Worked with Bree Moede to plan a Christmas vacation for myself, husband and our two daughters/significant others. Bree was helpful in forwarding options for us to consider, but there was a substantial amount of work we had to do ourselves-we were usually referred to the resort website to search for answers. Our trip was a bit complex, as we had 4 ppl leaving from Chicago and 2 from Minneapolis-which is part of the reason we used a travel agent vs booking ourselves. Plus, since we were going over what we now see was the beginning of the huge Omicron surge we wanted to have someone stateside if any problems arose.
When we checked in at airport, none of our TSA Pre-check numbers had been added by Bree, so after waiting for 15 minutes to get to a kiosk we learned we had to go to the counter to get the information added. Minor inconvenience, but again something I would've expected a travel agent to do as part of their duties.
Trip itself was great, resort was nice but not as nice as we'd been lead to believe from Bree. Real issues started when I tested positive for Covid day before return flight home. Couldn't get a hold of Bree to figure out how to address this-was our travel insurance going to cover this?, did I need to pay the hotel direct for the extra 10d of quarantine?, who would change my flight home?,
The onsite Amstar representative at the resort checked in everyone (but me) for return flights failed to cancel my flight (despite knowing I was unable to leave due to +Covid), which resulted in a "no show" for me on that flight, and a complete loss of the $$ or flight credits for it.
The resort did outstanding in dealing with the ever growing numbers of guests who were now stuck there quarantining. They had a doctor visit me 2x during my stay (no charge), and were as gracious and helpful as could be given they were figuring this all out as they went along.
I finally was able to get a hold of Bree 2 days after my first attempts to contact her. I was told that when I returned home I could fill out the travel insurance paperwork to submit a claim but that was the extent of her "help". I was left to reschedule my flight home, figure out transportation to airport, and work with the resort of payment for the 10d. The hotel concierge was a huge help for me, since every American Airlines phone number I had been given in our travel documents didn't work when dialed from outside the US-they had to place every call for me. This was during the height of the flights being cancelled due to Omicron-literally thousands of flights were cancelled every day and I'm spending hours on the phone each day trying to schedule a flight back home. And at the end of my "extended stay" they said that since I couldn't get a hold of my travel insurance/agent the hotel's insurance policy would cover the costs of my extra 10d.
Now, two months after getting home, I have tried multiple times to get in touch with Bree to check on the flight credit/$$ issue, a website or phone number to contact Amstar for their failure to cancel my flight 9which would've at a minimum insured I received flight credits if not actual refund) the travel insurance to try to recoup that cost (since I can't get a hold of anyone at that org either), without success.
This trip required months of planning to coordinate 6 working individuals' schedules, not to mention the cost of nearly $20k. We took out travel insurance that was nearly $1000 for the 6 of us, just in case anything happened. But I also believed that working with a travel agent would help us if we did run into any issues or difficulties--but it turned out the best resources for help were the hotel staff in Mexico and myself.
Next time we plan a trip (Italy this summer) I will plan it myself and book direct. For as much work as we ended up doing ourselves, and the lack of assistance when we needed it, topped off with the ghosting from Bree afterward, we'd be far better off just going it alone. read more