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Get Lost
ChrisCrossings ˇ May 4, 2000

Q: My fiancé and I recently went to London for four days, taking advantage of a low rate advertised via e-mail by US Airways.

It was my first overseas trip. We made our arrangements very quickly, and with some trepidation. We found our hotel via the Internet. Aside from the cramped seats on the flights - especially the international flights - the flight attendants were polite and courteous, the hotel was very comfortable, and we had a great time.

Our wedding is in April, and we have pretty firmly decided we want to go back to London for a longer time and explore more of it and the surrounding area. Since this will be our honeymoon, we figured it could use more advance planning, and so I went to a travel agency in the lobby of my building.

I told the agent what I wanted, in basic terms, and said, "Can you help me?" The answer, apparently, was she could if she wanted to but she didn't want to. I was expecting a hard-sell approach; a line of "better put a deposit in now because it might be gone tomorrow!" I didn't get it. I'm not entirely sure what I did get.

When I told her we wanted to see Stonehenge, Glastonbury, and perhaps go to Paris for a day, her reply was, huffily, "Oh, you can do all that from your hotel."

And I am to know this? How?

At any rate, there was no advice or offers to help find a plane, a hotel, or a tour. So, although I walked out with a few brochures, I won't be returning. Am I wrong, or do travel agents not want business? I thought they worked on commissions, at least in part?

-- Wendy Tull

A: Travel agents do want your business as far as I can tell, but some of them have a funny way of showing it.

They need your business. Fact is, there's been an 11 to 13 percent reduction in the number of travel agencies since February 1995, when airline-based commissions started to drop, according to the American Society of Travel Agents.

Given all that, you would think that the agent you visited would be delighted to help. Why didn't she?

The answer could be contained in your question. The agent might have failed to assist you precisely because you weren't generating a large enough bonus. All of the extra work involved in the daytrips you wanted to take probably yielded no additional revenue for her. Why work when you're not getting paid?

Needless to say, this is an extremely shortsighted view of running any business. A labor-intensive but low-commission trip may not yield immediate profits, but there's no telling where your next trip might be to - or what the commission will be on it.

If my first thought is correct, then your agent is well on her way toward becoming another statistic, and deservedly so.

Another possibility is that the agent didn't have the expertise she needed to advise you. If that were true, then she should have told you that her knowledge of Britain was inadequate and referred you to another agent who knows more. She didn't do that, and instead tried to handle your query herself.

If that were true, then you would have been better off making your travel arrangements online again instead of dealing with an ignorant agent. You probably already knew more about the UK than she did.

Finally, it's possible that you were working with an agency employee with a bad attitude. As David Kirby pointed out recently, these are difficult times for agents. The events of the last month alone are enough to make morale downright awful in the agency community. Perhaps someone who didn't have a stake in the business and didn't care about anything more than picking up a paycheck was working with you.

Ready to go do it yourself again? Not so fast.

Before writing all agents off, I would suggest you try to find someone who specializes in European travel. It may require a little research. However, I can guarantee that you'll end up working with someone who not only knows the continent like the back of their hand, but loves their job.

We consumers have a word for travel agents like that. We call them "keepers."

PS: Wendy wrote back on the day this column posted with the following response: "Thanks so much for running my question. We ended up going to another agency and spoke to a most helpful agent. When we told her what we wanted, she immediately found a brochure for us and the arrangements we wanted at a good price. We haven't finalized our arrangements, but three cheers for her - she was pleasant and professional and had all the answers. Thank you again."

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at chris@ticked.com. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.