DestinationWeddings.com * Post all experiences, info and questions here! *

[jk1101]

My experience has gone from ok to bad with them. Although my TA was able to match the price my friend found, she has been extremely slow to respond to people trying to book trips. she sent friends the wrong contracts, put the wrong addresses and the wrong names (ie, referencing Tiffany and Jamal's wedding rather than Michele and Jim)...I understand that mistakes can be made, but she's made many and I've had complaints from a few different people. It's too late to change because her name was in my invitations. She's super nice and extremely apologetic, but it's frustrating to hear from other people that they are having trouble booking their trips. I chose DW.com thinking I'd get specialized service and it's just not living up to my expectations. I'm glad others are having a better experience. I would not recommend working with my particular TA.

[Steve&Julia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerseykitten My experience has gone from ok to bad with them. Although my TA was able to match the price my friend found, she has been extremely slow to respond to people trying to book trips. she sent friends the wrong contracts, put the wrong addresses and the wrong names (ie, referencing Tiffany and Jamal's wedding rather than Michele and Jim)...I understand that mistakes can be made, but she's made many and I've had complaints from a few different people. It's too late to change because her name was in my invitations. She's super nice and extremely apologetic, but it's frustrating to hear from other people that they are having trouble booking their trips. I chose DW.com thinking I'd get specialized service and it's just not living up to my expectations. I'm glad others are having a better experience. I would not recommend working with my particular TA.

i swear it sounds like we have the same lady, its been better now cause its quite not so many ppl booking cause of holidays but almost everything you said has happen to me. LOL

[thope]

Hey Ladies,

Wow most of us have had similar experiences..after doing some research (after the fact) I discovered the TA's with them are contracted with different levels of experience and commitment. After going through three agents I gave up and am using someone local in Los Angeles...and yes my TA offended several people with lack of/no response/or astronomical rate quotes. If I had to do it again I would have gone with a TA from this site or LUXE destination weddings...forgive my spelling..

[bosi]

Agree. My TA with DW.com is OK. I feel that she should have given me more information beforehand about my venue though and that would have swayed my decision not to have it there I think. She has also been a litte snippy withsome of my quests but in general has been nicer and is avaibale most of the time.

Dont like the fact that she is sending me the travel documents for people abroad as she says its too expensive for her to send- should have told me as most of my guests are abroad.

If I had to do it again, Id have chosen jennifer the TA from here.

[staceysbride]

I must be the only one here with a good agent from DW.com.....

 

I haven't had a bad experience with her or the whole process yet. I guess I'm blessed. She's available when I need her. Quotes don't come back slow, and they don't come back high. She hasn't been snippy with me, or my guests, and she's been in contact with most of them quite frequently.

 

I'm really sorry that most of you haven't had the experience I had, but I will say that it seems like the good TA's are shying away from DW.com and reducing their wedding load and I think that's leaving less experience and good TA's for us to choose from.

[s_katrese]

My mother purchased our DW agent for us, but my feelings about him , yes I said him it seems like I'm the only one who got a man, are so so. He has been very helpful with getting me info and has been patient with me, I changed resorts and dates like three times. However, I feel like since I've signed and paid my deposit he is no where to be found. Most of my guests are going through their own personal TAs or off of websites like expeida,etc... If I had to do it all over again I would have chosen a TA who has some DW experience like the agents from this forum.

[jk1101]

It seems DW.com is very hit or miss and it depends on the agent you are assigned. They are essentially a referral service. There's no DW.com office with all these dw specialists standing by to help you. They are agents from all over and they pay a percentage to dw.com to get leads.

 

Yes, there are some terrible TA's out there just like every profession. That's why you should choose your own TA not pay DW.com to assign you one. A common complaint on these boards and others is that once your deposits are paid you hear less from the TA's then in the beginning. Part of this can be a TA that is slacking but part of it is just common sense. The TA's main job is to match you to the right destination and resort for your needs, find competivie prices and get you booked. So yeah once that's done you are going to hear less from them. At that point in the process it is the bride and groom's job to encourage all guests to book for your TA. This benefits the bride and groom just as much as the TA. How many of you got RSVP's back from all your invitees? I bet very few. Guess who can keep track of your guests list and guests' travel dates and answer all of their questions for you? Your TA! So if you are telling guests that they are free to book wherever they like rather than encouraging them to use your TA then you are not hurting the TA you are hurting yourself. And from a TA's perspective who is at the top of my priority list when I have a bunch of emails and vociemails to answer? Probably the bride that has had all of her guests book with me. Not the bride who needed a ton of help deciding on a resort then changed a few times then let her guests book all over the place essentially leaving me with all of the work of arranging a DW but none of the bookings to compensate for that work.

 

I am not trying to single any one person out. It's just soemthing I hear over and over again here and I wonder if anyone has stopped to consider it has nothing to do with the fact that you paid your deposit for your trip so now they don't need to be attentive. Even DW specialists are TA's first. Are the emails you're sending after you booked about not exactly travel related issues? Soemtimes those take a little longer to answer.

 

So my advice is to first and foremost pick your own agent. Then work with your agent not against him/her. If there is a lack of communication just come out and ask what the problem is and if there is a better way to handle things. For example some brides send several emails full of questions in a day. Perhaps your TA may be quicker to respond if you gather all of your thoughts in one email and send a numbered list of questions and then allow them time to get all the answers for you. Maybe you are calling the TA non-stop when they handle email better or vice versa. Maybe it's the holidays and TA's are people too, maybe they are with their families. Try to take a deep breath and see if there is a better solution rather than carrying on with resentment.[/QUOTE]

 

This is such good advice Maureen - I really wish I had it before I picked DW.com. Do we have a sticky on picking and dealing with TAs in general? i think, to your point, everyone has different senses of urgency, so what I might see as an emergency, my TA might not, or like what you said with some people being better with the phone vs email. I also think that with Destination Weddings we all feel a bit helpless in general, because we can't go to the place all the time and touch and feel like you do with an at home wedding, dealing with "island time" and such, so when you're doing all of your travel arrangements on the phone/email as well, and not getting answers from that person too.....

Maybe our BDW TAs could put together a list of Do's and Don'ts to get things done by your TA?

 

Like

Don't leave 10 messages, we got the first 9 (that works for most jobs I think)

[Loveisintheair]

I tried DW but my TA was pushy and did not take into account what I wanted. I end up using a local TA who is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were able to get better rates and I got to meet other DW brides before going with her.

[daniepps]

I'm using dw.com and basically to echo what many people have said it's a hit or miss. I haven't had any issues with the person I've been assigned to (although there have been 2 instances when I thought she could've moved a little faster.)

 

One thing I didn't know was that they aren't coordinators. I figured out that they're just TAs after I paid the deposit. Had I known that I probably wouldn't have used them but it's working out fine for me so far.

[AnnaBanana]

I am using dw also, and so far it seems fine. I, too, have a male agent and he had lots of information regarding our destination. He assured me that he would be able to match any price that I find, and negotiated a package for me within 12 hours of asking so. It wasn't the BEST rate, but he did warn me that it may not be what I was looking for due to the fact that it is too far out to package airfare and it is usually less expensive that way. Is this true?

 

I'll have to review this company as we get a bit closer to our date, but I'm hopeful!