Travel
10 Biggest Secrets Travel Agencies Don't Want You To Know
Jan
10 Biggest Secrets Travel Agencies Don’t Want You To Know!
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When we think of vacation we think of white sand beaches, snow-capped mountains, and bustling city centers. What we often forget to work into our daydream is the many steps it takes to plan out a trip. You might be tempted to hire a travel agent, but there is a lot that they do that you might not be aware of. Are travel agents worth it, or are they just trying to scam you by acting as a middleman? We’ll let you know some of their secrets so you can make that decision for yourself. It might surprise you to know that different airlines offer different commission amounts on tickets, so agents won’t bother showing you fares from inexpensive airlines that don’t offer them a piece of the profits. We’ll give you some tips on booking your own flight, and let you know how unscrupulous travel agents can make you pay a way higher price than what you could get on your own. When it comes to finding out insider tips on a great hotel, many agents use the same resources you do, namely just googling it.
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This annoyed me because most of this is not true.
This is unbelievably uneducated, this is not how the travel business works at all!!
This is not true at all
My wife is a travel agent and she does not charge any extra fees. She also has price match so if you do find something cheaper she can price match Apples to Apples. This Entire video is B.S
I'm a travel agent – please do not be fooled by some of the untrue 'facts' in this video.
Is this whole thing sponsored by Expedia. It's a load of BS to think that they make 5% Commission. Truth is who do you think answers 800 number you call when you're having a complication with the website. Right, a travel agent!!!!! Although there some bad apples out there like in any industry. The key is to find someone who you can rely on and stick with them. Because once you build a relationship with that agent they will not rip you off.
I am a travel agent and this is 100% horse shit.
I have been in the industry for 12 years. You made few good points however all the bad practices you talked about used to happen about 10 years ago. Here are few points:
1. Most money on a flight ticket is made by Government.
2. Average profit that a Low cost airline like Easyjet makes on a ticket is $6. (Six dollars). Rest of the profit comes from on board services.
3. Commission paid to agent on a ticket depends on the airline. It could vary between 1% to 4% of base fare usually.
4. Major markups comes from Excursions or activities like Day tour, transfers etc on which 7-10% commission is paid.
5. Travel Agents in most countries pay GST/VAT (12-18%) and on average about 25% on year end profit.
6. The cost of Travel software is too expensive.
7. If any agent wants to become a direct airline ticketing partner, he has to deposit about half a million dollar for each airline.
8. To be a travel agent is a profession just like any being a Chartered Accountant. Thus cost of Training the employees on softwares is higher. And thus their salaries are higher.
9. Website like Skyscanner and Kayak charges the websites to be showcased on their website. For each click the fees is about $3-4 and for each impression it is about 80 cents.
10. Using Credit Card point to buy tickets is like saying "why don't you sell your utensils and a buy a ticket"
11. Buying ticket on Wednesday or Tuesday, This is the most bizarre shit I have heard. I have worked for airlines, sometimes we used to release deals fortnightly and sometimes whenever we felt important. I don't remember anyone saying, "Let do it on Wednesday".
12. Searching for Group tickets individually is a pathetic advice. Remember you don't have control over the system. You might end up booking 2 tickets for $400 and other two for $700.
13. No agent could say flight is packed – The statement goes as "There is only 1 ticket left at this price" . (Price segregation: Understand?)
14. 25% commission of a trip? – So if you paid $2000 to a travel agent, he would earn $500 ? Is that what you just said? (In the words of Sheldon, "Think Monkey Think!)
15. I have handled Expedia New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and India -their system is good if you want to pay nominal fees for your ticket. However there are lots of gaps, that they haven't addressed. Like booking a package on Expedia could sometimes create problems.
16. Travel Software are designed well. Agent cant just put fake names and change it later just to hold the seats. Ever heard "NO NAME CHANGE PERMITTED". That's what it is.
P.S – It is of prime important for any Travel Agent to retain the customers by providing a good experience. They are ready to lose on their profit to provide a hassle free holiday. You would find the wrong doings in bigger organisations who rule the market.
This story sounds like of one travel agency I know that operates in US. – (Cheap*air)
You have no idea what you are talking about! What a bunch of garbage advise you are giving!
Wow! So much misinformation and lies. Where are these travel agencies getting 25% commission? I want to go work there! Piss poor research by theHUB. Expedia only makes 5% commission on a booking? You must have pulled these numbers of thin air. This video is completely full of lies, there is no other way to describe it.
What has you choosing to go on a cruise got to do with a bad travel agent?
OMG! This is the most ridiculous video I have ever watched!!!! It must be American because things don't work this way in Canada! first of all with respect to consolidators only agents with an IATA number can purchase a ticket through a consolidator and as for saving big bucks, on a $750 airline ticket the consolidators sell it to agents for about $744 so our commission is $6! As for there being a best day of the week for purchasing tickets, it is not on Wednesday it is on Tuesday and I tell all my clients that. Almost all my vacation packages depart on Tuesday for that reason. I, like most travel agents would rather save my clients money and have them come back to me than gouge them and never see them again. In Canada there a rules and regulations that prevent agents from over charging on airline tickets and the systems we use set the limits on what we can charge for tickets. As for funerals, Canadian airlines offer bereavement fares and everybody knows about them. Travel agents do not make money off bereavement fares, we book them to assist our clients in their most difficult time! Travel agents make 6 to 8 percent off the net fare so if a vacation package is $2000 and the taxes are $700 we make 6 to 8 percent off the $1300 so $78 to $104 off a $2000 package. Deposits are nonrefundable. Once you book and apply your $250 per person deposit the deposit is nonrefundable and any payments made there after are nonrefundable – this is not a story told by travel agents these are policies set by the tour operators. Some tour operators will allow changes to be made to the booking with a change fee, but the change fee goes to the tour operator and not the travel agent. In Canada no changes are permitted within 21 days of travel and without insurance the fare is a complete loss of funds. As for asking the client to pay off the vacation early, for individual packages the total due is 45 days prior to travel and for groups it is 60 to 90 days prior to travel depending on the tour operator. My clients book with me because I get them a good deal EVERY TIME – the more money my clients save on their vacations the more money they have for future travel and the more likely they are to remain loyal to me. Not all deal are too good to be true. I gt weekly emails from my tour operators with last minute deals for four and five star resorts for as little as $750 per person for flights, all-inclusive accommodations, taxes, gratuities and ground transfers. This is because many tour operators guarantee a certain number of rooms to be sold and if it looks like they won't be sold they pass them on to the agents to advertise for their clients. These deals are often the cost of air only and the resort is essentially free. The caveat is that the dates and flights are set in stone and non-negotiable so you have to be ready to pack your bags – the exact same vacation two weeks later could be $2300. In Canada we are not allowed to 'jack-up' prices. We have policies and guidelines we have to follow to protect consumers. We do offer pre-purchased tours, because we sell them in Canadian dollars whereas in Mexico and the Caribbean the tours are sold in USD – with an exchange rate at nearly 40 percent it is far more economical for guests to prebook a $100 tour in Canada prior to departure than it is to purchase the same $100 tour in Mexico which will cost them about $137 CAD – for a family of five that is a $185 CAD savings. As for asking them to pay off the balance early, in our contracts it clearly states the final payment is due 45 days prior to travel so it has nothing to do with 'needing' our commission cheques early, furthermore we don't get paid until travel is completed and so early payment serves us no purpose. Canadian airlines do not pay commissions – unless we charge a service fee for booking an airline ticket we don't make money booking tickets. The only agents in Canada that sell airline tickets are corporate travel agents who generally charge a $50 service fee, but that covers their time because often there a many changes that need to be made with corporate travel. In Canada we cannot hold seats on airlines. When we get a price for a seat on a flight, that price is not guaranteed until the ticket is paid in full. Finally, I do not book resorts I have not personally travelled to and to suggest that agents lie and claim they have been to the resorts they are booking is just ignorant! I go to Mexico no less than 9 times a year and in the past two years I have stayed at or personally toured over 100 resorts in six popular Mexican destinations. If a client wants to book a resort I have not been to, I am honest and upfront and tell them I have not seen the resort and share reviews from agents I know have been to the requested resort. I don't know why you have such a hate-on for travel agents – clearly in the US there are no standards or guidelines to protect consumers when it involves travel agents, but travel agents in Canada are regulated. Of course our airlines do not overbook seats and our airline cabin crews do not assault passengers either. Next time you decide to post fiction, make sure you are clear that your opinions are a reflection of your country and not all agents. I do have to take you, because you have given me great material for my next youtube video!
This is not true ! I am a travel agent ! I am newish started in August. I don't earn the commission stated here. I don't have booking software- all domestic air pays nothing ! And I personally want to be sure my clients have a good time and a smooth time. There are many misleading statements on this video. maybe this refers to travel agencies – I am an Independent travel agent part time at that. I am I lymlooking to cover the cost of being affiliated with an agency. NONE of these deceitful practices are taught and further more our commissions are paid by cruiser mine or hotel – My 1st commission check was $36. It also takes 3-4 months after travel to get the commission so the part about asking a client to pay ASAP has NO bearing on when commission is issued.
This video is very insulting to me. I have been a travel agent for 17 years and any unethical agents may use some of these techniques. However, generalizing travel agents like that is damaging to our industry!
So Buy the tickets on a Wednesday or to leave on my trip on a Wednesday? Sorry
all im assuming that you dont want to pay service fee to a travel agent but want use his services.
i didn't want a lesson about the environment lol
Your Dream Traveller
Your Dream Traveller
seems whoever did this really don't know how it works.
I want to buy with my visa debit but… there's a limit.. sadly
LOL "Plain ticket"
This is a pure bullshit video…
Sure there might be travel agents that take advantage of desperate people that need to attend a funeral,
those who try to squeeze every penny out of you and some might be dishonest… but this is FAR from every agent.. the agent this video describes
is undoubtly part of the minority and should by no means be a travel agent..
And for those even considering booking two one-way tickets i say, go ahead, once your planned returntrip gets cancelled= you're on your own and you have to
make your own way home.. if it's a return ticket the airline is bound by law and they must help you.. unless they go out of business completely that is, but in those cases i say
you'll feel so glad you booked through a agent who is very keen to get you home.. good luck calling one of those cheap online agents with only robots for
employees or the airline that ceased operating 🙂
What people who prefer to save a few dollars forget is that the travel agent the would see for their trip might be an expert on their prefered destination..
Sure you might book a decent trip to the Maldives or Fiji on your own.. but imagine what someone who's an expert could do for you instead…
The stupidity is strong in this one… no travel agent would behave this way.. this is pure propaganda to promote self service travel booking…
A travel agent provide so much more than a plane ticket… they provide expertise about the destination, where it's safe to stay, good things that you must see and they
can actully find tickets that are impossible to book online for a fraction of the fare you might stumble upon.
AND NEVER and i repeat NEVER book a trip with two oneway tickets without fully understanding that this frees the airline of all responsibility
for your transport if one of the flights are cancelled… if you're on the destination after taking your outbound oneway and your homebound oneway is cancelled the
airline have no legal requirement to help you.. since you haven't started your trip yet legally… but sure.. travel agents aren't needed.. atleast you saved a few bucks right?
And NO airline pays comission to any travel agent, the agent most likely recommend the airline they know will provide you with the best service and help if a problem should occur…
this video is all prejudice and old data.. i sincerely hope everyone that watches this video realise
that travel agents do add value and that you should not believe in the blunt ignorance shown in this video…
Nothing like being against cruises.
I can’t believe how inaccurate this video is. I don’t know what agents the people who made this video has talked to but travel agents aren’t shady like this video says it is. Travel agents do so much more good and are extremely helpful and can usually get you better deals than what you can find yourself. Travel agents are mostly independent contractors not people who work in an office and compete with each other. Also travel agents don’t get paid tell after you come back from your trip. Iike I said this video is extremely inaccurate and pretty much all lies.
Valuable one
I love working with my travel agent… travel agents are live savers..
I don't even know where to begin with the ridiculous statements made in this video. When someone reaches out to me to book a vacation, I ALWAYS, work within the budget they provide , which frankly most times is unrealistic. Asking a traveler about their budget is not a trick, but a reasonable question to ask someone looking to travel. How else, would TA know what hotels, airfare etc to book. If someone doesn't provide a budget and then I present them with a vacation package that is not within their means, then guess what, they will not book the trip.
As for commissions, from my experience , only a few suppliers offer a nice commission. And we don't earn our commission until AFTER the client has completed their travels.
As for travel insurance, I let my client's know this product is available and how much it costs, but I am not an insurance agent. If the traveler wishes to purchase it, they will let me know, if not, I don't push it any further.
As a TA, I spend many hours researching vacation packages and take what I do seriously. Why? l First, I enjoy helping people book a vacation. Secondly, traveling is a great way to see the world and get away from the hustle and bustle of one's daily life.
I can go on and on about this incredibly insulting, ignorant and stupid video, but I don't want to take up anymore time.
Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
😡
This is definitely inaccurate!
Hi i need ticket from u s a to visit brazil
This video is ridiculous!! It is completely not true. Travel agents are interested in building relationships with customers so we do not care to take advantage of people. Commissions that we are paid are included in every hotel room, cruise fare, etc so if you are not utilizing an agent, you are paying for the service and not getting the value.
I’d be an honest travel agent as I’m an honest person. It’s like this video assumes that every travel agent is corrupt.😒