Haggling at Travel Agents ???

monkeybusiness

Visited Thomas Cook & Co-Op Travel this morning and tried to haggle on price that I have got on-line but neither would budge. Do any travel agents do discounts or is the price you see the price you pay ?

whatmichaelsays

It depends how good you are at haggling.... Some people will get discounts anywhere and others won't.

Alikay

Travel agents selling holidays for the big operators like Thomson, Thomas Cook or 1st Choice only get paid about 7% commission and that is on the pre-VAT, pre add on (ie luggage, transfers, under occupancy charge, regional airport supplements etc) fare. Out of that commission they have to pay their rent, wages, rental of booking systems and so on. There really isn't a lot to play with as the base cost of a holiday doesn't reflect what the customer actually pays...they may only make £40 on a holiday costing you about £1000.

ellay864

I haggled with TC last year and ended up saving about £400 off a cruise for DH and myself. I'd looked at their online prices, and also their Holiday Club proces (I'm a member through the company I work for) and both were cheaper than their store price, but as I had vouchers to use I really wanted to do it in store. The first branch I went in wouldn't offer anything but I went to another town a few miles away and they gave me the deal no problem

jillie1974

with Thomas Cook and Co-op, the price on the Thomas Cook website is the same as the store. There is no extra discounts available in the store.

paddyrg

Margins are thin - the booking agents make nothing like enough to offer a meaningful discount.

stephb34

There is a strict no discount policy on TC holidays at TC and the co op for this summer holidays as they are the same price as the internet. They did have an offer on of some free currency if you book it on the TC website, not sure if its still on or not. Or if you go through some websites to the TC website you can get points or pounds on the value of the booking, but i'm not sure which websites they are, someone else on here will be able to tell you.

jhe

i have always printed off the internet price and travel agents have always matched it, however my local thomson store now say they charge a £10 fee to book and match on-line prices in store.
my local thomson/first choice store also stated they are not allowed by thomson to better the on line price.