Why Use a Travel Agent?
Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, winging it alone is the last thing you want to do when it comes to travel planning these days. The CIRE Travel team has eyes and ears around the world, proactively managing your itinerary to avoid glitches along your way. Why use a travel agent? It comes down to two words: It’s Handled. Erupting volcanoes. State Department Travel Advisories. Flooded Balinese hotels. Global pandemic. Just wanting to sleep in your own bed tonight. Like the great Stevie Wonder sang, “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing.” #CIREtotheRescue
Do travel agents still exist?
Yes. Travel agents still exist, and they matter most when plans fall apart. When a flight is canceled, CIRE Travel usually knows before you do, books you on the next available flight and sends your new boarding pass, so you skip the line of stranded passengers at the gate.
Read the video transcript
Let’s address the elephant in the room: do travel agents still exist? Spoiler alert: they do.
Don’t you hate when you get on a flight, get all comfortable, open your candy bar, and then the pilot comes on and tells you your flight’s canceled? You rush off the plane with 300 of your closest new friends, hoping that one gate agent can book you on a flight home tonight.
At CIRE Travel, we know your flight’s canceled a minute before you do. We spring into action, get you booked on the next flight and send you your boarding pass. So while 300 of your closest friends are waiting in line, you’re enjoying the candy bar in the lounge. So yes, travel agents still exist.
Let Us Count the Reasons...
Airline desk agents aren’t always right, which can cause some confusing and uncomfortable moments when you’re trying to board a flight for your luxury vacation, honeymoon, business trip, incentive trip or to join your group. CIRE Travel clients know our travel advisors do their due diligence and have their backs. For example, a desk agent was convinced our client’s husband, who holds a UK passport, required a visa. We knew he did not, so when our client called us from the airport, we armed her with the facts and information she needed to explain to the desk agent. Problem solved.
At the time of changing COVID-testing requirements, an airport agent told our client he needed a negative test result to fly from San Diego to Salt Lake City to Amsterdam. We stay current on every country’s entry rules, so we knew that wasn’t the case and had informed our client no testing was needed. The airport agent double checked, and realized our client was right. After all that, his flight was canceled, but of course, CIRE was there with a new outbound flight and last-minute hotel room.
An American client in Washington D.C. was heading to Abu Dhabi (UAE travel), but his passport was expiring in two weeks. With absolutely no way around traveling internationally with an expired passport, his only option was to get an expedited passport appointment. The Buffalo, N.Y., Passport Agency had an opening. In the time his CIRE Travel agent booked flights from Washington, D.C., to Buffalo to Abu Dhabi, the Agency appointment filled. The Honolulu Agency had an appointment opening. The same thing happened again. This time, his CIRE Travel agent stayed on the phone with him as he checked the New Orleans Agency for appointments. They had an opening, so our agent booked next-day flights from D.C. to New Orleans, then to Dubai (Abu Dhabi had sold out). CIRE saves the day and our client was on his way with valid passport in hand.
It was 8:15am. A Delta Airlines flight to Cancun was departing at 8:30am. Our honeymoon couple hadn’t checked in. After sleeping through three alarms, the couple called us at 9:00am. We were ready with an 11:00am American Airlines flight to Cancun. We ticketed the couple on the new flight, reconfirmed their return flight from the original roundtrip tickets, got them a credit for the unused outbound flight (saving them $340), and rescheduled their hotel transfer—all by 9:30am. “Thank God for you guys because if I had to take care of all of this myself this morning I would probably cry,” said the bride.
A flight from the US to Tahiti was cancelled. This was round 2 for this honeymoon couple, since their 2020 trip to Italy and Greece was canceled. Delta nor SkyTeam had any other flights to Tahiti from the U.S. Delta initially offered a credit for the amount of their outbound flight and allowed them to keep their return. But the couple was swimming in $2,000 worth of flight credit. They were starting medical school and didn’t need to worry about expiring credits. We were able to negotiate a major exception to refund a portion of a non-refundable ticket while keeping their return flight home, still in business class! New flights were booked in premium economy on United. Rather than potentially losing thousands, the couple enjoyed an extra night in Tahiti for $475. And, no one flew coach.
The State Department issued a Level 4 Travel Advisory, and CIRE Travel had 50 clients traveling internationally who needed to repatriate. Our team booked everyone on flights within two hours, getting them back on U.S. soil. They were definitely relieved, but no one kissed the ground as far as we know.
How does a travel agent handle flight disruptions caused by world events?
A travel agent watches for conflict, weather and other emergencies and reroutes flights faster than travelers can on their own. When conflict in the Middle East disrupted connections through Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, CIRE Travel flagged every affected traveler in a 250-guest group the same day, then refunded and rebooked them before the rest of the world rushed to reroute.
Read the video transcript
We’re working on this big corporate group for a US-based client of ours going to Phuket, Thailand. There’s 250 employees and they all get to bring a plus-one with them. So, we booked all of their flights, and then I wake up on a Saturday morning and realize there is now conflict in the Middle East. And so many of the flights that we booked were through Doha or Abu Dhabi or Dubai.
So on that Saturday morning, I quickly ran a report and emailed our client saying, “Hey, I know it’s a Saturday, but just so you know, here’s everyone that we have booked through these places,” so on Monday morning they could make an informed decision on how they wanted to proceed. Their decision was to reroute everybody that was routed through these places. So as a team, we divided and conquered, and we were able to refund all of those tickets, and then the process of rebooking everybody, whether it was through Europe or through Asia.
And at that point, this is really where duty of care comes in, because we were able to do it quickly, because the entire world wound up also needing to reroute themselves. If we had waited a few more days or a week, it would have been too late. People say, “Why do you use a travel agent?” If you’re spending half a million dollars on an event or a million dollars on an event, you want to make sure that it is perfect.
My flight is cancelled because of a conflict. What do I do?
Contact your travel advisor before trying to rebook on your own. When Middle East airspace closed during a client couple’s 10-year anniversary trip in the Maldives, CIRE Travel advisor Esther Klijn had already rebooked them in business class through Milan, with a boutique hotel, airport transfers and a dinner reservation arranged for the overnight stop.
Read the video transcript
Picture it. You’re on your 10-year wedding anniversary in the Maldives. You’re at the bar with your spouse. You order two drinks. As you’re waiting for the drinks, you look down at your phone. You see a notification pop up. It’s a headline that says that the airspace over the Middle East has closed and there’s no end date in sight. You panic because that’s how you’re getting home.
You see a second notification on your phone. It’s an email from me. In my email, I’ve outlined the following. We’ve already reprotected you in business class with the last two seats through Milan. You do have to overnight in Milan, so that’s a little bit of a drag, but we’ve gotten you a room at a really charming boutique hotel in the city center, still very romantic, to keep the wedding anniversary celebration going. Additionally, we took care of the airport transportation to get you from the hotel to the airport and back. And lastly, we’ve secured you a dinner reservation at my favorite, Tataria. That’s super romantic with a great view.
As the bartender sets the drinks down in front of you, you let out a sigh of relief because you know it’s handled. True story.
We were able to obtain a full refund for nine people who were scheduled to go on a group trip to Antigua in April of the pandemic. And, they didn’t pay a single penalty.
“I went to NC instead of SC!” A client booked herself to Greenville, NC instead of SC. Cheapo-Air wouldn’t help her, but guess who came to the rescue? CIRE Travel, of course.
Sure, you can book a quick flight yourself, like one client who books his own Boston to DC flights. But, one morning, he got stuck in DC due to storms. CIRE Travel was able to get him back to Boston lickety-split, despite “everything being sold out.”
Iceland volcano, part 2: a client had 3 simultaneous international roadshows that were affected by the closed European airspace. When flights out of Abu Dhabi were canceled, we got them a car to Dubai. When Sydney flights were cancelled, we got them a car to Melbourne.
A couple on their way to Bali for their dream honeymoon were mid-flight when a storm hit the island and flooding closed their hotel. Before the couple heard the news, CIRE Travel had booked another hotel for the same cost and even upgraded them from a 4-star to a 5-star accommodation. We arranged transportation before their plane touched down, so a driver was waiting to greet them with a personal note explaining what had happened before whisking them off to their luxury honeymoon. This rescue wouldn’t be possible without our close relationships with multiple industry partners.
A Midwest-based client was traveling to Bali. One missed connection would mean missing the one flight out of LAX that evening, delaying her trip by 2 days. Watching her plane, we saw it was going to be an hour late arriving to her airport. Rather than risk it, we rebooked her on an earlier flight on a different airline without additional cost. Connection made.
A week-long business trip left a client ready to be home and sleep in her own bed. After boarding, an announcement was made that the flight had been canceled. She turned on her phone to call her husband, and a voicemail was already waiting. Not from him, but from her trusted CIRE Travel agent:
“I’m sorry your flight got canceled! I got you one of the last seats on the 7:55pm flight to Boston tonight. I also have you backed up on the 9:15am to Portland tomorrow morning. I can either get you a car service from Logan home to Maine later tonight, or I can get you a hotel room for the night and you can fly directly to PWM in the morning. What do you want to do?” And, it was done.