Travel agent for complex, high-stake arrangements?

[hmijail]

Recently I had to arrange the flights for 2 people travelling from Europe to Australia and back, each in their own different itinerary. They were artists invited to an event I organized, with paid attendance, so this was high-stakes stuff. I did it all by myself, with OTAs, and it all went pretty well; but the planning was a massive time sink.

I plan to keep organizing events, and eventually things won't go well: some invited artist will miss a flight and everything else will need to be readjusted / salvaged, which would surely be a nightmare (if not impossible?) in OTA-mediated stuff. So I'm wondering how would things work if I did this through a TA (not Flight-Centre, that much I know ).

Cost is important of course (these events rarely make money), but it'd be even costlier to have to cancel the event or deal with a stranded artist, so I'm open to paying more to a TA that would give me some safety net / planning assistance. Plus, probably the TA could propose things about which I had no idea at the moment (like turning a roundtrip with stopovers into a RTW fare).

But I never did anything through TAs, so I'm a bit lost. Would TAs really be helpful for this kind of situation?
Or should I just buy non-cheapest-flights with some rescheduling flexibility?

Relatedly: I will be travelling soon to Europe for a few weeks, so I thought I could try arranging it through a TA as an experiment to see how it compares to my own organizing. A quick but realistic estimate through OTAs showed I could have the whole trip for about 11K AUD (2 people, 3 weeks, 3 countries). I tried firing an email to a local TA that had good reviews, giving details about key dates and locations and asking for a proposal, mentioning my price estimation. After about 1 day of no reply I wrote to another. And then another...
So I'm wondering, why no answers? Is giving my own price estimate maybe bad form? How do I engage a TA?

 

[Flyfrequently]

Welcome to AFF @hmijail
Many knowledgeable folk here and quite a few frequently use travel agents.

 

[RooFlyer]

welcome to AFF @hmijail .

Yes, using a travel agent would be a good idea for all the reasons you mentioned and some more.

First, by travel agent I mean a bricks and mortal one not someone like Flight Centre. A travel agent is a relationship. It usually takes time for each to get comfortable with the other but the benefits should come quickly if they are needed.

Yes, travel agents should be able to come up with clever itineraries or ideas on routing and prices and alternative Airlines. They can much easier see into the different fare classes and conditions on those fare classes then you can online.

Once the travel agent has made the arrangements and booked them then they are responsible for any changes required. A number of times when I’ve been travelling overseas, a problem has risen and my travel agent has fixed it during the night without me being even aware of the problem.

A good travel agent should have access to airline representatives - not the call centres - to ask questions and clarification and sometimes even to ask for an exception to a rule.

Since Airlines no longer pay much commission these days travel agents tend to charge a fee. Mine would charge something like $250 on a $10,000 booking. So it’s not much in proportion and certainly very small if you value your time.

finding the right travel agent can be tricky. As I said a brick and mortar establishment would be best because then you can walk in and talk over a desk with them. They should ask you for quite a few permutations and combinations about what you want (for example, do you want to avoid very early flights which might be cheaper; do you want to avoid low cost carriers; do you prefer to travel on a particular alliance etc? Etc) and while that may take a bit of time at first you’ll get a much better result in the end.

also, remember the travel agent won’t get paid until you actually make the reservation. They can do a lot of work to arrive at that point without being assured that you will go through with it. Therefore, if you give as clear precise info as to what you want upfront & that will help them a lot and you ultimately in the end.

 

[DC3]

Welcome to AFF @hmijail

 

[equus]

As I said a brick and mortar establishment would be best

Don't discount some of the "virtual" versions of such agents either. There are some very good agents that don't require the overhead of physical bricks and mortar as they work online (or via phone). All the same advantages of building the relationship, and sometimes easier because you don't need to visit a physical store, and you are not restricted by your location. There are a few who have or have previously had a presence on AFF, including some who will now only accept customers by referral.

Since Airlines no longer pay much commission these days travel agents to charge a fee.

True as far as airlines go, but some aspects (hotels for instance) still pay quite reasonable commission, and if you are in to luxury hotels in expensive locations, this can be quire enough to cover having a Travel Agent doing the work. At the upper end, a well connected agent (such as a Virtuoso agent) can get a better deal with extra inclusions than you could get online, and still make a very decent commission out of it. In some cases, this extends to intangible benefits from relationships the agent has. An interesting data point from a hotel booking in Hawaii - where room costs increase dramatically depending on how much ocean you can see. I don't believe it was an accident that the room we ended up with was the one in the lower category right next to the more expensive category - with essentially the same view - rather than much further down with substantially less.

 

[RooFlyer]

True as far as airlines go, but some aspects (hotels for instance) still pay quite reasonable commission, and if you are in to luxury hotels in expensive locations, this can be quire enough to cover having a Travel Agent doing the work. At the upper end, a well connected agent (such as a Virtuoso agent) can get a better deal with extra inclusions than you could get online, and still make a very decent commission out of it. In some cases, this extends to intangible benefits from relationships the agent has.

True, true and true . My TA - I've been dealing with them for maybe 12 years - is Virtuoso and a cruise specialist (those two go very well together). I don't get them to book hotels, unless Virtuoso. They get a corporate discount from QR which they pass on.

Yes, there are some excellent on-line TAs but if they are sole traders, I'm more comfortable with a multi-agent set-up; if my regular TA is away, someone can swing seamlessly into the bookings. They are interstate from me, but early on I did pop in a couple of times to get to know them better.