Need a travel angel

January 15, 2007 11:38 PM

How should I find a good travel agent?

I travel a lot for work. My company's travel department (which I think is contracted out to Carlson-Wagonlit) is terrible, so usually I book travel myself. But when I'm busy and I need something superquick, it's helpful to be able to just call someone and have them take care of it. It's especially helpful to have someone to bail me out when my plans go to shit mid-trip.

Ideally, the agency would be fairly sophisticated - eg, experience with getting expedited business visas etc.

Any recommendations for finding a good one?

posted by lbergstr to Travel & Transportation (1 answer total)

American Express is usually pretty decent. I used them for personal travel in the past, and the bank I'm working for now uses them - no complaints at all. I've done biz with Carlson as well, and agree they are dreadful.

Just a note - I'm all visa upped at present, but I've heard from colleagues that apparently American Express doesn't directly handle visas any longer, and has subcontracted out the work. They pass along your details to their partner so no issues there. Some of my buddies were off to Moscow last August when this came to light. We're in Europe so it might be different with American Express / US.
posted by Mutant at 12:29 AM on January 16, 2007