Top Reasons to Use a Travel Agent

Top 10 Reasons to Use a Travel Agent
This was taken and edited from an editor’s letter in Travel Agent Magazine – March 5, 2007

1. You’ve Googled “Mexican Vacation” and came up with 17.8 million responses. Need a little help editing those choices?
2. Remember when you used that obscure web site to book your hotel, and when you got there, you spent your beach vacation overlooking a parking lot?
3. Did you really mean to spend your honeymoon at that resort whose one tiny pool was filled all day with screaming kids?
4. Who knew that when you booked that “villa” in Tuscany, it would be a small room with a kitchenette and no air conditioning? Funny, it looked much better on your computer screen.
5. No one explained to you that in July, it’s winter in Rio, and so you showed up there with nothing but Hawaiian shirts and swimsuits.
6. How about the time you needed a restful vacation and ended up in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and someone threw up on your shoes?
7. Yes, I guess that hotel must have used a telephoto lens when they took a picture of those guest rooms that you saw on the web site.
8. I suppose contacting the Attorney General to resolve the fact that the Internet site has billed your credit card three times instead of once is the only route to take at this point.
9. It was definitely odd that there were no cab drivers at the airport at 3am when your plane finally landed in Costa Rica, but booking a transfer to your very remote hotel would have been a good thing to remember when you booked your airline ticket and hotel on line.
10. Oh, no one told you that the flight had a 12 hour layover- and it was going to be overnight? Oh, they didn’t tell you that the connecting flight was in a different airport, either?

To add a couple more of mine own:
1. Travel insurance isn’t necessary- unless you plan on canceling- or is it?
2. When was the last time your Internet site called you to tell you that the price of your cruise went down $380 per person?
3. When was the last time your Internet site personally contacted the resort to alert them of your arrival and to go over your special requests?
4. When was the last time your Internet site was able to obtain a complimentary upgrade for you because the website personally knew the Assistant to the General Manager of your Caribbean resort? By the way, did you get the honeymoon suite when you booked the standard entry level room?
5. When was the last time your Internet site was able to get you a $250 future travel certificate because there was some confusion over a spa credit in your vouchers? You weren’t eligible for the spa credits because Jamaica wasn’t the first stamp in your passport but as a show of good faith, the tour operator sent a future travel credit for your next vacation.
6. When was the last time your Internet site emailed you destination guides of the cities you were visiting, sent you maps and travel guide books and other information to help make your vacation even more wonderful that expected.
7. When was the last time your Internet site called you to see if you would like an upgraded cruise cabin- 2 or 3 decks higher?
8. When was the last time your Internet site spent hours on the phone trying to re-arrange your vacation because a hurricane just damaged your hotel?
9. When was the last time your Internet site suggested a different hotel or island because it knew your likes and dislikes and didn’t think you would be happy?
10. By the way, can you even get a live person on your Internet site