Old fashion advice I know, but I recommend a travel agent a lot of times for a lot of specific questions and assistance with booking. You really don't pay anymore, have the service aspect associated with it, have someone to call and email if something happens and so on.
I think a lot of people have gotten away from booking directly with travel agents and just book online thinking it's cheaper or something. The benefit with travel agents is the technical knowhow, sometimes finding some specific deals and structures for a trip and than follow up service if need be.
I can't tell you how many times people booked some flight or some package on some site or at Costco or something and than it's a mad dash for some call center overseas to deal with the problem.
When people generally argue the fact that travel agency's are obsolete, I fire back that top executives, high level business travelers and generally speaking high net-worth individuals will use travel agents for the specific reasons outlined above. They don't have the time to waste with 4 hour hold times on Air Canada 1-800 numbers etc, they need action done.
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