A1 Travel

"We worked with Monique to plan a trip to Ireland/ Scotland and she was wonderful to work with. She spent a lot of time going back and fourth with us and was very patient. I highly recommend A1 Travel."

"We began working with A1 for a trip and while it began positive, our overall experience was frustrating and we will not be using them in the future. One frustration was the communication. I understand that there was a big influx of travelers and there were apparently some technical difficulties with their email. However, multiple times we were told we were going to receive an email on a certain day and didn’t. For us, our travel agent was NOT the one planning our trip. We often had to wait multiple extra days for them to speak with the vendor. If there was a question or form to fill out, it took longer as there needed to be communication between A1 and the vendor. During one line of communication, we had asked a few questions via email and were told in the reply that we had a payment past due. We were given no other information about the payment until that moment-super strange. Finally, another small frustration was my husband being called the incorrect name in email communication. Another frustration we encountered was with some of the planning: we made it very clear that one of the travelers was not able to be boosted due to medical restrictions. However, there was still a flight booked that went through a country that required boosters for entry. Luckily, we realized this and could change the flights, but we had to pay significantly more plus some fees. Part of the reason we used a travel agency was because of all the restrictions in place. There were also stipulations on what the travel agency could actually book. We wanted to avoid air travel for part of the trip and we had to book it on our own. There were also minimal tours available for booking, so it probably would have been easier for us to book the trip ourselves after booking the majority of our tours, some of the transportation, and fixing our flights. We landed in our destination at 10pm and A1 couldn’t book a transfer from the airport to hotel. However, later in the trip there were two transfers from train stations that were set up with private cars. When we arrived at the destinations, these distances were less than a 2 minute walk. One was half a block. Both drivers told us that they have informed A1 that this isn’t needed but that the agency insisted that it is necessary. We were NEVER asked if this was okay with us and didn’t realize the distances until we arrived as we believed we could trust A1. This wasn’t the same for all of our transfers either. In a smaller village there was no transfer and when we inquired about it, they said it was a short walk which was perfectly fine with us. One of the drivers was also given my husband’s middle name as his first name and the hotel told them that nobody was staying there under that name. Luckily, we were able to correct this going forward. Once we were on our trip, it seemed useless to even try to contact A1 after the lengths of times we had to wait for an email response, especially with the time difference. On our itinerary, it said to contact local representatives first, except there were none listed for Europe, so we felt stuck. With arranged transfers, we also were set to arrive at airports 3+ hours early for domestic flights in small airports. Luckily in one of our locations we could talk with the driver to shorten that. But for another one, we ended up having to go through security twice because we arrived so early that there wasn’t a gate yet and then had to go to a different terminal. All in all, our experience with A1 to be incredibly frustrating and not helpful. The hotels we stayed at were wonderful, but that is about it. Our tours that we found on our own were much better and fit our needs better than what A1 booked. They are inconsistent with what they can and cannot book. Their email service would stop working or they would take days to send an email that they said they would send by a specific date. I think travel agencies could be very useful, I just don’t think this is the one."

"Working with A1 Travel is a breeze; they are so wonderful to work with. The agents are fantastic and informative about all the changes that have come with pivoting around COVID travel. Having them help with travel is a dream, always on, and taking good care and consideration when booking trips. Knowing they are handling travel puts my mind at ease. Highly recommend them as they are indeed the best!"

"We used A1 for a family trip to Hawaii. It was our first time using a travel agent, and perhaps our expectations were too high or our trip was too small or complicated to warrant A1's usual level of service. Regardless, I'm not sure we'll use a travel agent again. Our agent was helpful with things like choosing which island to go to and understanding the benefits of travel insurance. She helped us see the necessity of renting a car on the Big Island, which was definitely the right choice. On the downside, it took about 4 weeks from the initial conversation to get the flights booked, and then only after some prompting to send us options. We didn't get options, despite asking for them, just a single itinerary. We were relatively happy with the cost and schedule, though. Booking the hotels took another 4 weeks, by which point some of the places that would have been ideal for us were gone. We were again sent only one option, which didn't suit us. After going back and forth via email about our priorities without getting anywhere, we spent the hours tracking down options of our own, which is exactly what we were trying to avoid in hiring a travel agent. We sent her the list, and she got us prices that weren't substantially, if at all, different than what we'd seen online. Of the two places we picked, one was a huge disappointment -- dingy and in poor repair. Our agent had requested a roll-away bed for us. We discovered when we got there that the type of room we booked can't accommodate a roll-away bed, leaving one of our kids sleeping on the floor. She said she had booked at this resort before, and I guess that's the kind of information I expected a travel agent to have. The other location, however, which our agent hadn't worked with before, was amazing. In that respect, doing our own research really paid off. Another issue that didn't come up till we were traveling was that the agent had booked our kids on separate tickets. We had a multi-part trip and understand this was probably most straightforward from a booking perspective, but it was a headache from the traveler perspective. It meant that on all three legs of their journey, the kids came up as flying as unaccompanied minors, despite always flying with an adult. We spent hours in 'Agent Assist' lines unnecessarily waiting to check them in. They were also seated separately from the adults flying with them on several of the flights, which had been the whole point of booking all the tickets together in the first place. It was a mess. Finally, to be transparent, our agent asked that we write this review before honoring the rebate promised through the program where we found A1."

"I had the pleasure working with Monique on planning a girls trip to Cancun, Mexico! Monique was fabulous, she provided multiple options for our trip and explained the difference between each. We went with her recommended option, and we were not disappointed! I am not sure how many times we commented on how easy this trip was and how grateful we were to use A1 Travel- everything was so clearly explained. We have already started discussing our next trip, and cannot wait to work with Monique to find our next memorable destination!"