So, I recently discovered I had been brainwashed by commercials with William Shatner and garden gnomes that I could find a great deal on travel with just a few clicks of the mouse. Recently deciding to plan a trip to Vegas for July 4th weekend, I was discouraged by the high prices I was finding on every site I came across. Some as high as $700 per person at cheap ass hotels for just 3 nights and only one a weekend night. One way on Southwest for $219. WTF!?!? Why so much?? Talking to my mom, she had a brilliant idea: To call her travel agent in Cleveland that helped her and my dad book their trip to meet us in Veags this past Christmas.
She had been really pleased with using Canary Travel and said, "Just call. See what they have." At first I was thinking my best bet would be to fly out of CLE. Well, the prices were good! $100-50 less per person. But, the fllights were not ideal as we'd have to drive all the way to CLE from CBUS. It just wasn't working. Karen could hear in my voice that I wasn't sure I could make it work. She took a cue from my area code and thought to check CMH and BAM! I got a deal. $100 less than the online offering for a Southwest Vacation package and overall $300 less than the 'deal' I had originally considered.
Now, I am not even going to check online until I get prices from Karen first. Then, of course, I'll check online against her quote. (How could I not??) So, my advise post discovery is, get a travel agent before you you get pummelled by the Price Negotiator with a less than great 'deal'.
I am not sure the travel agent can win everytime, but they seem to be fighting the good fight :)
Here's my agent's info if you're interested: Karen Abbott @ Canary Travel http://www.canarytravel.com/. There seems to be a lack of travel agents in CMH. In CLE there's tons of advertised specials all the time in the paper from a lot of different agencies specializing in different types of travel and here, nothing. I am not sure why. The only place I know of around here is Grandview Travel.
Discovery: Take my mom's advice. "Just call. See what they have."
Liz! Your mom is a genius - and you're a genius for sharing! I think our generation has something against travel agents - we grew up in the world of doing everything for ourselves online. Our parents' generation loves travel agents though.
ReplyDeleteI am totally giving this a shot next time!