What else is open for an easy February trip besides Coz?

[tursiops]

I am with Snoweman on this one. If there is one thing I know its traveling. Obviously aside for this year my life is Allways At The Airport I call it AATA haha. I do contracting work that has be flying all over the world, and my personal hobby aside from diving is traveling. I usually sit on about 60-80 airplanes a year and fill up a 50pg passport in about 2-3 years so far I have been to 98 different countries. So I would say I have a little bit of experience traveling and in this time I never use a travel agent (with the exception of when I went to Bhutan, but this is a government regulation that you have to use a local TA) Why because I have never found them to be cheaper. Think about it what is a travel agency? its a service/business to streamline your bookings and holiday. A service like this is not free so of course your paying for it and yes they are good at hiding it to make it seems like your not but trust me somewhere is the background your paying for it. I have 2 friends that work for travel agencies. Just like any other agency that provides a services they are in the business to make money off of people that don't want to spend the time booking things. Now yes if I was rich and had the money i would use a TA all the time! I would love to have the money to be able to wave my hand in the air and poof everything is done for me but im not rich and im not going to spend my money on that I would rather spend it on diving tips or other holidays.

Also those of you that work for a large company that has there employees flying a lot I bet your company does not use a TA they most likely use American Express travel and no this not a TA its just an online system with flight access but your company is still finding the flights and booking them on there own. There is a reason why companies just book flights themselves because they want to save money. If TA's were so cheep then why are all companies not using them? Reason is they cost more especially if you are flying hundreds of employees around the world all the time that extra the TA charges would add up really quick when you are flying that many people all the time.
I'm sure we all know the typical story of the university kid that just graduated and goes on a backpacking trip around the world for a year or two. Especially with youtube and social media it has become a very popular thing to do. These kids latterly find the cheapest way to travel. Trust me you don't see any of them using a TA. Why do you think this is? Because it cost more.

Yes I do agree there are some advantages of a TA, if your someone that is not comfortable traveling or maybe its your first trip overseas or maybe you just do one or two holidays a year then yes maybe its worth spending the one time extra $300-500 more to use a TA and just call someone up and tell them what you want and they they organize everything. I can understand that but if your like me and or others that are taking 10, 20, 30 or more trips a year then they $300-$500 extra is now thousands if not tens of thousands you have wasted hence why large companies book there own flights. The only other time a TA comes in handy is I have found that in some 3rd world countries when you are trying to get to a very remote location using a local domestic airline that does not even have a website or if they do it only takes local credit cards then yes sometimes you to find a local agent to book the ticket for you but usually you are only paying like a 10-20% markup on a very cheap $40 flight so its nothing in the grand scheme of things. I have had to do this a couple times in Nepal, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Philippines.

LOL. You need to find different TAs. Good ones save you money, not just time and aggravation. they do this by offering you deals/prices you cannot get yourself, and in some cases even split their commissions with you. This is especially true in the dive travel industry, not run-of-the-mill trips to Paris or the like.

 

[GF99/99]

LOL. You need to find different TAs. Good ones save you money, not just time and aggravation. they do this by offering you deals/prices you cannot get yourself, and in some cases even split their commissions with you. This is especially true in the dive travel industry, not run-of-the-mill trips to Paris or the like.

I am all about saving money so I am more than happy to take suggestions for a good TA but I have yet to see anyone post contact info for these supposed good TA that save you all this money. This is not top secret info so please share.

If you give me your TA on my next trip I will post there quoted price and I can post the price I can do the trip for.

Also like I said I still have yet to work for a company the uses TA's for there bookings. Think about it there must be a reason for this? If TA's were save you all this money they why is very major company in the world not using TA's? And why is every cheap budget backpacker/traveler not using TA's?

 

[tursiops]

If you give me your TA on my next trip I will post there quoted price and I can post the price I can do the trip for.

No thanks. You can do your own relationship-building, which can take years and is how the good prices and deals start emerging. And I am talking ONLY about dive travel, which it does not appear to be the bulk of your travel.

 

[GF99/99]

No thanks. You can do your own relationship-building, which can take years and is how the good prices and deals start emerging. And I am talking ONLY about dive travel, which it does not appear to be the bulk of your travel.

LOL yup that's what I thought. Kind of funny how no one will give a website link or phone number to all these TA that save you so much money. Or be transparent about it and show an actual cost comparison on a real trip (yes a real trip because yes I am away that sometimes there are those random last minute package deal trip that are price way below what you could book yourself but no one can actually make the random dates the trip is for. Most of us are regular work class people and we can just grab our things and go to make a random trip to a random location because its a good deal). Or it takes "years of relationship-building" AKA you paid out tons of money to you TA over the years on all your others trips so now they are finally giving you a half decent price.

I travel a lot and I am willing to be very transparent and open to the idea of using a TA and will show the cost etc because yes I am a cheap a$$ and would love to save money! I am all about saving money, so please show me how. But kind of hard to do that when everyone talks about how much a TA saves you but can not actually provide real numbers proving it. Like I said I am very open to a TA and have nothing against them I just have never found one that saves me money. I am willing to be a real life test guinea pig and do a real life experiment on TA vs. booking on your own but I need a starting point for a TA that "saves you all this money"

Also just a side note but will leave this out for now most of use have points credit cards as well and if your booking on your own you can use these points which essential makes the trip free. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think you can use point for TA's. And if you do travel a lot like me you have 100k elite status with whatever air alliance you use so you have access flights using points and can use your points for free upgrades to first/business class.

 

[tursiops]

LOL yup that's what I thought. Kind of funny how no one will give a website link or phone number to all these TA that save you so much money. Or be transparent about it and show an actual cost comparison on a real trip (yes a real trip because yes I am away that sometimes there are those random last minute package deal trip that are price way below what you could book yourself but no one can actually make the random dates the trip is for. Most of us are regular work class people and we can just grab our things and go to make a random trip to a random location because its a good deal). Or it takes "years of relationship-building" AKA you paid out tons of money to you TA over the years on all your others trips so now they are finally giving you a half decent price.

I travel a lot and I am willing to be very transparent and open to the idea of using a TA and will show the cost etc because yes I am a cheap a$$ and would love to save money! I am all about saving money, so please show me how. But kind of hard to do that when everyone talks about how much a TA saves you but can not actually provide real numbers proving it. Like I said I am very open to a TA and have nothing against them I just have never found one that saves me money. I am willing to be a real life test guinea pig and do a real life experiment on TA vs. booking on your own but I need a starting point for a TA that "saves you all this money"

Also just a side note but will leave this out for now most of use have points credit cards as well and if your booking on your own you can use these points which essential makes the trip free. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think you can use point for TA's. And if you do travel a lot like me you have 100k elite status with whatever air alliance you use so you have access flights using points and can use your points for free upgrades to first/business class.

Gosh, you are so special. Bless your heart.

 

[KathyV]

LOL yup that's what I thought. Kind of funny how no one will give a website link or phone number to all these TA that save you so much money. Or be transparent about it and show an actual cost comparison on a real trip (yes a real trip because yes I am away that sometimes there are those random last minute package deal trip that are price way below what you could book yourself but no one can actually make the random dates the trip is for. Most of us are regular work class people and we can just grab our things and go to make a random trip to a random location because its a good deal). Or it takes "years of relationship-building" AKA you paid out tons of money to you TA over the years on all your others trips so now they are finally giving you a half decent price.

I travel a lot and I am willing to be very transparent and open to the idea of using a TA and will show the cost etc because yes I am a cheap a$$ and would love to save money! I am all about saving money, so please show me how. But kind of hard to do that when everyone talks about how much a TA saves you but can not actually provide real numbers proving it. Like I said I am very open to a TA and have nothing against them I just have never found one that saves me money. I am willing to be a real life test guinea pig and do a real life experiment on TA vs. booking on your own but I need a starting point for a TA that "saves you all this money"

Also just a side note but will leave this out for now most of use have points credit cards as well and if your booking on your own you can use these points which essential makes the trip free. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think you can use point for TA's. And if you do travel a lot like me you have 100k elite status with whatever air alliance you use so you have access flights using points and can use your points for free upgrades to first/business class.

You can use credit card points for travel booked with a travel agent, but policies may vary with the brand of card. We use Capital One Visa and you can redeem points for purchased travel after you book the airfare or the trip or other expenses for the travel.

I have been using the same Travel Agent for many years and she is great, but she is semi-retired. She still services some of her old customers but doesn't accept new clients. I worry about what we will do when she fully retires.

 

[rick00001967]

the only possible advantage i can see using a TA these days is if something goes wrong. and it often does. at least you then have a representative that will go to bet for you and "should" be able to sort it out for the best outcome. just as an example.....years ago when i travelled to coz, the charter airline went bankrupt while we were n the island. i had no one to contact to work out how i was getting home. i literally just showed up at the airport on departure day with absolutely no idea if / how i was getting home. it worked out, but it would have been nice to have someone making arrangements.

also.....anyone ever had any luck sorting out a problem with expedia ? haha good luck. most of the time it is like talking to a rock.

 

[drrich2]

For the benefit of people fairly new to dive trip planning who find this thread, to summarize on the travel agent issue:

1.) Travel Agents often have no visible fee to the user; they get paid from businesses you book with. In theory a business might offer a better rate for booking direct, if you ask, or may not.
2.) Having all your flights booked on one ticket is a nice perk.
3.) Having flights and hotels booked by someone who knows things you don't (e.g.: size and complexity of airports, distance from hotel to airport and live-aboard, satisfaction pasts guests had, fees you may not've been aware of, unusally low baggage weight allowances) can be a plus.
4.) A travel agent's website may congregate special offers/sales from different providers.
5.) A do-it-yourself approach may reveal cheaper airline tickets, and it may be more practical to use 'credit card points' (but KathyV could do it with her card).
6.) If the travel agent has a good, ongoing relationship with you and hears of a really good limited capacity deal, you might get preferential notification from that agent. Tursiops mentioned some T.A.s can save you money via deals not open to the general public, in some cases may even split commissions with you. I suspect this is one of those 'long-standing relationship' things?
7.) One member claimed chronic very budget conscious travelers (e.g.: backpackers) don't tend to use travel agents - but I figure they're seasoned at making their own arrangements, and I don't recall hearing of travel agents hooking people up with hostels (maybe they do?). They may get guidance from fellow travelers. Many dive travelers aren't as low budget, staying with fellow travelers making similar arrangements, and haven't arranged as many trips for themselves. Another example was of at least some companies not using T.A.s for corporate travel - perhaps such companies have seasoned staff, or often book trips in ways they've done before?
8.) If you are a seasoned, competent travel planner capable of reliably researching and making all needed arrangements for your trip, and a resourceful, smart shopper, and particularly if you don't count the cost of the time and effort involved in doing all that...you may be able to shave a chunk off your trip cost.
9.) Not all dive travel agents are created equal. If you use one, consider reputation.
10.) Travel agents are well-worthwhile for some but apparently not for others.

Some people start out dive travel by joining local dive club trips for similar benefits. Not all trips are created equal...from the U.S. a trip to Key Largo, FL or Grand Cayman isn't on par with one to Papua New Guinea.

 

[tarponchik]

. Like I said I am very open to a TA and have nothing against them I just have never found one that saves me money. I am willing to be a real life test guinea pig and do a real life experiment on TA vs. booking on your own but I need a starting point for a TA that "saves you all this money"

Travel agent takes commission, so if you are as good as any TA, as you claim, a TA won't save you any money. A TA can only save you some time.

Travel agencies, like Travelocity, on the other hand, can save you money because they often get discounts from airlines, hotel chains and car rental companies. They also can back you up in some tricky situations, so sometimes it makes sense to book tickets and hotels through them, not directly by yourself.

 

[aquabluegreg]

If you happen to be looking for an agent, give me a shout. We are normally available 7 days a week and 8am to say 8pm eastern time zone. We normally discount all trips on top of any advertised rates. We have group deals to Indonesia in 2021 and liveaboard trips on the Belle Amie, Damai, Bilikiki, Rocio del Mar.

Cheers, Greg