Travel Agent rip off or shall we say over pricing/full rack price

[Mexy02]

I think advising her and helping her to chose her own holiday with her friends is completely different to just saying it won’t happen next year . Are you planning meeting all of them to show them the options available ?
On another view What if it’s a big thing for them to get together and plan this then all go together to book it. you could actually be interfering in her personal and social life . My mum certainly wouldn’t appreciate me doing this as I wouldn’t with her doing it with my friends . Adults make choices and often parents make ones kids aren’t happy with and vice versa.
I hope you discuss this with her whole group of friends as some may not be on board and you could cause a rift in a settled group. I get you are trying to help but sometimes it backfires. You do make the travel agent sound like an ogre when in fact the adults have been quite happy with their annual holiday . Good luck next year .

[Jakey Neverland]

That is one big price difference, saying that I booked our summer hol online via tui on the day of release, just to Spain. I have checked again today and the over all cost has gone up by 2k.

Its funny really as when doing the USA I will do it all DIY but when doing Spain etc I always use a travel agent.

[novocastrian]

My sister always uses an travel agent, she is 51 relatively on the ball IT/internet wise

but she just wants it all done in her words, properly... ive tried to show her how easy it is to book say a BA flight hotel combo but she is paranoid of doing something wrong

at the end of the day is its her money& her choice she is happy with what she paid.. she gets everything sorted in one place in an hour or so

[duchy]

I see both sides, last year's holiday I booked Disney and a cruise through an agent , the rest (flights ,villa , car etc ) myself as that was cheaper. Paid off when Disney announced the pool closure at our hotel , my specialist Florida agent got me moved twice , first to OKW then a week later when Disney agreed to better options to the BWI . Booking direct I'd have paid more for the original holiday and also spent hours getting through to Disney instead of him doing it. When things go wrong a good agent can be a blessing.

I've never handled a group booking that didn't have some people in it who were "higher maintainance" lots of questions between booking and going , falling out with others in the group , ringing to say their son/friend saw something on the internet/friend says that worries them. Often nothing significant but they want reassurance.
They remember the days when every high street had an agency with trained and experienced staff who could give first hand and unbiased advice not agencies owned by the holiday companies who get disciplined if they don't sell their own company's product regardless of suitability. I had customers who booked with me for years, not just the agency either, they liked I knew them and wanted me to be "their agent". It's probably a bit of a social event getting together and booking too. With a group like this amendments due to illness, needing an op, family illness tends to be higher. The agent is not just taking their money and handing over the tickets but spending a fair chunk of time dealing with various members of the group in the months between.
A group also tends to book early to secure exactly what they want , with dynamic pricing if they booked in November for next July (say) the prices would be higher than they are now as most are cheaper as loads this year are low due to lots of people holding back as they feel there may be a Brexit effect and prices have dropped.

It's not always as simple as agent v direct.

[novocastrian]

Originally Posted by duchy

I see both sides, last year's holiday I booked Disney and a cruise through an agent , the rest (flights ,villa , car etc ) myself as that was cheaper. Paid off when Disney announced the pool closure at our hotel , my specialist Florida agent got me moved twice , first to OKW then a week later when Disney agreed to better options to the BWI . Booking direct I'd have paid more for the original holiday and also spent hours getting through to Disney instead of him doing it. When things go wrong a good agent can be a blessing.

I've never handled a group booking that didn't have some people in it who were "higher maintainance" lots of questions between booking and going , falling out with others in the group , ringing to say their son/friend saw something on the internet/friend says that worries them. Often nothing significant but they want reassurance.
They remember the days when every high street had an agency with trained and experienced staff who could give first hand and unbiased advice not agencies owned by the holiday companies who get disciplined if they don't sell their own company's product regardless of suitability. I had customers who booked with me for years, not just the agency either, they liked I knew them and wanted me to be "their agent". It's probably a bit of a social event getting together and booking too. With a group like this amendments due to illness, needing an op, family illness tends to be higher. The agent is not just taking their money and handing over the tickets but spending a fair chunk of time dealing with various members of the group in the months between.
A group also tends to book early to secure exactly what they want , with dynamic pricing if they booked in November for next July (say) the prices would be higher than they are now as most are cheaper as loads this year are low due to lots of people holding back as they feel there may be a Brexit effect and prices have dropped.

It's not always as simple as agent v direct.

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when used to go on lads holidays it was always a day out to head into town goto our prefered agents and book the annual lads trip then off down the pub to talk about how great it was going to be...

[RickT]

Originally Posted by Mexy02

I think advising her and helping her to chose her own holiday with her friends is completely different to just saying it won’t happen next year . Are you planning meeting all of them to show them the options available ?

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You've read into my comment it wont be happening next wrong completely wrong. Of course a holiday will be happening, i meant as in they will be challenging the price and looking to get something other quotes to compare to rather than just booking it blind with one agents price.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by novocastrian

when used to go on lads holidays it was always a day out to head into town goto our prefered agents and book the annual lads trip then off down the pub to talk about how great it was going to be...

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Oh those Saturdays , big group of lads , lots of banter and back chat whilst getting them booked LOL
Always preferred it when they went to the pub after rather than before though !

[Mexy02]

Originally Posted by RickT

You've read into my comment it wont be happening next wrong completely wrong. Of course a holiday will be happening, i meant as in they will be challenging the price and looking to get something other quotes to compare to rather than just booking it blind with one agents price.

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No I read it perfectly well, I read it as you’ve put , not using the agent next year is the way I’ve read it . What if she’s and the rest of the group are perfectly happy with how they have booked it in recent years without any assistance . This is a group not just your mil no matter how much you want to prove it can be done cheaper. They are adults. Have you asked if any of the others have shopped round before , I’m sure they all have some sort of family?

[Brennanhough]

Daughters best mate is a travel agent. Bottom line is, sometimes she’s cheaper, sometimes she isn’t. If she’s cheaper or there’s a few quid in it I’ll do it with her and help support the local economy and keep her in a job. If not then I’ll book online. Simple.

Often she’s given a price and we’ve looked online, found it cheaper and she’s matched or beat the price for us.

She’s absolutely brilliant- and some of the story’s she tells about those that “know better” and try and book online to save a fiver, before coming back with there tails between their legs having made a mistake and been firmly told “you’ve got it wrong, you sort it” are quite amusing sometimes!

I agree the price here seems excessive but it’s the golden rule isn’t it- you booked at a price you were happy with don’t look again! You wouldn’t buy a car for 5 grand and the complain 6 months later the price is now only 3.5 would you!

[Pino_Spetzberg]

It could be the case that offering to buy from a High Street travel agent on condition they match or beat an online offer is worse for them than just booking online oneself.

If the TA is making next to nothing on a transaction, or making a loss, their time is actually better spent with a more profitable customer.

Using the TA to book but without generating much, if any profit for them is the worst of both worlds for them.

We used to have three Thomas Cook branches, two of them were Going Places and MyTravel before.

We once wanted to use a couple of thousand £ of TC vouchers to book a Florida holiday. We had printed it all out DIY to ask them to do their best to match the prices, which they didn't in the first branch, so we tried another straight away, they came quite close, so we asked them to print it out for us, while we went for a coffee, which they did.
When we went back we gave her envelopes filled with TC vouchers. The manageress actually told us if she had known we had vouchers she wouldn't have done the deal.
It took the currency woman, two young girls, and the Manageress over an hour to count them, and another hour to enter every voucher individually by serial number into their computer.

While we were waiting she was quite candid that she would rather people went somewhere else if there was no money in it. It just wastes time but they don't like to turn customers away.

All three Thomas Cook have gone now.