Ping: Travel Agent

[CraigSca]

So, the family and I have decided to plan the trip of all trips. In May-June of 2018, we'd like to head to Europe. Hit London, Paris, and then head to Barcelona to pick up a 7-day Mediterranean cruise. All in all, it will be 14 days of "how much money did I just spend?!".

The catch is that I would like to use about 350k in frequent flyer miles to get us there and also use AirBNB for our stays in London, Paris (?) and Barcelona. Considering the massive amounts of coordination, I'd like to use an agent, or at least someone who's completely knowledgeable in this stuff. I can do domestic vacations quite easily, but a spend of this magnitude I'd like some help.

Does anyone know an agent they like who could help with this? Would an agent not touch it because it's using frequent flyer miles and AirBNB?

Thanks!

[whomario]

It might be wise to book the cruise with an agency (maybe also daytrips during that cruise, i assume it'll be with stops on various islands ?), but everything else IMO can be done very easily and stress free yourself. I mean, all you need on the ground (trips, tours etc) can be done once there even, especially in those cities. As said, the cruise i would definitely at least have my first stop be an agency (or three, comparing is never wrong), but the rest seems pretty straight forward with those cities.

Any way to stretch things a little ? 7 days (or 5 and a bit pending on the flights and getting from one place to the next and the cruise maybe leaving early) sounds extremely dense for those 3 cities.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by whomario

Any way to stretch things a little ? 7 days (or 5 and a bit pending on the flights and getting from one place to the next and the cruise maybe leaving early) sounds extremely dense for those 3 cities.

Agreed here. I wonder, does the cruise end up back in Barcelona? If so, what I would do is spend the seven days prior to the cruise exploring London and Paris alone, and then only go to Barcelona to make the cruise ship. Then when you get back, extend the wrap up stay in Barcelona a day or two to take in that city.

[CraigSca]

Thanks, guys.

The concern I have is that the cruise is next May - I can put money down on that right now. The flights, however, can't be made because that airlines don't make their schedules that far in advance. Pair that with the "we only have so many seats available for frequent flyer miles" and I'm left with a question about how and when I should make my reservations for everything else, when the whole thing could be screwed up because there may be no FF flights available.

I'm by nature a planner - I hate having a major piece, that could screw up the whole thing, left hanging out there. That's why I thought some kind of agency might be best.

[MrBug708]

What's the rush on booking the cruise right now? Generally speaking, you can probably wait until flights come out and then book your cruise along with everything else. The cruise isn't in danger of selling out unless it's some special theme for the cruise.

[sooner333]

It's pretty easy to do most things yourself these days. The perks of using a travel agent, in my opinion, is that you often get some special things for the same price. I booked a hotel through a travel agent for my honeymoon...we got the same discount that was available through the hotel's website, but we also got an $80 breakfast credit every day and a bottle of champagne at check in.

[CrescentMoonie]

This will sound ridiculous at first, but check Costco. They do quite a bit of discounted travel options these days and they're usually pretty good.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

So, the family and I have decided to plan the trip of all trips. In May-June of 2018, we'd like to head to Europe. Hit London, Paris, and then head to Barcelona to pick up a 7-day Mediterranean cruise. All in all, it will be 14 days of "how much money did I just spend?!".

The catch is that I would like to use about 350k in frequent flyer miles to get us there and also use AirBNB for our stays in London, Paris (?) and Barcelona. Considering the massive amounts of coordination, I'd like to use an agent, or at least someone who's completely knowledgeable in this stuff. I can do domestic vacations quite easily, but a spend of this magnitude I'd like some help.

Does anyone know an agent they like who could help with this? Would an agent not touch it because it's using frequent flyer miles and AirBNB?

Thanks!

I have no professional insight into this, but I would suspect your last statement is correct. A travel agent is very unlikely to book you a vacation that they aren't going to get commission for the vast majority of it, and probably aren't going to want to spend hours working around your frequent flier miles and AirB&B requirement, unless of course you find a friend of a friend or someone willing to do you a favor?

That being said, I've booked a 14 day trip that sounds somewhat similar to what you are trying to do (typically a week in the UK visiting family/friends and a week somewhere in Europe) every year for years, and I've never gone wrong using a combination of Kayak, TripAdvisor and then just shopping around on the best price for the hotels. That probably doesn't help you because you want to use AirBnB - but I would at least look at the difference between hotels, booking this far out you might be surprised at some of the deals you get.

Does sound like the flight is the piece that needs to slot into place, and I'd echo the sentiment that there's probably little chance that the cruise will sell out. If you use a reputable online site like Expedia or Hotels.com a lot of the hotels will allow free cancellation, so you could lock that piece in (again other than the fact you want to use AirBnB)

I'm actually reasonably surprised you can get AirBnB this far out thinking about it - are people really looking to rent their properties out 18 months in advance?

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I have no professional insight into this, but I would suspect your last statement is correct. A travel agent is very unlikely to book you a vacation that they aren't going to get commission for the vast majority of it, and probably aren't going to want to spend hours working around your frequent flier miles and AirB&B requirement, unless of course you find a friend of a friend or someone willing to do you a favor?

I'm actually reasonably surprised you can get AirBnB this far out thinking about it - are people really looking to rent their properties out 18 months in advance?

Yeah, that's what I thought regarding the travel agent.

I haven't really looked that far ahead with AirBNB, was just scrolling around and saw that there were a lot of different options. Being able to find a place to stay probably shouldn't be an issue. The issue seems to be matching frequent flyer flights with a cruise.

Why do I want to lock in the cruise this far ahead? Well, as I said earlier, I'm a planner and like to have things ironed out as much before time as possible. The last cruise we went on I booked 450 days ahead of time (yes, it's a family joke).

Thanks for the advice - it looks like I am on my own for the most part - I think I'll give the airline a call to find out when schedules are published to see when I mark my calendar.

[cartman]

Do you have status with the airline you are going to use the miles on? If not, there won't be as many seats open to you for choosing. It is good that you are planning to arrive several days before the cruise departs, because non-rev passengers are at the top of the bump list. I've heard horror stories of people getting knocked off of a flight and missing the start of the cruise.

[CraigSca]

Eek. Yes, I'm currently a gold member, but used to be platinum. I should be able to maintain gold status each year.