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Why Use Brandt Travel? The Benefits of Booking Travel With an Experienced Travel Agency
Planning a vacation should be exciting, but with thousands of itineraries, cruise ships, hotels, tours and online offers available, knowing what to choose can quickly become overwhelming.
One of the greatest benefits of using an experienced travel agency is having someone who understands the options, asks the right questions and helps you make informed decisions before you invest thousands of dollars in a vacation.
Brandt Travel has been helping travelers create memorable vacations since 1997. Our experienced advisors combine decades of travel knowledge, strong supplier relationships and years of feedback from our clients to help travelers find vacations that truly fit the way they want to travel.
Here is something many travelers don’t realize. With most cruises and guided vacations, travel advisor compensation is already built into the supplier’s pricing structure. When you book directly with the cruise line or tour company, you generally don’t receive a lower fare simply because you chose not to use a travel advisor.
That means you may be giving up the professional guidance, personal service and advocacy of an experienced travel advisor without receiving a corresponding savings on the vacation.
With Brandt Travel, you have an experienced team helping you evaluate the choices, understand the details, review available promotions and amenities, and assist when questions or problems arise. And Brandt Travel charges no additional planning fees, ever.
And unlike many agencies that charge consultation or planning fees, Brandt Travel charges no additional planning fees, ever.
You May Already Be Paying for Travel Advisor Services
Many travelers assume booking directly must be less expensive because there is no travel agent involved. With many cruises and guided vacations, that isn’t how the pricing works. Travel suppliers generally build travel advisor compensation into their pricing structure.
Booking directly does not remove that cost from your vacation price. It can simply mean you don’t have an independent travel advisor working on your behalf.
When you book directly, the cruise line or tour company’s representative works for that company. When you book through Brandt Travel, you have Brandt Travel in your corner.
That distinction becomes particularly valuable when there is a schedule change, cancellation, problem with a reservation, question about a promotion, or something simply doesn’t go as planned.
Why pay the same and go it alone?
Take advantage of the experience, personal service and advocacy available to you through Brandt Travel, with no additional planning fee.
The Value of Having a Travel Advocate
Booking a vacation is only the beginning. The true value of an experienced travel advisor often becomes most apparent when something changes or doesn’t go according to plan.
When you book directly with a cruise line or tour company, you are working with representatives of that supplier. Brandt Travel provides another layer of support, an experienced travel professional who understands your reservation and can help advocate for you when assistance is needed.
Flights can change, itineraries can be modified, reservations can have errors and unexpected situations can occur before or during travel. Instead of starting over with a different call center representative each time, our clients have a travel team they know and can contact for assistance.
Our relationships and experience with travel suppliers also help us understand who to contact, what questions to ask and how to work toward a solution when an issue arises.
Our Relationship Is With You, Not Just Your Reservation
Brandt Travel’s goal is not simply to complete a booking. We want to understand how you like to travel, what has worked well for you in the past and what matters most for your next vacation.
Over time, that knowledge becomes increasingly valuable. An advisor who knows that you prefer a smaller ship, a certain stateroom location, a particular pace of touring or additional time before an international cruise can use those preferences when helping you consider future trips.
Our responsibility is to help you make the choice that fits you, even when that means recommending a different ship, itinerary, cruise line or travel experience than the one you originally considered.
Experience You Can't Get From a Travel Website
Travel websites can show you prices, available dates and lists of options. What they cannot provide is the accumulated knowledge that comes from years of helping real travelers plan and complete their vacations.
Brandt Travel’s advisors bring decades of professional travel experience to the planning process. Just as importantly, we have years of feedback from our clients who have actually sailed on the ships, stayed in the hotels, taken the tours and visited the destinations we recommend.
That collective experience gives us valuable insight into questions that aren’t always answered on a travel website. Which ships tend to appeal to mature travelers? Which stateroom locations should you consider? Is an itinerary too port intensive for the type of vacation you want? Which pre or post cruise extension makes sense? What should you know before selecting an excursion?
We don’t believe there is one “best” vacation for everyone. Our experience helps us narrow thousands of choices into the options that make the most sense for you.
We Know the Details That Can Make a Difference
Sometimes the smallest details have the greatest impact on a vacation. Stateroom location, flight schedules, connection times, hotel location, excursion activity levels, transfer arrangements and even the direction of an itinerary can affect the overall travel experience.
These are the details our advisors consider when helping clients plan. Our goal isn’t simply to get you booked. It’s to help you get the trip right.
Our Travel Relationships Can Benefit You
Brandt Travel’s experience is backed by strong relationships throughout the travel industry. We are a member of Travel Leaders Network, one of the largest travel agency networks in North America, giving our agency access to significant collective buying power, preferred supplier relationships and opportunities that can benefit our clients.
Through these relationships, Brandt Travel may have access to special promotions, preferred rates, onboard amenities, shipboard credits and other incentives on select vacations and departures. Our advisors know where to look for these opportunities and can determine when they may apply to your trip.
We also maintain strong relationships with many of the cruise lines and tour companies our clients travel with most frequently. These relationships provide more than promotional opportunities. They give our team access to industry contacts, training and resources that can be invaluable when we are planning a vacation or assisting a client.
A Recognized Leader With Viking
Brandt Travel is consistently one of the nation’s top sellers of Viking and has achieved Viking Platinum Circle recognition for many years. Our Viking experience extends well beyond making a reservation. We understand the differences among Viking River, Ocean and Expedition journeys, stateroom categories, extensions, air options and the many details that can influence your overall experience.
Our longstanding relationship with Viking also gives our team access to resources and support that can be especially valuable when helping clients plan and manage their journeys.
The advantage isn’t simply who we know, it is knowing how to use those relationships and resources to better serve our clients.
Personal Service Before, During and After Your Vacation
Our service doesn’t end when your reservation is confirmed. Brandt Travel remains a resource throughout the planning process, helping you understand important deadlines, travel requirements and the details that need attention before departure.
As your trip approaches, our team helps make sure you know what to expect and what still needs to be completed. Questions about flights, transfers, excursions, travel documents, pre or post stays and other arrangements can be addressed before you leave rather than discovered along the way.
If something unexpected occurs while you are traveling, you also have a travel agency that knows your reservation and can help you determine the best next step. And when you return home, we value hearing about your experience. That feedback becomes part of the knowledge we use to help future travelers.
We're Here for the Next Journey, Too
Many of our clients have traveled with Brandt Travel for years. As we get to know their preferences, planning future vacations becomes more personal. We remember the types of ships, destinations, accommodations and travel experiences they enjoy and use that knowledge to help identify future journeys they may love.
That long-term relationship is one of the things we value most.
We aren’t interested in simply booking one trip, we want to be the travel agency you trust for years to come.
Why Book Direct, When Brandt Travel Is Already Here to Help?
When you book a cruise or guided vacation directly, you may be giving up valuable professional guidance and advocacy without receiving a lower price for doing so. With many cruises and guided vacations, travel advisor compensation is already built into the supplier’s pricing structure.
By booking with Brandt Travel, you can take advantage of that professional service while gaining an experienced team to help you evaluate your options, select the right vacation, understand the details and advocate for you when needed.
You also benefit from our decades of experience, years of client feedback, strong supplier relationships and membership in Travel Leaders Network, which can provide access to preferred offers and amenities on select vacations.
And Brandt Travel charges no additional planning fees, ever.
So before you click “Book” on a travel website or book directly with a cruise line or tour company, talk with us. Let our experience work for you.
Experience the Brandt Travel Difference
Since 1997, Brandt Travel has helped travelers turn vacation ideas into journeys they remember for a lifetime. Whether you already know exactly where you want to go or need help deciding what experience is right for you, our advisors are here to help.
Caring for your travel like family isn’t simply something we say, it’s how we approach every journey entrusted to us.