So my husband and I would like to take a quick trip before the baby is born. You know, a babymoon! We have two destinations in mind, so it's a multidestination flight, which I had a bit of trouble booking online as the airline I'd like to use does not make this easy. No problem, I'll ask for help.
I enlisted the help of a travel agent, gave him our proposed dates and destinations, even a few flight numbers I'd found. Specifics on hotels we liked, and which areas we'd like to stay at each destination.
He sent me back an email that stated that he had found cheaper flights than I had (but did not include pricing), reversed the order in which we'd visit each destination (when the order we'd asked for was quite deliberate - it is a more tour-y destination followed by a RELAX destination) and proceeded to tell me that a hotel for the first leg of the trip - which by the way does not quite fit the spec's I'd sent him - would cost us over US$4,000 (for 4 nights). This seemed EXTREMELY high for the place we are going, so I did a quick online search, found the hotel's website, and checked the rates & availability for those dates. My price was a little different: under US$800 (for 4 nights). Even in the hotel's most executive suite, we would only be paying US$1,500 for those nights. Ummmmm... what???
Then, for the other destination, where we provided a long list of potential hotels and pousadas, all very intimate and private, some with just 4 rooms, spa-like, he provides us with one price quote (again, very high) for a gigantic resort that was not on the list. The resort has absolutely nothing in common with any of the places we'd chosen.... again - what???
Something is very fishy...
We had trouble getting a travel agent to listen to what we wanted as well last year (we wanted to make a trip to Buenos Aires and Santiago). We sort of felt like they probably do great "tour packages", but seemed to know absolutely nothing about other options outside of their "packages". In the end I just put the whole thing together myself!
Posted by: Emily | March 05, 2009 at 10:44 AM
Yeah it's crazy! Now if I could only figure out how to book a multidestination ticket on TAM all by myself... haha
Posted by: Daily Rio Life | March 06, 2009 at 09:02 PM