Travel Agents Say MoneySaving Is Immoral!

RSAZ

Last year I wanted to go to Disneyland Florida and when I went to a local Travel agent they wanted to charge me over £5,000. 3 adults, 3 children in February. I went on Virgin website put in my details and got a quote it was just under £3,000. I then went to a different travel agent and asked them to match the quote. They did and I received all the savings except the on-line booking discount. It just goes to prove that you have to look around for best offers.

caverncity

I didnt have to haggle for my holiday as I dont use travel agents anymore. Reason?
Yesterday Direct holidays wanted £1050 for a week in Salou for 4.
I got the same holiday, same dates same hotel but full board instead of half board using Ryan Air and a company providing just hotels for a total of £550.
Thats £500 less than DH.

Just shows how much profit they are making.

peejay67

Direct Holidays are a Tour Operator, not a travel agent. Hence the name

PJ

TRAVELMAN_2

Quote 'I didnt have to haggle for my holiday as I dont use travel agents anymore.'

Caverncity-maybe you SHOULD .Any Travel Agent who has ATOL (& has the low-cost flights on thier list) could have dsone you the SAME deal at the SAME prive or less-with full protection.

What will you do if the Hotel is overbooked? What if the Hotel company goes bust? What if Ryaniair change your flight to next day-you won't get any compensation to speak of.

Please-all you DIY'ERS-'think outside the box'. Many ATOL Agents can match & indeed better direct quotes WITH FULL PROTECTION.

Independant Agents (not the High Street Multiples like Lunn Poly, in my opinion) have moved with the times. Check out some of my replies & you'll see that us Agents (demoized as we are) can Better DIY!

Anyway-nuff of the lecture! CONGRATS on the price-result!

Chris

peejay67

TRAVELMAN wrote:

Independant Agents (not your High Street Agents in my opinion) have moved with the times.
Chris

Careful Chris - Im both Independent and High Street!

PJ

TRAVELMAN_2

Pee-Jay-see edit (!)

budgetflyer

Not all independents do what you do Chris ,and probably peejay also. Theres a few highly respected ?? independants in my area. you go in, ask for say benidorm, 2 weeks in july. Out come the Thomsons,Airtours brochures-just the same as the multi chains we all seem to be complaining about- BUT WITHOUT THE DISCOUNTS!!! .I then have to drop a few hints about "er could we maybe get the flights and book the hotel seperate as youre in the trade and can maybe get it at a better price than me" -Not interested. Take my number,they will get back to me,never do.
I want a personal service from someone who knows what they are talking about. I don't grudge them a profit if they can deliver the right holiday at a reasonable cost.That has to be a better deal than I can book myself (an amature) or theres no point them being there.

Wendy05,
I uderstand what you are saying regarding haggling and inflated starting prices. But the truth is the tour opps have already inflated the prices anyway and will quite happily take the full amount off you or I. Only by doing research ,price comparisons, haggling and sometimes chancing it will you get the true value of what ever you buy. In the ideal world all companies would be happy to make 5 or 10% margin ,employ people in fair conditions at fair pay and everyone would be happy.
In the real world, many companies will charge 100-500% profitto those who are happy to pay but still opperate sweat shop factories and conditions.
Where are all the designer labels made and for how much?

bs7

@ wendy05 - some of the stuff you're coming up with is just sureal.

You don't think it's correct for a consumer to haggle yet you willingly accept price discrimination as a perfectly acceptable practice morally (your example of asda jeans v. designer label ones doesn't hold - as they are not identical). Some firms are selling the exact same package for different prices based on marketing. You state that it's not a one way street but everything you say seems to suggest that you simply wish to change the direction of it.

The P2P mentality is quite a good analysis. I'm sure some of the P2P communities would agree that one factor considered by them is the absolutely crazy profits received by some firms, and others may point to the regional variations in prices. Holiday firms do rip people off - that is a fact. As you can see from the posts above:

RSAZ wrote:

Last year I wanted to go to Disneyland Florida and when I went to a local Travel agent they wanted to charge me over £5,000. 3 adults, 3 children in February. I went on Virgin website put in my details and got a quote it was just under £3,000. I then went to a different travel agent and asked them to match the quote. They did and I received all the savings except the on-line booking discount. It just goes to prove that you have to look around for best offers.

How can asking a firm to price match be anything other than beneficial to all parties? RSAZ saved over £2000 and the second Travel Agent received over £2000's worth of business and a profit on that too.

You don't seem to have any idea about the economic consequences of your statement

wendy05 wrote:

it is long terms gains that are the ones to savour, however what happens if all travel agens t now agree to a policy of no haggele .. what are your options but to find the cheapest price.

all you will find if haggling becomes the norm is that the prices become artificial in all senses, there is no value except the value the seller makes. the value is what you perceive to be a bargain, even though at a fixed rate you might have been paying 30% less.

There is no way the Travel Agents could do this. Whilst the market is far from Perfectly Competitive, there is still enough competition to prevent it. If one company decided to make a policy of not "haggling", even if a few followed suit - the financial incentive to break away would be great. Independent Travel Agents would be laughing. And in terms of image and marketing it could potentially destroy any company.

You seem to view haggling as something particularly new or novel - the only novel thing about it is the way in which companies (and people like you) have tried to fool the public into thinking that it's not an acceptable practice. It is.

One of the reasons for not allowing the practice is demonstrated by your earlier example of the supermarket. Where there are lots of smaller purchases it is completely impractical because of the costs involved in haggling. Therefore, it makes economic sense to accept the prices and continue on. In that example, if haggling persisted prices would rise in accordance with the administration costs - it is therefore in the self-interest of the consumer to refrain from any "haggling".

However, in the Travel Industry - even in the case of package deals - there are relatively fewer transactions and the time taken to "haggle" a price is not as considerable given the amount of time required to take the booking details etc. Given that the costs associated with "haggling" are nil then there is no good reason to avoid the practice.

Haggling makes perfect sense. Neither party to the contract has to accept any price - they are both free to say no BUT only one party ever knows the actual price of the holiday - and so the Travel Agent should, in theory, always win (/receive a profit).

Perhaps if you don't like this system then you should move (although you, of course, wouldn't ask for a discount on the flights! lol) to a country that doesn't share our free market economic system.

I've still not seen a persuasive argument to justify the claim that haggling is in some sense immoral. The only objection i can see is the way in which some might "haggle".

nearlyrich

it is long terms gains that are the ones to savour, however what happens if all travel agens t now agree to a policy of no haggele

I think you will find that's against the law, if the agencies/travel companies get together and agree to set the price it's called price fixing and against anti competition laws.

What will you do if the Hotel is overbooked?

Find another hotel, most hotel booking sites only take the money from the CC if you don't show at all or when you check out. The only time we suffered from overbooking it was a well known tour operator and their rep was useless.

What if the Hotel company goes bust?

See answer as above

What if Ryaniair change your flight to next day-you won't get any compensation to speak of.

And if A*****s or T*******s change your flight times a week before you go so you effectively miss 2 days of a holiday, specifically chosen at additional cost because of the extra 2 days on the beach, you won't get any compensation to speak of.


I usually don't book any accommodation until I get to the place, I have never failed to get decent room(s) at a reasonable price even in the height of the season in busy resorts.

TRAVELMAN_2

Morning nearly rich,

Agree with most of your comments. However-as I'm sure you'll agree-everyone is not the same-finding another Hotel at 4 in the morning with 2 screaming kids in 90 degree heat is NOT for everyone.

Overbooking is frequent in peak season. If you can get protection at no extra cost by doing it as an ATOL package why not?