Travel agent question or travel service professional type business?

[LuvOrlando]

Agreed. I'm not sure how most of them make it now days. They don't make enough on flights or hotels to make it worth their while. They do better on cruises and organized tours. People just want the cheapest option and are unwilling to pay extra for the services that an excellent travel agent could provide.

Maybe it is the service offered that is antiquated and the industry simply has not adapted to what people want. I would not want a pricier flight from a travel agent the bottom line would annoy me. However, rename it and I WOULD be OK with a concierge fee for a service removing all the other annoyances from my path. Leave me alone to make arrangements just step in after I do that part and do all the watching.

I would have absolutely no issue paying a flat fee to have all my travel watched and then a commission on time saved by their efforts in the event of a mess, like today.

 

[sam_gordon]

Maybe it is the service offered that is antiquated and the industry simply has not adapted to what people want. I would not want a pricier flight from a travel agent the bottom line would annoy me. However, rename it and I WOULD be OK with a concierge fee for a service removing all the other annoyances from my path. Leave me alone to make arrangements just step in after I do that part and do all the watching.

I would have absolutely no issue paying a flat fee to have all my travel watched and then a commission on time saved by their efforts in the event of a mess, like today.

How much more are you willing to pay? $1k per trip? Per week so they're on call? $10k?

 

[tvguy]

Travel agents use the same software that airlines use (when I was a travel agent, we used SABRE, which is what AA and several other airlines use).

The Prodigy online service had a version of SABRE called EASYSABRE that the general public could use in the early 1990s before airline had booking sites on the internet. I was like the first person on my block to be using the Internet in 1994 and thought I was so smart for planning out flights for a trip myself. I just didn't understand the wacky routing the system wanted me to book, I found a much more direct routing that cut 4 hours travel time out of the trip.* For some reason I hesitated and called my Travel Agent to have her book what I had found. The consumer version of SABRE did not have all the bells and whistles. that the pro version had. My Travel Agent tried to book it and her system flagged it as an "illegal" routing. Not sure why, but if I had booked it myself, I would have found my family of five stuck in Salt Lake City.
That experience still haunts me, which is why I prefer having a pro book my flights even today.

*I was trying to book flights from Sacramento, to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. They wanted to route me through Minneapolis, 1,000 miles our of my way and 4 additional air hours each way. I wanted to route through Salt Lake City. Not sure why that was an illegal connection. Ironically, just checking now, TODAY I can go thru Salt Lake City, but I have to go to Calgary and on to Saskatoon. Still 400 miles out of my way, but better.

 

[MillauFr]

Maybe it is the service offered that is antiquated and the industry simply has not adapted to what people want. I would not want a pricier flight from a travel agent the bottom line would annoy me. However, rename it and I WOULD be OK with a concierge fee for a service removing all the other annoyances from my path. Leave me alone to make arrangements just step in after I do that part and do all the watching.

I would have absolutely no issue paying a flat fee to have all my travel watched and then a commission on time saved by their efforts in the event of a mess, like today.

When a snowstorm hits a major airport during the holiday rush nothing is going to save you.

 

[LuvOrlando]

When a snowstorm hits a major airport during the holiday rush nothing is going to save you.

Maybe I just want to know someone out there is looking for a hotel for me.

For us for yesterday, there is no bad weather, there is no explanation for the cancellation.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Instead of our lovely 11 am flight we paid a ton for tht was supposed to happen yesterday we are out 1K and woke up at 4:30 am for a terrible flight that WOULD have been pennies to the dollar when we picked that lovely flight.

Despise the way airlines run themselves, going to the airport has now slid one step below visiting the Dentist with a toothache.

 

[sam_gordon]

Maybe I just want to know someone out there is looking for a hotel for me.

For us for yesterday, there is no bad weather, there is no explanation for the cancellation.
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Bad weather anywhere in the country can affect your flights, regardless of the weather at your location. I saw an article on my feed that every major airline was hit with multiple cancellations and delays yesterday(? - maybe Saturday?) across the country. What was strange was the article didn't say what caused so many issues, but I'm guessing weather.

Here's a google search for "concierge travel service". I don't know what it would cost to have a TA offer to proactively watch your flights, make changes, and/or book hotel rooms for you. I've had various trips where a TA has made the original plans, had 24/7 support, but in order to use the support (never needed to), I would have had to contact THEM.

Traveling, at any time of the year, can have various headaches.

 

[EACarlson]

Maybe I just want to know someone out there is looking for a hotel for me.

For us for yesterday, there is no bad weather, there is no explanation for the cancellation.
View attachment 1034201

There was no bad weather where you are. But there were huge weather issues all over the Northeast, including what you've stated as your destination, BOS. Planes and crews out of position because people and equipment couldn't get into or out of bases. Since two of JetBlue's bases are BOS and JFK, and they definitely have been dealing with weather all weekend.

Maybe it is the service offered that is antiquated and the industry simply has not adapted to what people want. I would not want a pricier flight from a travel agent the bottom line would annoy me. However, rename it and I WOULD be OK with a concierge fee for a service removing all the other annoyances from my path. Leave me alone to make arrangements just step in after I do that part and do all the watching.

I would have absolutely no issue paying a flat fee to have all my travel watched and then a commission on time saved by their efforts in the event of a mess, like today.

How much would you be willing to pay? And how many others do you think would be willing to pay the same? There has to be critical mass for a business like that to succeed. IIRC, you've complained about flight prices in the past, are you willing to pay an extra 20% on each flight for the one time out of 20 that you need this? And are you willing to bet that the service will make the same decisions you would based on what they know? What seems like a great decision to others, may not for you for various reasons.

 

[kdonnel]

If you really want concierge level service you should look into one of the many private plane subscription services.

One interesting one is https://flyvaunt.com/. It is very low cost but you have to be very flexible, since you are booking one ways that otherwise would have occurred empty.

 

[lanejudy]

For us for yesterday, there is no bad weather, there is no explanation for the cancellation.

There was bad weather all over the northeast this past weekend and it was all over the news about flight delays/cancellations for the returning holiday travel.

When you are traveling it really helps to pay attention to the weather at home and in-between. I know it can be more relaxing to live in the vacation bubble, ignoring that the rest of the world exists; but it really helps to understand (and maybe anticipate) travel challenges. FWIW, you are probably lucky that you got out today considering the ice and snow storms overnight.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm surprised by some of the Cruise Vloggers who are travel agents who won't book air fare for clients, even for a fee. I would think being a full service travel agent they would book everything. The last local Travel Agent I used started charging $25 per person to book air if that was all you were booking. The fee was waived if you were booking a travel package like to Disneyland or a cruise.

I think because of how air travel is these days it's super risky for travel agents to take over that portion of it. Outside of company travel that is. And to be honest these days having a middle man to do stuff can actually create more obstacles most especially if you have working hours for the travel agent. Lot of people I've seen if they get air covered through the cruise line it has a habit of terrible air options usually arriving the same day the cruise leaves which well hasn't worked out enough times for them.

I know even with my husband's work travel where the booking is in the control of the travel agent it has created some really annoying issues from not being able to get a hold of them to make changes or from required documents that he cannot get. They also charge I believe $25-$35 per each phone call to them. For my husband he books the travel himself via the travel portal but the travel agency has the control of it after that so like his SWA flights can't be changed on SWA's website.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Maybe I just want to know someone out there is looking for a hotel for me.

For us for yesterday, there is no bad weather, there is no explanation for the cancellation.
View attachment 1034201

FlightAware is a good website to track your plane as well as it shows radar. I use that website a lot to track flights that my husband is on. When he was flying every 2 weeks for months on end I would get to know the expected routes of the plane he was going to be on and see how it traveled across the country nowadays he's not flying to the same location time after time so I don't tend to know the routes as much. You can see where your plane is coming from as well as when the airline makes a change and takes a plane from a different location.

Also keep in mind wind can affect airports which is still weather related but not something that will show on radar without that option selected.

Also airlines can also cancel flights in anticipation of weather if it helps them reduce overall burdens or merge flights (when two flights are not completely full so they cancel one and push the passengers together into one especially if there were flights leaving in close enough time to each other).

And then keep in mind the airline you're booking with as not all airlines are as good as others when something goes wrong.

 

[Rogue1677x]

The Prodigy online service had a version of SABRE called EASYSABRE that the general public could use in the early 1990s before airline had booking sites on the internet. I was like the first person on my block to be using the Internet in 1994 and thought I was so smart for planning out flights for a trip myself. I just didn't understand the wacky routing the system wanted me to book, I found a much more direct routing that cut 4 hours travel time out of the trip.* For some reason I hesitated and called my Travel Agent to have her book what I had found. The consumer version of SABRE did not have all the bells and whistles. that the pro version had. My Travel Agent tried to book it and her system flagged it as an "illegal" routing. Not sure why, but if I had booked it myself, I would have found my family of five stuck in Salt Lake City.
That experience still haunts me, which is why I prefer having a pro book my flights even today.

*I was trying to book flights from Sacramento, to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. They wanted to route me through Minneapolis, 1,000 miles our of my way and 4 additional air hours each way. I wanted to route through Salt Lake City. Not sure why that was an illegal connection. Ironically, just checking now, TODAY I can go thru Salt Lake City, but I have to go to Calgary and on to Saskatoon. Still 400 miles out of my way, but better.

Oh I cringe thinking back to when I was a travel agent. It was the advent of Travelocity and such. Plus, SABRE was DOS based, so it literally was a Blue screen and white letters for me. Whether there was a better version the agency I worked for could have purchased, I don't know. They didn't pay me much and times were changing, so I left the field after a few years.

 

[tvguy]

I think because of how air travel is these days it's super risky for travel agents to take over that portion of it. Outside of company travel that is. And to be honest these days having a middle man to do stuff can actually create more obstacles most especially if you have working hours for the travel agent. Lot of people I've seen if they get air covered through the cruise line it has a habit of terrible air options usually arriving the same day the cruise leaves which well hasn't worked out enough times for them.

I know even with my husband's work travel where the booking is in the control of the travel agent it has created some really annoying issues from not being able to get a hold of them to make changes or from required documents that he cannot get. They also charge I believe $25-$35 per each phone call to them. For my husband he books the travel himself via the travel portal but the travel agency has the control of it after that so like his SWA flights can't be changed on SWA's website.

Yeah, my last two cruises the cruise line booked the air fare. This year on Princess, we had a land tour the week before with them so we arrived 7 days before the cruise, but the routing was funky. The originally booked us Sacramento to Portland to Washington, DC, but changed it to Sacramento to Seattle to Washington D.C. We met two other couples on the ship and none of us had the same routing coming or going. They routed us NYC to DC to Sacramento home, another couple NYC to Chicago to Sacramento, and the other couple NYC to Denver to Sacramento.
Celebrity did book us the day of, and when I questioned that, they said since I had their travel insurance, they absolutely guaranteed I would make the ship. But odd routing again. Sacramento to Los Angeles to Vancouver. 400 miles the wrong direction to start with. We waved at our house as we flew over it.

 

[kdonnel]

Yeah, my last two cruises the cruise line booked the air fare. This year on Princess, we had a land tour the week before with them so we arrived 7 days before the cruise, but the routing was funky.

I would never use the cruise line air programs because you give up so much control over times and routing.

Cruise lines often will book you on the lowest tier ticket that does not earn frequent flyer miles or count towards spend for maintaining status.

Often you are booked on consolidator fares which come with even more restrictions than the lowest tier tickets purchased directly from the airline.

The cruise lines will also book you on flights arriving on embarkation day. While they will guarantee getting you to the ship, that might be on day 2, 3, or 4 of the trip in the case of missing embarkation.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Cruise lines often will book you on the lowest tier ticket that does not earn frequent flyer miles or count towards spend for maintaining status.

It depends on the cruise line and depends on the particular offers.

During the pandemic we were getting offers from Regent Seven Seas to save up to 40% off if you swapped out the Business Class the fare comes with to Economy...that tells you how much the fare was just airfare.

Other offers just include a flight credit which allows you to choose the level.

With Seabourn what they have is Flight Ease of which they have negotiated rates and you choose the fare class. Then there's particular offers that include air credit up to X amount with them.

But even with that I wouldn't use their program, well actually as an American it seems to work better than for non-Americans this particular program but still issues have arisen. There was a particularly bad situation for an Australian who always used Seabourn's Flight Ease until she was stuck in Dubai (flew Qatar airlines) due to flight issues and Flight Ease just wasn't helpful at all but she was flying home so at least for her she didn't miss the ship. Others have for sure due to flight schedules arriving day of embarkation.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yeah, my last two cruises the cruise line booked the air fare. This year on Princess, we had a land tour the week before with them so we arrived 7 days before the cruise, but the routing was funky. The originally booked us Sacramento to Portland to Washington, DC, but changed it to Sacramento to Seattle to Washington D.C. We met two other couples on the ship and none of us had the same routing coming or going. They routed us NYC to DC to Sacramento home, another couple NYC to Chicago to Sacramento, and the other couple NYC to Denver to Sacramento.
Celebrity did book us the day of, and when I questioned that, they said since I had their travel insurance, they absolutely guaranteed I would make the ship. But odd routing again. Sacramento to Los Angeles to Vancouver. 400 miles the wrong direction to start with. We waved at our house as we flew over it.

I feel more often than not they will have weird routing as it would likely save them money overall but yes it feels silly to go all over the place to get to your destination.

 

[tvguy]

I would never use the cruise line air programs because you give up so much control over times and routing.

Cruise lines often will book you on the lowest tier ticket that does not earn frequent flyer miles or count towards spend for maintaining status.

Often you are booked on consolidator fares which come with even more restrictions than the lowest tier tickets purchased directly from the airline.

The cruise lines will also book you on flights arriving on embarkation day. While they will guarantee getting you to the ship, that might be on day 2, 3, or 4 of the trip in the case of missing embarkation.

Been cruising 45 years. The cruise lines used to require you to fly in the day before if you were flying. They used to include a hotel room the night before as part of the cruise fare.
Cruising used to be a once in a life time type experience. There are people over on the cruise line forum that take multiple cruises every year.

 

[kdonnel]

Been cruising 45 years. The cruise lines used to require you to fly in the day before if you were flying. They used to include a hotel room the night before as part of the cruise fare.
Cruising used to be a once in a life time type experience. There are people over on the cruise line forum that take multiple cruises every year.

Cruising used to cost so much more on a per day / per person comparison.

It has become a commodity vacation and has changed to be less personal since I started cruising in 1995.

I am one of those that takes multiple per year because I see the value.

Raw dollar wise I am paying slightly less per day per person for a cruise in 2026 than I paid in 1995. Adjust that for inflation and I am paying MUCH LESS now than when I started cruising.

The $1200 a spent in 1995 for a budget 7 day cruise on the Ocean Breeze in an outside cabin seems so expensive when adjusted for inflation to $2520. I could book two or more 7 days cruises in an outside cabin for $2520, meaning cruising is at least half as expensive now as it was in 1995.

 

[LuvOrlando]

How much more are you willing to pay? $1k per trip? Per week so they're on call? $10k?

No idea, I would not pay for something effortless and !0 K sounds like hyperbole, I could literally put an add out on Linkedin and hire a personal assistant to stare at my stuff all day for way less than that