Booked It.... Packed It....We're Off !!!! (Travel Agents & Tour Operators in general)

Member Name: blondgem

Product:	Travel Agents & Tour Operators in general
Date:	29/03/08 (146 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: polite staff, very easy booking process, no hassles

Disadvantages: none

Whenever booking a holiday, I always scout the internet at first to see whats available from the the online travels agents, however on this occasion it has been different and ideally we wanted to make sure that everything was in capable hands, and we were not going to get stranded at an airport, and definitely had everything covered.

It was over New Year when myself and a friend decided that this year we wanted to do something different, I normally go away for New Year anyway however we are both 30 in December / January so we decided we would have a girly holiday away to celebrate our big 30's and we would go to Las Vegas to do it.

Having looked around the internet we were very cautious about booking online, so a trip to Thomsons Travel Agents was what we did. Thomson's have always been recommended to me, and I have friends that booked up with them last year for America and they had no problems at all.

The travel agents that I am reffering to is Thomson Travel Agents, in Stone, Staffordshire.

As we walked into the shop, its a very small shop, I was expecting to be overcome by people waiting to be served, however it was empty with two assitants waiting to earn some commission. People in Stone must not holiday that often, its a very clicky area where everyone knows each other. Very friendly place and I have a lot of mates that live there.

We took a seat at one of the desks and basically the only information that we had was that we wanted to go Las Vegas in December for 7 nights. We had no idea of what accommodation we wanted to stay in and had no real dates in mind, except I was unable to go over the direct Christmas period.

For American holidays, they have to contact another department and the lady that was looking after us called their American department to see what they had available for 7 nights. She was only on the phone for five minutes, I have previously experience long waits in travel agents and was pleasantly surprised when she had plenty of results available to us.

She had a list of various flights available from various airports, in which we narrowed it down for her and advised that we would prefer to fly from Manchester and change in Philadelphia as opposed to flying from Heathrow, which wouldn't be ideal for us.

Having narrowed it down a little, there were not many options to choose from, however she obtained the American brochure and went through the accommdation that was available for our holiday. The hotels were all on the Las Vegas strip and we opted to stay in Circus Circus as the price of this particular hotel seemed to be alot more competitive that some of the other hotels, however had plenty to offer.

The booking process was extremely easy when we had chosen which holiday we wanted. She called the American department and confirmed our booking was going ahead, which took a matter of seconds and then went through the booking with ourselves, and ensuring that we are both okay to go to America as we require at least 6 months validity on our passports to go at that particular time.

Before she processed the booking she confirmed our travel itinerary to make sure that we were happy with the flights. I don't like long haul anyway so you have to give a little bit. She asked whether we have any special requests in flight and also for our accommodation and went through excursions that were available to us, which we were not looking to book however we were offered a free tour of Las Vegas, which if it was free we were not going to turn it down.

Clarification was made on the total cost, which was £670 per person for 7 nights staying in Circus Circus, flying from Manchester to Las Vegas, changing in Philadelphia, and confirming a deposit of £170 each was required with the balance to be paid in full by September. As she took the deposit from us, she handed details of our booking including itinerary and that was done.

I was very impressed by how quick our booking was done, I was expecting to be in there for hours, however we were only in there for 20 minutes and ended up coming out oin cloud 9 and excited about our next adventure. It was nice to be served by someone that was competent in their job, knew what they were doing and was happy to help. Big Thumbs up for Thomson.

Summary: -