There has been a new wave of ads for booking online travel. The latest actually says “Do not call your travel agent book directly online”. This is very depressing…More and more people are going that way…and there is little travel agents can do to stop them.
I have had people call me asking for advice, which I provided and then they end by saying: “ I can book this myself online and save on service fees”. Telling them we will not be helping them if they run into trouble does not seem to scare them much…
But what irritates me the most are people who shop around and then challenge what I say making me look like I am over charging them for their trip… like the client who checks the airline websites but checks one way tickets forgetting to add a return flight, or the people who quit before checking the taxes on a ticket (when you know that taxes can sometimes be more expensive than the flight)… or people who will claim they have found a much cheaper ticket on expedia…but when I check, either it is never to be found again or else it has 5 hour connections or numerous needless stops along the way, which is something I would never sell to my customers…
I love this job but if there is no work left to do…I will have to look elsewhere…