Online Vacation Booking Trends, Book Now, Pay Later Options & Travel Agents - Oh My!
- Abigail Gaston
- Apr 25, 2018
- 7 min read
These days, it seems as if it is out with the old and in with the new. I am referring to booking travel here. The old way of contacting your local travel agent for your travel needs largely is a thing of the past. The new era of having the best travel deals at the tip of our fingers is and has been for some time now, a literal statement with the abundance of travel planning tools immediately available to us through typing travel inquires into search engines on the World Wide Web and our smart phone’s app store. These vacation planning features have made scheduling and booking travel quite the breeze over the last decade and this trend is sure not to slow down anytime soon, if ever.
Now we can actually customize on our own, an entire vacation; airfare, resort, cruise, rental car, all-inclusive options, the list goes on and on. And, we don't even have to communicate with a travel professional! In fact, with how easy search engines and electronic travel assistance has made it for travel inspired consumers to access what they want, when they want it, it is almost as if the consumer has become the professional. Okay, maybe not all consumers but there is quite the large group of savvy, self-made vacation planners out there in this big, beautiful world and, again, you can thank the ever booming online tourism websites and travel apps for that!
One relatively new and really awesome feature that is now available via vacation planning websites is payment plans. Through certain travel websites you can book now and pay as you wait for your trip to approach. All you basically are doing is splitting your total cost into installments of some fashion and paying routinely until the total cost is paid off.
Some of the more popular online travel companies that offer this type of payment program are Southwest Vacations, United Vacations, Delta Vacations, BookIt.com, Cheap Caribbean and Expedia. There are others, but you get the gist. More and more, travel websites are making it easy and affordable to use them for travel planning and this movement is the very large reason why we have seen a shift away from travel agent use when travelers are arranging their vacations.
'Book now, pay latter' is a really good strategy to increase sales with and personal relationships with travel consumers. These programs show customers that they understand the working-class individual may not be able to pay a large bill up front and it is a better option to break up their total vacation costs.
Let's dive into the book now, pay later programs for some of the above companies a little further.
- Southwest Vacations: Through a third party financial institution called "Uplift," Southwest offers vacationers the option to book travel and pay for it over an extended period of time. When at the checkout portion of the sale, you would simply click the pay monthly option and choose to split the total cost into either 11, 6 or 3 payments. Also, you do not have to have this vacation paid off prior to departure, which is another neat feature.
Now, I am sure you've already figured this out, but the financial institution has to get something out of this, right? They do; Uplift charges a fee that equates to 15% of the total price. If your total final ticket cost is $750, you pay $862.50, or an additional $112.50, with the 15% interest charge.
One thing that was unclear about this option is if Uplift pulls your credit score. I imagine that they do, seems they are likely paying Southwest upfront and having the customer essentially reimburse them, plus the fee. That said, I am unsure as to if it is a soft inquire, hard inquire or neither.
- United Vacations: United requires you to pay at least $200 per person down and then pay what you want, when you want and through different credit cards if you wish. Keep in mind, you must have the vacation paid in full 45 days prior to your departure date.
- Delta Vacations: As long as your reservation is outside 31 days from departure, you can use this option. It is as simple as plan, book, make a deposit, make payments, submit final payment 31 days from departure. If you do not submit final payment on your own before 31 days from departure, on this day, Delta will pull the final payment from one of your credit cards that you authorized payment previously.
- BookIt.com: "Pay Delay" is the program offered by BookIt.com. They market this program as a layaway package. Each Pay Delay is customized to the individual travelers vacation package. Currently, BookIt.com is offering $1 down to secure your booking; however, if flights are included in your vacation, which most times they are, the down payment will be $1 plus the total cost of flights.
In order to qualify for Pay Delay, your reservation must total $199+. There is an additional $5 transaction fee charged. If a payment is denied, you will receive a $35 fee, as well as a follow-up email. If you do not submit an appropriate form of payment within the allotted time detailed in the follow-up email, your booking will be forfeited.
- Cheap Caribbean: What I really like about Cheap Caribbean's "Split Payment" program is that it is quite simple. You make a deposit on the reservation and then pay what you want, when you want, as long as you pay it off 21 days prior to departure. Also, the fee is not bad at all either; all you pay is an additional $29 for this payment option. The one thing I am not too fond of is that this type of payment is not allowed for group travel, so each has to be done individually.
- Expedia: Their program is similar to Southwest's in that they work with a third party financial institution called Affirm. Affirm basically pays Expedia the total vacation cost and you pay Affirm in monthly installments; you may choose from 3, 6 or 12 months. Interest rates added on to this plan range from 10 - 30% (eek, that latter percentage is rather high).
With this program, you are not required to have the total vacation paid in full within a period of time prior to departure. You can actually depart a week after finalizing the deal, and pay up to 11 months and 3 weeks past the date you set off on your trip.
Expedia markets their book now, pay later plan as a benefit to the unexpected in life. They basically say, “Hey, we get it. We totally understand that sometimes the unexpected just wins and with that sometimes comes unexpected travel costs too. No worries; we have your back.” Well, something like that anyway.
One thing that I speculate has happened with these types of payment programs is that the impulse shopping trends likely have increased. When your dream vacation will not instantly clean you out, there is more of a nudge toward going on that dream vacation.
Not to say that you could not do this through a travel agent; travel agents have offered this type of travel planning for as long as I can remember. That said, when you take the time to call, email or meet in person a travel agent, there is also more time to define the plans and more back and forth communication, etcetera and with that comes more decision making time and less time for that urgent need. When you are surfing travel websites online and come across an unreal deal for a location you have long desired to travel to, the fact that many online websites offer this book now, pay later system is something that likely will entice you to finally make your dream vacation a reality.
The question now is, do you become your own travel agent or do you go with a licensed professional to plan your vacations? One thing I am pretty sure on is that no travel agent I have used in the past would allow me to book my trip, travel and then pay when I return, so there is a plus for Expedia, Southwest and any other travel website that currently allows this or may allow this type of travel in the future.
Also, learning a hand-full of tricks to book travel yourself not only allows you the option to eliminate the middle man; the extra communication between your travel agent and you, the travel agent costs associated, and even helps you to be more in tune with your itinerary from the very beginning.
That said, I have worked with some really great travel agents in the past and I can definitely tell you that there are some facts and information that they know right off the top of their heads or that they have quick, easy access to that I have not known and had to search for. Also, they allow you to make payments too, you just have to pay it off prior to trip departure. The last time I used a travel agent, we had to have our trip paid off one week prior to departure, so it seems there is a little extra time allotted compared to some of the online options.
Travel planning can be very time consuming. If your current lifestyle really does not allow for much free time searching for flights, booking hotels, creating the perfect itinerary, etcetera, perhaps it is best to pay the travel agent fees and have someone else do it for you. You have surely heard the statement “Time is Money,” right?
Also, in regards to the “book now, pay later” program that allows you to travel prior to having your trip paid off, it is a great option, no doubt; however, I have a feeling that some of those interest rates can get steep, so just be aware of that prior to completing your booking.
So, what are travel agents doing to increase more traffic through their virtual doors and telephone lines? Well, let's just say they are getting creative. Many travel agents have started blogging. Through blogging, travel agents are informing the world of different popular travel topics, information, deals, etcetera. At the same time, they are providing eye catching deals through their website and blog posts for people to explore and perhaps buy.
Also, there are many partnerships taking place between travel agents and corporate brands. For example, I know a travel agent who just started collaborating with Disney; anything she sells through her website for Disney, she receives a kickback on.
Another thing travel agents are doing to keep the traffic flowing is posting stellar deals to Groupon. Sure, most travel agents do not make a ton of money off Groupon Getaways; however, the completion of the Groupon Getaway purchase is to contact the travel agent that the Groupon belongs to and work through the scheduling and booking. I personally worked with Gate1 Travel for my Iceland vacation. After the completion of the booking, I started receiving weekly travel newsletters and mailings from Gate1 Travel. Groupon initiated the relationship between Gate1 Travel and me; however, Gate1 Travel’s consistent, yet classy, advertising and friendly customer service has kept the relationship between us alive.
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