For travel in general, I prefer to use a
travel agent instead of doing it myself. Most of the time, I do all the Internet research and then hand the TA all of my desired info (flight numbers, hotel names, etc.) on a silver platter. WHY? Well, a few reasons, the main one being that I like having an ally and helper if anything goes wrong.
I should back up and say that you have to have an OUTSTANDING TA or its just not worth the hassle. My most aggravating experience was using my mother-in-law's TA when we did a joint Disney trip. This was 2005 and I was last at WDW in 1993 (and that was for business, I didn't even do much "Disney" on that trip), but even so I taught the TA a lot about WDW. She was a do-do when it came to Disney, and I had to teach her things and set her straight. For example, our trip started on the 4th day of Disney's Magical Express. The TA had never heard of it and had the 6 of us booked on a Mears shuttle for more than $100 each way. I had to explain it to her, and re-explain it to her ... she told me a few times that she thought I was making it up -- she didn't even bother looking into it at first. She also somehow had us PAYING for a fridge at CBR, a moderate resort, where fridges are free and standard. And I had to teach her what "preferred location" meant at CBR - she thought it meant water view. So you get the idea that she was a complete horror show.
Back to the idea of TA as ally when things go wrong. A week in Cancun at a world-class resort, built only one year earlier for the sole purpose of housing the Miss Universe pagaent. Stunning but very expensive. We decided to buy a dining plan that consisted of 4 dinners and one breakfast. WHen we checked in, we got our dining vouchers, for 4 breakfasts and one dinner. We aren't big breakfast eaters and while the dining plan was a good deal, it was a good deal because it was 4 gourmet dinners, not 4 plates of huevos rancheros. Anyway, the front desk argued with us, and said our travel agent-issued vouchers were meaningless. I'm a very persuasive person and I know how to deal with people and read people (I'm a therapist), but I was getting nowhere, and the language barrier didn't help matters any. It was a real bummer start to our vacation. So I called our TA's office for help -- this was a large chain in the Northeast, Liberty Travel. Our TA had all of the original paperwork from the hotel itself in his files. He not only faxed them their invoice, but he also got a Spanish-speaking colleague to make the call to our Cancun resort. About 20 minutes later, the general manager himself delivered our vouchers and an apology to our room.
I couldn't have done that myself. My great TA succeeded where I failed.
But like I said, this requires an OUTSTANDING travel agent. He was organized, he was smart, he was creative, and HE CARED. He took pride in our enjoying ourselves, and naturally that won him a lot of repeat business, so it was a win-win situation.
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