IATA & CLIA accreditedNot after
Reads the fare rules
Change fees, cancellation terms, baggage, whether the connection is protected. The things that decide what a ticket is actually worth are the things nobody reads at checkout.
The phrase is a leftover from when a travel agent was a shop you walked into. What people usually mean by it today is something more specific: someone in my country, in my time zone, who I can actually talk to, and who is accountable for the booking afterwards.
That is what this is. Vaavia's consultants are US-based, the callback comes at a time you pick, and the person who books your trip is reachable about it afterwards. What you give up is the shop window. What you get back is not having to drive to one.
When a consultant is worth it, and when it is not
It would be dishonest to claim every booking needs one. A single return flight on a route you know, on dates that will not move, booked well in advance — search it yourself. The form at the top of this page does exactly that, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Where a consultant earns their place is when the trip has moving parts or consequences: multiple cities, a group travelling from different places, a cruise or a tour with a fixed start that a delayed flight would ruin, or a fare whose change rules you will care about later. Those are the bookings where the cheapest headline number and the best outcome are not the same thing.
What it costs
A service fee applies to bookings, and it is disclosed during checkout before you pay rather than discovered afterwards. What we will not do is claim there is no fee — there is one, and you will see it.