Why I Won’t Book Through a Travel Agent Again

This may be a controversial point of view, but I remain firm due to my latest experience.

2 weeks ago, I learnt my cancer levels had risen again. Whilst not enough to majorly freak out about, it WAS enough to make me re-evaluate my priorities again! Either stay in my job and continue saving for ‘one day’, OR, use my savings now and a book a bucket list holiday… It didn’t take me long to decide which one I should do.

One problem though, where would I start looking and booking? Do you start with flights, hotels or tours? I wasn’t sure, but I did have one lead though...

The night before my results came in I received an email, an email with an amazing deal, a 2-for-1 African tour! When I first received the email, I read it and closed it passing it off as no more than a dream for later. After those results came in though, I instantly messaged a friend and asked if she wanted to go on a safari. Surprisingly, she said yes! So! We were going on safari!

Having never looked at flights to Africa, I was in the dark about which airlines flew there and even more so on the cost. So I decided to get some ‘professional’ help.

I stopped in at my local travel agent, told them of this tour I wanted to do in November and asked her how much would it cost me to fly ‘round the world’ vs direct to Kenya, after all, if it was going to be a similar price, I may as well get my moneys’ worth!

I let them know I was happy to leave as soon as possible and gave them a list of countries I’d be interested in visiting.

What I got in response though was incredibly rude and off-putting. Instead of being accommodating, they demanded I give them exact dates and exact locations or they wouldn’t help me. I replied that I wasn’t 100% set on when or where, I was open to suggestions and best prices, and just wanted a quote on a 3 stop round the world flight, as well as this tour. This lady proceeded to demand exact details, so I thanked her and walked out. I thanked her and walked out.

'An accurate portrayal of the agents expression when dealing with me.'

I then walked into another travel agent less than 50m away and the vibes were instantly better. This lady took all my details, my rough dates and the tour information and said they’d create something and send it back to me for review. Thank you! That didn’t seem too hard. 3 days pass however, and I didn’t hear a peep from them. No email, phone call nothing. So much for the positive vibes… (ps. still haven’t heard back!)

Getting frustrated but not defeated, I decided to try a different travel agent, this time in town. They seemed helpful enough to start with, but it didn’t take long to realise that it wasn’t going to be as smooth sailing as I’d hoped.

They persistently insisted I book ‘round the world’ flights only with expensive airlines, going through countries that weren’t on my list and I had no interest in. And, there was the budget, which they were also ignoring! After all, this wasn’t a planned holiday with endless cash! This lady not only added everything I didn’t want, but ridiculous fees on top of everything! Thanks again, but no thanks. I’ll go somewhere else.

It was at this point I jumped on sky scanner and started planning my own round the world journey. I had the freedom to choose who I flew with, where I stopped and for how long, according to cheap flights and destinations on the list. For the first time since this holiday came to be, I felt excited and happy! (Probably because my flights were coming in $1000 cheaper than the best travel agent quote, haha)

So, with my own plan in hand, we made one last ditch effort at another travel agent. Who weren’t any more helpful than the last ones, and the quoted prices were still too high, but we were at the point of needing to book this tour if we wanted to secure our seats, we were running out of time. So an hour later, we fought on and had our (price fixed by the tour company) tour booked and had more sky-high quote for flights in hand… Apparently my Sky Scanner quote meant nothing to them… Whatever then.

I had mentally decided by now I’d be booking my own flights, so I questioned them about visas. Surely they couldn’t go wrong with that. Oh man… They wanted to charge an extra $100, on top of the visa fee! Nope, that wasn’t happening either, at this point I was annoyed at the whole situation and was obviously going to book the rest of this whole trip without an agents help. So I did! I ended up booking all of my flights, sending off for my own visa and organising suitable travel insurance, hotels and everything in between!

Honestly, it’s not my first time travelling and I DID feel confident with my planning skills in organising an amazing holiday, without their help. I do wish I booked the tours as well myself in hindsight though. Why? Because having a travel agent book them, I can no longer access my bookings online, all I have is the paper itinerary, and I have to wait two days for the agent respond to any email, and the tour company will now only deal with the travel agent!…

Frustrating or what! Okay, so maybe it was all a bad experience, but I do honestly believe I CAN do anything they can do, so why not?

With access to hundreds of booking websites, blogs and how-to videos, there is no reason why I shouldn’t either! After all, when you book things yourself, you have the freedom to choose all the tiny details. From companies and hotels, right down to the food you’ll eat on the plane, and all for much less!

Admittedly, you won’t have a direct travel agent number to call if things go a little haywire, but it’s taken them 2 days to respond on simple things anyway, so I don’t think that going to be my downfall, after all, that’s what travel insurance is for and honestly, one of the joys of travel!

In the end, going through a travel agent only added un-necessary stress and took the joy out of planning a holiday. I dreaded walking into another agent and genuinely disliked the whole travel agent experience. Through trial and error I found I was happiest when planning my own journey and from now on I will do it solo!

So there you have it, why I’ll no longer book through an agent.

Have you had similar experiences, or are you the opposite? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.