Travel Agent vs Travel Planner

We regularly get asked the usual How Do You- styled travel questions. Over the past siz years of running this blog I still get these three main topics when it comes to travel planning –
What agent do you use?
Do you really need travel insurance (Yes. Yes you do)
and how do you afford to travel AND enjoy champagne?

Today I want to discuss the great wall debate on Travel Agent vs Travel Planner. Let’s clear the air for all those people out there wondering what the actual difference is and if it really matters at all.

A travel planner is typically a person who enjoys the research on destinations, airfares, hotels. Typically this style of traveler is between 25-55, has disposable income, is independent, wants an experiential travel experiences and is well versed in the use of the Google.

A travel agent is a paid employee to help people purchase travel related services– flights, accommodation, tours etc. The travel agent maybe restricted by commercial agreements. Some agents are paid by the hour; others are purely based on commission and you’ll find a few independent agents out there too. For the sake of today’s discussion all agents that I have dealt with personally have been paid a lower hourly rate and good bonuses based on sales and customer reviews.

Before I put pen to paper on this topic I did a wee bit of Google style research.  The first 5 pages of results were seemingly about travelling families or newly wedded couples looking for a luxurious honeymoon. 90% of these websites recommended you use a travel agent for the pure pleasure of having someone else do something that you could do. Because  you are too silly to understand the complicated booking pages and websites available to the public.

Now we know that you are smart enough to use the Google machine and make adult decisions. Just like us. To answer the question- Agent or Planner- well until recently we used both our own smarts and sometimes those of an agent.

Should you use a travel agent?

My personal preference is to book our own flights and accommodation. Why? Because I like to be the master of my own (and James) destiny. Over the years I have used personally only used a travel agent three times for the initial departure and return flights. Each experience has had ups and downs. This doesn’t include any press trips, who generally do use agents and that’s a whole other kettle of fish to sort through,

The first was my very first solo travel to volunteer in Guyana with Youth Challenge International. The Australian branch had recommended a large travel agency who offered “discounts” for volunteers. Pity that the discount was around $700 more than what I could find online. To make this deal even sweeter I had 24 hours to produce the $4000 airfare. A friend recommended me to a travel agent based in Perth, who not only found me cheaper flights but also an easier way to pay. Back in 2008 finding and booking your own flights online was a lot more tricky then what it is today.

Our previous method for big priced flights was to find the flights online, find the money to pay and book through an agent, after telling them the exact flight and price that we want.

The second time was a rather uneventful booking to Europe. Melbourne-Prague-Amsterdam-Melbourne. All internal European flights we did ourselves. Seriously why wouldn’t you when you can get flights for under $20 with airlines like Germanwings and less than $10 bus rides from city-city.

Our third and final time booking with a travel agent was a minor comedy of mishaps when trying to book flights to Vietnam. The company in question offered a “layby” program which I thought would be fun to try out.  Always the adventurer.  Long story short, after 4 months of regular payments and being told our final amount owing was $X, by four different staff members we discovered that the outstanding amount was an additional $1600, due on Christmas Day. It seems that as simple customers we should have been aware of the company’s internal invoicing and accounting system and known what the feck was going on. Whilst totally ignoring the final amount showing on all of our receipts.  To say the least we had a very quiet and cheap Christmas and New Year that year!

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There will always be travel agent horror stories.

Whenever you are dealing with an important  and expensive life decision you will always hear horror stories.  One of the girls in my volunteer trip didn’t have a vital flight from New York to Guyana booked by her travel agent. A small fact she found out two days before leaving Australia. Another friend missed a flight out of Australia when he discovered that the travel agent had spelt his name with a zero instead of an O. This wasn’t noticeable on his paperwork, but it was on the airlines system.

If in doubt always triple check and don’t forget to buy travel insurance. We use and recommend 1cover for your travel insurance needs. Get a quote today

Surely the travel agent is there to help you when things go wrong?

One teeny thing to remember is that travel agents don’t always work 24/7 and may not be available when you really need them. Which is generally why we strongly suggest that you buy travel insurance. Another thing to consider is the additional fees charged for assistance. Some agencies will slug you up at $100 a call plus any fare changes if things go wrong. Others won’t but it’s a good questions to ask.

How do you know what you are doing? You are not a professional travel agent.

This is correct. I did not go to travel agent school. Through the life of hard travel knocks and silly mistakes I have learnt my fine trade of Travel Planning. Over the past six years of running this blog, attending numerous press trips and our own personal travels around the world I’ve researched, asked questions, found answers and still made a few mistakes (lets not talk about the time I booked a hotel room in Sydney before a super early international departure the next morning, for July. But didn’t realise it was for July the following year).

We’ve had some great experiences and some not so great experiences. Which is the reason we travel. To experience the world near and far. 

*Just a side note that for quite awhile there my job was a travel agent for horses in/out of Australia. Giving me a rather unique perspective on booking flights for people, ponies and odd things in between.

Booking sites that I regularly use and recommend that you do too

Hotels – for comparison of prices and availability I recommend HotelsCombined 
AirBnb is great for experiences and unique finds. If you haven’t signed up yet this special gift will give you a $76AU credit! 
Travel Insurance – I personally use 1Cover but have also used WorldNomads. Both options give great coverage and it just depends on where in the world you are going. If you are only on the road then I’d suggest WorldNomads
Currency exchange – Get yourself onto the TransferWise band wagon! 

For comfortable flights outfits check out the latest travel accessories on my Amazon Store! 

So let me know, do you book your own travel or do you trust a travel agent?

Just a teeny tiny note on affiliate links – We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. We’re also a member of a few others and may make a bit of coin on the side, this is at no extra cost to you. 

We also have an Amazon Shop. Why not take a look? Shop Traveling Honeybird Amazon lists today