Database of Good and bad Travel agents

Recently I have been trying to book a ticket for going to India in late March. Only when I started the process I found out how frustrating it is. Many travel agents don't even respond to your calls; some are very unhelpful and some are plain rude.

I thought that it would be great to compile a list of travel agents that each of us have come across. We can rank them as good, bad or ok. We can also furnish the name and contact number of the good agents so other members can make use of them. What do you all think?

Here are the folks I tried...

Skypass Travels, Austin
Horrible. I called and it went to voicemail. No one called back.

Royal Travels, Dallas
Painful to deal with. Everytime I call, I have to start from scratch on who I am.

Krisby Travels, Chicago
Sunitha
773 561 4100
Pretty decent. Prices were a little high, but efficient service.

Pooja,

This is a good informative thread you have started. From my side, I only want to let all of you know of one travel agent who is not only bad at his service, he is a criminal yet aspiring politician. The name of the travel agency is M and K travels, and it is based in the bay area. Last year, when my husband booked his tix with them to fly to India for our engagement, and ended up being one among several others who were cheated off their money. It was a very traumatic experience for they were absolutely rude and never returned the money.

The owner was arrested a day before the state elections where he was contesting too. There are ppl getting duped by them even to this date! So, friends, please always be careful before choosing any travel agent. We don't deal with agents anymore and simply rely on trustworthy websites such as Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, etc.

-Shalini

I agree with Shal,web based travel agents are better.We book our tickets through 4LOWFARE.com which is also very good.

Cheers

shal
I agree with you about M and K travels, i'm on the same boat. but you can try make my trip they are good and try to visit travel agent in pereson in the office and after you booked your ticket try to call airline directly with your conformation no. and check that your seats are conformed as per airline rules and there is no problem.


ash

Hi Ladies,

I agree with most of what you all have mentioned about these travel agents. I was calling a few travel agents a month back to get tickets to India during christmas holidays.

These travel agents took down the dates of our travel, but some of them weren't responsive - I mean they did not even have the courtesy to call back and even say there were no tickets available or the tickets were costly, etc.

But I had slightly better experience with Sahithi travels - 512-697-9864. They were atleast eager for business and got back to me with what best deals they found.

I agree with Pooja, I too had called Royal travels. I am not sure whether they would atleast make a note of the passengers name and dates, for everytime I called to check whether they found deals they wanted me to repeat the info. and they will start checking only then. That's really painful!

It is good to go for online booking and also go with booking directly with airlines. But in peak seasons during holiday times, I guess these travel agents block and keep bookings. That's why they were able to find some better deals while I was not when I searched online.

Good we are discussing our experiences, so that it's really an eyeopener and we know how to approach them.

Regards,
Shakthi

Hi All

I am planning to go to India this year June. If anybody knows good travel agencies for lowest price, please let me know the travel agencies name. Bcos June is the peak season for the India trip.

Thankyou
sumi

Check out this site... this is Luftahnsa's direct website, usually they have good deals ...

www.weflyhome.com

Sumi,

You can try contacting these agencies. I have used them in the past. Though not a very discounted deal, I got reasonable prices from them.

Royal travels - in Irving, Dallas

(972) 258-0103

World-wide travels - DC

(202) 659-6430

Good luck, have a good trip to India.

Hi

Selvi and Rathi, Thanks for the immediate reply and thanks for the information also. I will make a call to these travel agencies.

regards

sumi

hai folks try this site it belongs to a friend of mine who is upcoming see if it will suit ur interest ...though he is based in kerala and south indian is best featured u could try out with him in detail.... the full web address is www.toursindiainternational.com hope to get good response from u all here..regards ..hope been of help...sunkan