but my parent's really wanted to go when they have the lights and Christmas parties.

 

[bumbershoot]

Needless to say, I don't think I will ever use a TA again. Especially knowing that I lose any and all control over my travel when I do. all I wanted to do was fix the mistakes myself.

Well, definitely don't use a TA that isn't a specific WDW TA! I'm not big into TAs, but plenty have used the sponsors of this site, and I used a different WDW-focused one, and had a fine experience, so you just have to choose well.

Glad it all got worked out!