The Flagg Agency

When FREE is not Free

We are travel consultants and part of our job is to educate our clients when FREE is not free. We recently had a situation where we  spent a great deal of time interviewing our new to cruising clients to determine what would be the cruise experience that was perfect for them. We made a recommendation and asked them for the sale. They needed to talk to another couple with whom they were traveling.

How do you know which one of these is RIGHT for you?

Welcome to the 2010 Cruise Line Wave Season everyone! Appearing in your email box or on a website soon, you will see something that looks like the above from a variety of suppliers, travel agents and more. If you type  “cruise sale” into Google you get about 43,000,000 (forty-three million) results. Since looking for a cruise vacation is probably not something you do every day, how are you going to know what is really on sale and what is not? If you are a serious shopper, you know that many times prices will rise before an item is put on “sale.” Or maybe the items on sale are not something you really want anyway. Why not let a professional cruise consultant guide you through what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to what is really a “special”, a “deal” or something of real value to you and your family.

When you consult with us because you are planning a cruise, you soon come to realize that cruises are not what we sell. You may have found a “deal” online some where and you want us to validate that the price you see really is a “deal”. Or you may have received a mailing from a cruise line, and you would like us to book you and your family on the featured cruise. Or you have always wanted to take a cruise, but you know there are over 200 ships sailing to 1,000 destinations and want advice about which one is right for you and your family.

You may have seen an image before that shows a triangle has three labels on each leg. It may read speed, service and price or there may be different labels on versions you have seen, but there is usually a sidebar message that says “pick any two”. The point being made is that you can never have all three at once.

For us, we tend to focus on just two; speed and service. We are quick to respond to your phone calls and emails. We believe in going beyond what you expect when it comes to customer service as frankly we think customer service is becoming a lost art. You will find something beyond the ordinary when using our services when planning a cruise.

Images like the above are all over the internet, especially when it comes to travel sales. Unless you are looking at prices every single day, how do you really know you are getting a good “Hot Deal”, “Sale”, or “WOW!”? More importantly, how do you know you are getting a good value. I wanted to take a minute and let you know there are several different ways you can choose to purchase your next vacation. For the purposes of this entry, however, I am just going to concentrate on two different types.