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As a rule, booking a ticket from a certified travel agent is more expensive than booking tickets and travel accommodations directly with companies offering these services. However, a travel agent can help you deal with issues that you will most likely not foresee.

Benefits of Using a Certified Travel Agent

Travel agents can advise you on getting the best deal during your trip. You can ask them to find you the affordable rates within the budget you specify. If you want to go on a specific date, you can ask your travel agent to book you the most comfortable accommodations in advance.

But there are more benefits to using a certified travel agent. First of all, you may want to detail exactly what you want during your trip. For example, you may want to specify that you want a Caribbean cruise from this date to this date, where you can go off shore for some water skiing in the morning, some shopping time in the afternoon, maybe dolphin watching before dinner and a bit of a night life experience in the evening. On other days, you simply want to bask under the sun for some tanning time and maybe a trip to the local spa for more relaxation the next day; while your kids take that underwater sight seeing trip as well.

You can do all these by yourself by simply winging it, or going online and booking these with the companies directly. However, a certified travel agent can almost always guarantee that your trip has no nasty surprises and that your travel and accommodations are exactly what you ordered. Besides, there are some aspects to traveling that an ordinary Internet surfer may not be privy to. A certified travel agent can have all pertinent facts at the tip of his or her fingers ' and if you have established a great working relation with your agent, he or she just might alert you to some fantastic deals at reduced rates. Also, you will receive a face to face and personalize service. If something goes wrong with your service, you have a name and an address to respond or visit.

How Can You Be Sure?

Admittedly, many of us are frightened by the prospect of having our hard earned cash siphoned off by fraudulent travel agents. There are easy ways to check for authenticity, though, and here are some of them:

You should check the walls of the travel agent's place of business. As SOP, there should be a permit to operate such a business in the area, a license for the business and certifications like: Certified Travel Associate or CTA; Certified Travel Counselor or CTC; Destination Specialist or DS. If your travel agent (especially the ones online) cannot give you some proof of certification or licensing or permit, it would be best to scout around for another. Another is to make sure they are CLIA certified. And also check with your local BBB.