Travel Agents Say MoneySaving Is Immoral!

Cullumpster

peejay67 wrote:

Dont generalise. Read my post. You may not care about your clients BECAUSE you work for a large company. If it was your bread and butter you might have a different attitude.

With regard to your "HUGE" discounts as you put it. We do occasionally get "perks" of the job, as in any other industry. Would you expect a car salesman to tell you what he can buy his personal car for? Would you expect an estate agent to tell you how much he can get his house for? Would you expect the checkout girl at Sainsburys to tell you the price she can get produce for at the end of the day that was going to get thrown out? Need I go on? You wouldnt, so why should we be expected to tell customers about offers we have received other than to gloat, and that aint my business.

Unfortunately its people like you who give our industry a bad name.

PJ

"People like me ???"
A bit rude don't you think, i was only expressing my opinion.
The company i work for is not a tour operator, just a client for lots of different ones, so i get to see a lot of the different things that go on, and a lot of the time it is the big companies that seem to be able to charge what they like in prices, admin fees etc, and i PERSONALLY don't think that's right for Jo Bloggs on the street.

gadj

The way I see it is that anyone selling something has the right to sell it for as much or as little as they like. As long as there isn't price fixing going on, then it's up to the vendor to decide on a price.

Now the flip side of that is, that if one vendor sells an item for more than another, unless he's offering some extra service with that item, he's not going to sell it as long as consumers are kept informed.

To a degree, we have freedom of information in this country, and that's all this site is. It's just consolidating lots of information into one place and keeping people informed. Then those that are driven by price can go for the cheapest, and those that want a slightly better service can always pay more. And if a vendor offers nothing extra but sells for more - then that's their look out.

joelle

peejay67 wrote:

We are probably one ofthe few industries where you can get free advice and shop around for a deal, with free literature to boot. Can you imagine going into a solicitor getting free advice, using his services and then saying thanks for the advice but I'll use Jo Bloggs down the road. I think youd still get a bill from that solicitor.

I dont begrudge people the service I offer. Its a good one. Its fair, and if they want to go elsewhere they are welcome to do so, but are they guaranteed the same service, expertise and value from another agent. I sincerely hope so.

Dont put us down...we're not all bad.

PJ

I agree with PJ. Having been in the industry for over 17 years (must have done something bad in my former life!) I don't blame customers for shopping around, depending on the circumstances. If a customer has a clear idea of where they want to go and has done a bit of 'home research' and is using the agent as just a 'booking outlet', I cannot see anything wrong in trying to get the best possible deal. What I don't agree with is customers who need a lot of advice and spend a great deal of time 'picking brains' and using an agent as an information tool and then booking direct or playing agents off against each other.
I understand that there are certain saturated package markets and if customers are happy to book these on the net/teletext then so be it. I would do the same, if I felt that I didn't need specialised advice. I remember walking into a multiple when I was 18 (before the net!) to book a holiday with a girl barely older than myself to be told it was not available. (Reminiscent of 'the computer says no' - for those Little Britain fans). There was no offer of an alternative, just a blank look. Now hopefully this is the exception to the rule and perhaps she was having a bad day but it has stuck in my mind, all these years later. It only takes a customer to receive this sort of service to give all agents a bad name.
However, if a customer wants something more than just a standard package, how confident are most people of DIY on the net? I note that somebody has posted that it was much cheaper to book all the flights around the states and hotels direct online or on the phone. Ok but is this person in the majority? Luckily nothing went wrong, if it had there would have been more time and money on the phone which is often taken for granted when clients return to the travel agent after mishaps on their holiday.
I now work in the business travel sector of the industry and we actually charge our customers a transaction fee for any booking that we make on their behalf. This is to cover our costs (on average we are paid about £4 from the airline on a £400 air ticket - soon to be reduced to a big fat zero) and our customers are happy to pay our fee as they do not have the time or resources to research their own travel. Also they get an aftersales service for refunds/ missed flights etc. Have you ever tried to get hold of an airline with a premium telephone number to boot? We are happy to advise them on low cost/no frills flights which we understand if they want to book direct and avoid our fee but they reward us by staying loyal and booking the multi-sector itineraries and all the lovely bookings that make my job interesting.

grant1wish

I applied the 'martin' school of thinking when buying a brand new car. Played to Ford garages off against each other to get the best price. Both dealers were looking at exactly the same cars on the computer, but had different 'special offers'. At one stage I was sat in the managers office on the phone to the other dealer telling him the deal. The deal was matched, but with a heated window, mats and a full tank!

In the end got the car with Extras fitted at a very good price.

The next morning got a call from the unsucessful seller, saying that he thought I had been unfair to him, and should have given him another chance to match. I just said you gave me your very best price and it wasn't good enough. He hung up!

I know it is slightly off subject, but just wanted to show how haggling applies to most consumer products these days.

Keep it up Martin!

Chris_Powell

I have had a read of the atricle and letters after being impressed with the article on the site and having booked my own holiday DIY recently. From my experience you don't get any level of service from a travel agent - they are the one's who have no morals. A case in point was my honeymoon where I explained what I wanted, yet when I got there the place was teeming with kids (in school term time) and was not really as I wished - how much do the travel agents really know - they cannot know every hotel in every resort and self research on the internet is just as valuable. When I booked my own I got better than travel agent prices on every part of my trip, the only way I could afford to go to a friend's wedding.

Also what makes the travel industry any different from any other industry? I can go into Waterstones and sit on a sofa and read books and then buy them from Amazon if they are cheaper - I can go to my bank and discuss with them my finances and best options but I am free to buy financial services from the cheapest provider - the key issue is not that they provide service / information / assitance but do they provide added value? If I get my holiday from them at a certain price does that add any value compared to buying it piecemeal or booking direct. I think that since the answer most of the time is no then that is the reason for the increase in direct selling and booking over the internet.

Surely moneysavers will agree that we don't want the cheapest option if it isn't any good. We want value for money! Viva MSE!

peejay67

Chris_Powell wrote:

From my experience you don't get any level of service from a travel agent - they are the one's who have no morals.

All I can say is you have had bad experiences. I pride myself on my knowledge, my expertise and the level of service I offer. I think if you go into a car showroom you wouldnt buy a car off someone who didnt know what they were talking about and likewise you wouldnt buy it off someone fresh out of school.

Dont generalise - Im a travel agent and believe me I do have morals

PJ

jellyhead

i think there are still plenty of people who will willingly pay the full brochure price for a holiday from thomas cook etc. and would be terrified of booking it themselves. when a dozen of us went to disneyland paris last year nobody would join us in booking our own transport etc. - they preferred to pay full price. we thought that even if it all went horribly wrong the amount we'd saved was probably enough to pay for whatever transport, accommodation etc. we'd need in order to put things right. couldn't imagine a scenario where it actually cost us as much as the others were paying. that's just us though, like i said nobody else would book their own.

Big_Nige

Of course it is not immoral, you wouldn't think twice about haggling over the cost of a car, suite,pc etc. So why should a holiday costing £2000 be any different. My spring/winter destination in Tenerife is currently £357 for 1 week come early/mid May when I will book to go it is usually £200, are the holiday company losing money I doubt it .

biglugs

In reply to your question do people still use Travel Agents. Im not sitting here just to watch traffic go by. Remember, not everyone has the internet, and of those that do, not all are confident using it, or confident using their credit cards on it.

So the ideal customers for Travel Agents are people who don't have internet access, aren't confident, don't have the guts to haggle, won't shop around and will just pay whatever their agent tells them to.
In reply to my post someone said that travel agents often limit hotel accommodation to 4 people to a room because the operator buys what they think they can sell.
But I didn't want that, and no travel agent could get me that, so I bought direct. What do I classify that as? Appalling customer service - so why should I pay someone for that?
The reason I asked who used travel agents is that many of my friends who are now of an age and confidence to not be treated like sheep now do it themselves - not just because it's cheaper, but also because that way you get what you want, not what they're prepared to sell you.
(And don't even get me onto the subject of travel insurance!!!)

Marigold123

The first time I took my children abroad a couple of years ago I booked a package from one of the big players on the Internet. As we went off-peak we still got a very good deal compared to most other people's holidays that we knew. However, once I had got over the hump of taking my children abroad by myself, I started looking for my own flights and accommodation deals separately.

I think that as long as you do thoroughly research your accommodation, resort, transfer costs, etc, make sure you are adequately insured, and pay with a credit card in case you need to make a claim against any of the services you have bought, you aren't likely to have any problems that can't be resolved. (Booking your accommodation through a UK-based company can make claiming your money back easier if things do go wrong, as services bought from overseas companies may not always be compensated by your credit card company.)

And of course even buying through a reputable travel agent is not a complete guarantee that nothing will go wrong with your holiday, even though it gives you a route to get some or all of your money back afterwards. We've all heard horror stories of the biggest travel firms being very difficult indeed about issues that arose on their package holidays!

Some people like to push the boat out and feel they are being pampered while on holiday, and part of that is have someone else do all the organising for you. And that's fair enough. Going on holiday budget-style isn't for everyone.

It's definitely for me, as we are a low income family and my whole lifestyle is budget-based. I need to justify every purchase I make, whether it be a six-pack of Heinz baked beans or the family car. We would have a much worse quality of life if I didn't. As it is, I can give my kids many things that were completely out of the question when I was a child, whilst at the same time teaching them the value of money, and the value of many other things money can't buy as well.

I love getting a bargain, and enjoy my holiday all the more if I know I've got a great deal. (For instance, flying to Spain on Ryan Air for £5 each way with no tax, was a real buzz!) I couldn't fully enjoy something I knew I had spent a lot of money on - but that's just me.

I don't buy package deals because they aren't economical for me, but if I did, I would certainly go down the route Martin recommends. I wouldn't take hours of a travel agent's time because it would make me feel low, but if I couldn't find out what I wanted to know by researching on the Internet, I would certainly ask them for information and advice, the same as buying anything else, a car, washing machine or whatever. Who knows, I MIGHT decide to buy from them if I think they are competitive, or offer me something that others don't.