HELP: Seeking Travel Agent For China and India. Should I use someone Local or AMEX??

[boneprone]

Hey negros..

Need some advice.. Planning a trip to 3 places in China and 3 places in India for the spring for a 4 week journey to these countries.

SO far Ive spoken to a travel agent here in town who has made the itenary already for us running us about 10k for Hotel and Flight and some tour packages.

Im going to get some quotes from other agencies for sure and see what they can come up with. Seems we are flying a lot from city to city, and I hope this agent created the itenerry with the most efficient plan, but who knows.

Im sure this biz is a lot like ours, with agents reselling and brokering shit.. ANd they pretty much just pices of a puzzle together when it comes to this shit.

Anyone suggest anything I should do? Anyone used American Express Travel services for travel? Or suggest anything else I should try?

[MetaMan]

what is your paypal man!?

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by MetaMan

what is your paypal man!?

mike at seniorliving dot org

[boneprone]

It seems a lot of the tours we are taking or that our agent has us booked for is called goway.com travel experts

[boneprone]

In china some of the tours we are gunna do
http://goway.com/orientasia/china/ch_beijing.html


This one (saw it on the amazing race last night)

http://goway.com/orientasia/china/ch_xian.html

[boneprone]

And India doing this one.

http://goway.com/orientasia/india/in...dtriangle.html

[MetaMan]

Originally Posted by boneprone

mike at seniorliving dot org

seriously is that it? im gonna send payments out today.

[boneprone]

Our flight pattern is kinda strange........

US--->Hong Kong--->DELHI--->Bangkok--->Peking--->US

[DarkJedi]

I know people who had no problems hiring local tourist guides.
I bet it's much cheaper this way.

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by MetaMan

seriously is that it? im gonna send payments out today.

Cool shit bro! Thanks!

Yep thats it!

[nojob]

Use amex platinum services.. or black card services.

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by DarkJedi

I know people who had no problems hiring local tourist guides.
I bet it's much cheaper this way.

Yep..
Thats what we did in Europe and most places we travel..

But in India we dont want to get worked, and I dont want to be on TV as some hostage somewhere with my head cut off, so we are pre-booking india and having it all layed out and planned out there..

From The Hotel At the Sheridan to all the tours, India and the Cities we fisit will be all booked and planed.

But much of China will be us just winging it and doing things as they happen as we are there.

HongKong we have no pre-booked plans, there for 5 days..

Bangkok, no pre-booked plans

Bejing there for 6 days two of the first days are booked with a tour the 4 days after we do what we want.


Yeah we never normally book tour packages when we travel..
But to India we thought it would be best..

Europe, US, most of Asia its not really needed, but I assure ya India wont be fun at all just floating around without a tour package. My wife is from there and been there a bunch of times, if we dont book some kind of tour, we will be stuck with family and just shopping in shitty villages all day..

Im not about to do that.

[MetaMan]

yo man check your paypal and post in that thread i made if possible, want to make sure everything went across ok.

thanks

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by nojob

Use amex platinum services.. or black card services.

Hmm. Im not black..

The "negro" refrence I used to start this post was just a saying, not really meant to say I was black..

Just curious, negros have thier own AMEX "black" service?

[boneprone]

Originally Posted by MetaMan

yo man check your paypal and post in that thread i made if possible, want to make sure everything went across ok.

thanks

which thread bud?

[iFliPcEss]

good luck in your asian tours bone prone, i hope you'll stop by in PH he he

[Sosa]

damn, sounds like a fun trip

[MikeSmoke]

my experience in booking trips to more "unusual" destinations (including China and East Africa) is that most travel agents have no clue.
the best approach i've found is to basically set your *own* itinerary based on what you want to see and do, and then go to three or four local travel agencies (the larger ones are more likely to have people who've either been to the destinations, or who specialize in those areas) for their thoughts and advice. when you find the one who seems to be most in touch with the destination *and* your mind set, you give them your itinerary and ask them to book it, with any changes that you and the agent agree on based on his/her experience and suggestions.
the bottom line from my experience is that you have everything at stake and they have very little at stake - so you're almost always going to do a better job of planning your trip than they are...the time you spend on "pre-research" is going to be 100-times more than the time they'll spend on booking you, so you're almost always going to be more well-informed than they are.

[boneprone]

Yep exactly..

We asked around first before calling this agent. Got a referal from some of our friends also who have been to China who have used her.
She's been to china and these places many times (so she says) and seems to know her shit about China..

Makes me feel better.. The other two agencies we called, the boneheads sounded lost. Not very comforting..

The person who we went with to create this itenary seems to know her shit and has been there many times..

But im just wondering now if we are paying through our ass on this by getting these tour packages domestically here rather than there.

Most people I talk to say, just fly in, and by the tour packages there, play it by ear, which is what we normally do when we travel..

But this agent seems to be doing a great job in selling this goway package, even told us ya we could buy it cheaper there, but didnt want to risk our trip getting there and not having anything to do because we didnt plan ahead. However she said that the hotels can always plan or get you hooked up with a tour of some kind if you ask..

But she swears by this particualr company to take us on our tour.. Im sure being a broker she loves to say this.. And Im sure she really has been on the tour. Hell she probably got it free since she sells this shit to people like me..

BUT ONE THING IS FOR SURE.. She knows this Country real real well.. Thats a given.
Im just wondering if im getting the best arrangement here.

[boneprone]

Mike smoke,

Also what is frustrating here is that Ive called maybe 4 agents thus far..
And only this one really has the passion and knowledge of the area.. It sucks that only this one agent knows.. Well they all claim to know, but this gal really knows her shit, and seems to be able to mind read all that we are intrested in.. Pretty impressive. Kinda like that perfect real esate agent who knows what kinda house you are looking to buy and unlike the others just knows.. Its strange..

I wish I could find another agent just to compare with. But like I said, even with American Express servies, they seem so robotic and dont really know much about the areas other than what they read..

She seems to know quite a bit. Its the only reason we like her thus far.
But not sure if she is the cheapest.. I have this feeling in the back of mind we are paying too much.. Yet im scared to take a risk and cut corners to save a few bucks and try to wing some of the trip..

[DWB]

Great trip.

[VividChen]

Would be great if you had a buddy who speaks chinese that could show ya around

[MikeSmoke]

Originally Posted by boneprone

Mike smoke,

Also what is frustrating here is that Ive called maybe 4 agents thus far..
And only this one really has the passion and knowledge of the area.. It sucks that only this one agent knows.. Well they all claim to know, but this gal really knows her shit, and seems to be able to mind read all that we are intrested in.. Pretty impressive. Kinda like that perfect real esate agent who knows what kinda house you are looking to buy and unlike the others just knows.. Its strange..

I wish I could find another agent just to compare with. But like I said, even with American Express servies, they seem so robotic and dont really know much about the areas other than what they read..

She seems to know quite a bit. Its the only reason we like her thus far.
But not sure if she is the cheapest.. I have this feeling in the back of mind we are paying too much.. Yet im scared to take a risk and cut corners to save a few bucks and try to wing some of the trip..

yep, that sounds exactly right - the number of people who actually know what they're doing and have the knowledge they claim to have is really small...and finding one who is in tune with you is pretty rare. my best suggestion would be to look in whatever big city you're closest to (don't know where you are, but I'm talking NY/LA/Chicago big city) and try to find an agency that specializes in asian travel - not to necessarily book through them, but to window-shop with them both in terms of itinerary and in terms of price. that'll give you at least an idea of whether the agent you've found is in the ballpark in terms of price - and if she's anywhere close, i'd go with her. my approach is that when you're spending a few bucks on a trip, it's no big deal --- when you're spending a ton on a trip that you're probably never going to take again, it's not worth fucking up. as for winging some of the trip, a lot obviously depends on the type of traveller that you are and where you're going - but again, my approach is when you're going somewhere that you probably won't see again, you'll never recover the lost day or two that you inevitably have to count on when you're winging it - the time you spend searching for a hotel or a flight could be spent seeing one of those sights you'll wish you'd seen the rest of your life.