For various reasons such as privacy, comfort, class et al, flying first class is often the preferred way of commuting for people with luxury on their mind. It keeps you fresh for important meetings or functions and therefore seems to justify the high cost.
Having said that, by working with reliable travel agents you can not only save the legwork but also ensure that your flight is not cumbersome or with too many breaks.
However, if you don’t know the technicalities of booking first class flights, your travel agent might take you for a ride and make more money in commission as well.
Therefore, we list few tricks that can help you identify the right travel agent and ensure that your
first class travel truly stays first class. Before that do know one ground rule, best travel agents would be provided by the best travel agencies. These agencies normally would spend a good amount in not only hiring the best travel agents but also vetting them. Therefore, find the best agencies first to interact with the best agents.
Air agents or consultants as they are known should be aware enough to ask the right questions. Since travel industry is clearly diversified, there are specialist travel agents for each domain such as cheap premium flights, best first class flights, cheap hotels and the likes. Depending on their experience, good first class travel consultant would normally ask you about the following things:
- The time of the flight
- Flight preference such as non-stop, stop-overs and the likes
- Flexibility with date and time and willingness to return a day earlier or late if the tickets are cheaper
- Your preferred airlines
- Your frequent flyer number and the benefits
- Dietary and seating preferences if at all
- The mode of payments you prefer or have available
- The type of transfer you would prefer such as limos or car rentals or the ones provided by the hotel itself
Typically, a booking conversation would pan out like this and good consultants would come up with more questions like these. A good travel agent would also spend a lot of time on finding the best suited first class flight deals and ensure that it caters to our taste. If you have any specific taste preferences and want to enjoy the fine culinary delights, you can try Etihad or Singapore Airlines for truly customized food options. They both fly chefs!
Good travel agents would also have a rich network so that if he is not able to help you, he can refer you to someone else. He would also focus more on your needs than the travel product.
Once you find a reliable travel consultant, you will ensure smooth first class flights and may even save money in the process. It is crucial that you pick travel agents carefully so that you are able to contact him easily and without much delay.