When it comes to planning your winter getaway (or any vacation for that matter), you have many choices to make: where to go and what to see, and if you should head to the slopes or somewhere warm. But what many British Columbian travellers don’t realize is the most important vacation decision of all may lie with the choice to book with a BC-licensed travel agent.

With a huge tropical storm, Hurricane Sandy, set to hit the East Coast in mere hours, it is expected that thousands of flights to and from the area will be impacted, causing a ripple effect of disruption for other travellers as their originating or connecting flights are cancelled, delayed and/or diverted. While we cannot control the weather, we can be prepared for what to do if our air travel plans are impacted by weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

In November 2001, thousands of Canadian travellers were left in the lurch after Canada 3000 Holidays (C3 Holidays) filed for bankruptcy. Following the business failure, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) was authorized as the trustee to provide refunds to eligible clients from consumer funds held in a trust account. In 2010, the Supreme Court of British Columbia approved Consumer Protection BC as the administrator of the C3 Holidays trust account for BC and Western Canada.

The internet has given us the ability to take care of a wide range of consumer transactions online. We can bank, shop, and even make dinner reservations all from the comfort of our own home. So If I wanted to book a vacation, why would I get out of my pajamas and over to a travel agency when I can book online with the click of a mouse? Well it turns out that there are a number of great reasons for using the services of a travel agent.