What a Travel Agency is and isn’t

Before I get to the "meat" of this offering let me Thank you for your support in this past year; we look forward to serving your travel needs in the coming year.

There is a popular TV show called “Myth Busters” that explores myths and urban legends, so this time I decided that I would correct some of the ones associated with travel agencies.

Cost to use; No matter how many different times and ways we deliver the message, the common mis-conception still exists that it costs you to use our services. 99.9% of the time we DO NOT CHARGE you for our services. We are paid commission by the travel companies, hotel chains, car rental agencies, etc. The only time we are not paid commission is for booking air travel. In that case we charge a modest booking fee to cover our time. In most instances that is included in the price we quote you for your ticket, however, if your travel happens to be on an airline that we so not book through our consolidator, we will charge you an additional fee above the ticket price. That includes air travel booked as part of a cruise.

What happens if I cancel? In the case of land based travel or cruises there may be penalties imposed by these travel partners depending on how far in advance you cancel. In the case of airline tickets, they do not refund your ticket cost, but in most cases will issue a credit for a future flight. Of course then the airlines will charge you a “re-booking” fee for their time. In the event of cancellation any booking fee we charge is not refundable. With cruise lines and most land tour operators any cancellation within their penalty period means you will lose part of your money, we do not receive any compensation in that case.
The price, what you see is NOT what you pay: Cruise lines are notorious for this little bit of deception. They will advertise a “lowball” price for a cruise, and then when the customer comes in we have to give them the bad news. Prices advertised DO NOT include such things as taxes, port charges, fuel surcharges, transfers, airfare and are based on double occupancy in a stateroom. There are exceptions, but they are rare.

Shore excursions: These add to the quality of any trip, and often we are asked by our customers to either recommend shore excursions or book them for the customer. However, we are not paid commission by the travel companies or cruise lines. We do have other travel partners that market shore excursions and pay us for our effort, but should you be delayed in returning to the ship when not on a cruise line shore excursion, you are on your own. Since booking shore excursions involves quite a bit of time on our part, we will be charging a modest fee for our time involved.

Airport Transportation: Everyday we receive calls asking us about shuttle service to Sky Harbor or Mesa-Williams Airports. There are several different companies that operate a variety of transportation from vans to limousines. We do not recommend or book with any particular company or service however we will give you their numbers and you make your own transportation arrangements. The exception to this rule is if you have a group of 8 or more we can arrange special transportation to an from Payson to either airport.

Certifications: Occasionally we see other travel agents appearing on the scene. What concerns us is the quality of service you may receive from them and the prices and advice they may dispense. We spend a lot of time an effort to keep current on all the latest offers, rules and regulations, itineraries, etc. Do we make mistakes, yes, after all we are only human, BUT we always try to be up front with our customers. To be certain, any business has people who are not satisfied with the service they receive. However there usually is far more to the story than you hear from the dis-satisfied person.