Are Travel Agencies Worth Using?

I just wrote this letter to a travel agent and thought you might find it valuable, either in making your decision whether to use a travel agent, or perhaps as a customer service example if you run your own company or control customer service in your company.

I may or may not include the name of the agency, depending on how they respond to this article.

I listen to your travel show on Saturdays. I travel on business and pleasure probably 15-20 times per year, and have done all my bookings myself online for 10 years now. After hearing all of your great, fun comments, and trusting you personally, I thought I'd give your company a try.

I didn't have a good experience. After considering this for awhile, I thought I'd relate my experience so you could pass this on to your management.

I had a somewhat complex Hawaii trip, with multiple options. We were within 17 days of travel, so time was of the essence.

The first time I called, I got cut off in transfer.

The second time I called, the person I was talking to clearly knew nothing about Hawaii (which is one of the main reasons I wanted to use an agency because, having never been to Hawaii, I really wanted some expert advice.) After spending 10 minutes with her stumbling around, I asked if I could be transferred to a Hawaii expert. I spent the next 5 minutes on hold. She came back and said that she hadn't found one, but would get one to call me.

Two days later, no call yet. That delay alone probably cost me $200 in airline costs.

I called back. I spent 10 minutes giving all the details of this complex trip to someone. She put me on hold then cut me off. Frankly, I think she did it because she didn't want to deal with the complexities of this trip. (How hard IS it to put someone on hold and take them off of it again?) This time I was smart enough to have gotten her name, but I had no interest in going back to her.

I called back. Now I'm on my 4th call. I started working with someone else. After 5 minutes of telling her all the parameters of the trip (multiple islands, have to be in certain places at certain times for meetings, but I have flexibility and wanted recommendations on what to do between those meetings) suddenly she starts having a side conversation with someone else with no explanation at all to me. It turns out she had another client walk in, and she didn't even have the courtesy of putting me on hold or explaining things to me, she just started talking with them right in the middle of my sentence. By this time I'm getting frustrated, so I asked her if she was able to focus on me and my conversation. She asked to call back. I agreed, (That was rude, seems I was there first so I should take priority...)

Finally talked to her again 2 hours later. I carefully gave her all the parameters and options for the trip. She went off and spent the whole day preparing a plan. When it came to me I counted 5 critical errors - flights on wrong dates, hotels on the wrong island, not matching up with the flights, etc.

I debated the ethics of just going off and doing it myself. But by then she had clearly done a lot of work, so I carefully corrected things with her, and eventually we booked the flights. I believe these delays waiting for her plan and correcting her mistakes cost me another $150 or so in airline costs over what I was originally looking at online.

Oh, and by the way, she kept insisting that all the flights were booked "all the way to first class." I was sitting there with Kayak.com open on my screen and could see seat availability on the very flights that she's saying were sold out, directly from the airline's websites. I finally had to tell her the exact flights that I wanted. Suddenly she discovers that, magically, I could actually get home by the date and time that I wanted. (Why use an agent, when I'm doing all the work?)

Then we went through the hotels. By this time I'm realizing that I have to triple-check to make sure that everything is accurate. The next 3 travel documents all had serious errors (hotel check-ins the day before my flight, unnecessary transfers because I'm renting a car, etc.) This was all also complicated by the fact that she's copying and pasting documents into emails, so everything runs together and it's very difficult to figure out exactly what the plans are. And I still today don't have any confirmation numbers for any of the hotels, etc. I just have a Pleasant Holidays Res #. What if I have a problem?

In the end, I booked with her, just to try to pay for the effort she put into the process. I probably shouldn't have, but I try to be fair to those who work in my behalf.

But I've got to tell you, I won't be working with her again. I'm pretty sure that I could have done everything myself and saved at least an hour of my time in this process. I sure hope that this turns out to be a good experience with no issues.

I'm not a pain to work with, and understandably, this was a complex trip. But I do feel burned because of the flight booking delays (how hard IS it to transfer a phone without cutting people off? And why didn't I get a call back from someone in the first place? I would think that Hawaii experts would be a dime a dozen around your place. I totally admit that I've been tremendously busy and didn't follow up as hard as I should have (and in her defense, I didn't return her call about the hotel for 2 days, but the flight issue, where the delays actually cost me money, wasn't my fault.)

The main question I have is what value was added by the agency in this process? Virtually everything except the selection of the actual hotels, was my doing. I thought that's what I was getting in calling an agency. In the past, when I worked with agencies, I was able to have an agent who would say "this is the place where I recommend" or, "don't you think it would work better if you did x?"

And what's up with the flight planning? How come I can see things on my screen that either she's ignoring or possibly trying to force me into a higher class of service on her end? The airline was Delta, so it wasn't an invisible airline. Oh, and another thing. I ended up with travel on Alaska, Hawaii, and Delta. I wanted to give her my FF#, so I wouldn't forget later. I asked "what other airlines' FF# does Alaska honor?" She not only didn't know, but I had to go to Alaska's site, find out in 2 clicks, and told her which number to put in. Not only does it frustrate me that this travel "expert" didn't know that off the top of her head, but why did I, the client, have to do that surfing, not her.

Overall, I'm disappointed. Now I've got to decide whether I'll ever be using your agency or any other agency in the future. I'm not willing to place everything on the poor performance of one person, but my initial unsuccessful experience with other agents in your firm too is not a glowing testimonial that makes me think I would have better experiences with others.

I'm a entrepreneur, so it all comes out of my pocket, including time. I've just spent 30 minutes writing you this note, and I want you to know that I did so, not to vent (though that felt good,) and not to attack (which isn't my intention at all,) but to give you some real feedback from a real customer to help you to potentially identify and resolve issues in your company. Customer service is all you have to offer, and in this case, at least, that's not what I received. I hope that you will see this note as feedback to help you improve and build your business and that some good will come out of this process.

I'd love to hear your feedback.