What general things do you guys traveling from the US to Africa look for when talking with a travel agent?
First I assume you are referring to simply a travel agent, for travel only, not a booking agent. You can figure it all out on here and find great deals... Which is what I strted with but soon my head was spinning and my wife told me to go through a booking agent for our first trip and have someone to call up and get advise and hold our hands, so to speak, through the process. Ultimately we ended up booking through James, who is now the official booking agent on here. (he was not when we signed up).
We ended up needing to delay our trip 8 months and James smoothed that all out and all is cost was a small fee on the plane tickets. We had a great trip and my most recent call to James was on advice for shipping trophies home... I'm sure I'll call on him over a year after our trip for final little pieces... So well worth using someone like him, and especially so on a first trip... we went with his recommendation for travel agent and she delivered as well.
So back to the original question; 1. Good reputation and experience. 1.a. References. 2. Someone to look for a good deal and sort out all out. 2.a. Knowing the connections and layover times to be sure we will be able to make it. Not just booking the cheapest flights on orbitz and hoping all connections work out. 3. Someone who has been through it many times before and is not rattled by a twist or turn that comes up. 4. Someone to call and someone I will be able to get hold of all hours if the need arises (this is where you are doubled down if you use a hard working booking agent). 5. Someone who will clearly walk you through hall the paperwork and prepare you for all contingencies.
Those are the ones that come to mind right now. I'm sure others can add to the list.
We used a booking agent, travel agent and gun permit agent.... But all were arranged by the booking agent originally. These people do this professionally and at leadt the ones I used were good at it and delivered for us.
This was a 30 year Anniversary thing for us and a little extra cost did not matter as much as having things go well. Now that we have "been there and done that" I would be willing to do it on my own, but will likely use agents again.