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A bag of Butterscotch with every cruise

Any travel agent will tell you that they are different, but most of the time you will find they are all the same as a bag of butterscotch candies. Truth be told, we are all selling the same products to the same destinations from all of the same suppliers.

Here’s a question I receive from time to time: “Why would I pay a travel agent a fee when I can get all of the information I am seeking for free?” Allow me to take the time to explain that we do not charge a booking fee. Our clients pay us a fee for the professional services we provide them.

Being Cheap is Easy

There are many places you can choose to handle your vacation plans. Online agencies like Exp***a and Trav*****ty specialize in high-volume discounted travel.For cruises, these agencies sometimes have access to group amenities and can offer special perks with your booking. Other times, they are willing to make a lower commission by rebating some of their earnings in the form of an on-board credit for you and your party. There are also many cruise ship sailings we can offer the same types of perks. If you are flexible with your travel plans we can and often do find amazing values along with special perks.

What do you want to do?

The question I get asked most often in this age of easy access to immediate information is “why should I use a travel agent?” I have addressed part of this question once before, but I wanted to share my experience with a couple recent clients.

I recently had a client who wanted to go on a cruise in six days. He and his family decided they wanted to take a cruise having never been on one before. He was asking about availability on particular cruise line. He had young three kids and he was not able to find a cruise with two adjacent staterooms. Upon asking him some detailed questions about what he wanted out of this trip, I was able to make a recommendation based on his particular family’s needs that was a far better value for him.

There will always be people who enjoy booking travel themselves. There are several do-it your self ways to do it, but when you come to a travel agent seeking advice be sure and ask the right questions. Just as there are good and bad cruise experiences, there are good and bad travel agents. We hope this column will give you some ideas on how to pick a travel agent.