Plaza Travel

I have not used their travel services however my address got on their mailing list. I get brochures on their cruises. I don’t go on cruises and requested to stop receiving the brochures. I spoke to someone 2 months ago and was told they will put in the request. Still not done. What does that say about their business practices?

I just worked with Heidi Andreas on planning a trip to Barcelona/​Madrid. She was lovely to work with and went out of her way to accommodate me, and my changing itinerary. Plaza Travel is lucky to have her! Thank you.

We booked our Disney Aulani trip with Laurie through Plaza Travel and we couldn’t be happier. She put together a great package and she was able to do it within our price point.

Denise is the best! She is helpful, trustworthy, and professional. She knows all the best places to go, handles arrangements for individuals, families & ridiculously large groups. She has done all of the above for us & always impresses.

One reviewer here said the guy that runs the agency is not professional. That is putting it politely. I had them put together a trip, and before I booked, I checked prices. I was able to get the exact same flight, exact same hotels, for a small fraction of what they were going to have me pay! And they said I wasted their time! What a horrific experience. I don’t mind paying for service, but their service is rotten, and I don’t expect to be robbed. The owner tried to get me to steer him some corporate business. Glad I checked them out before I did that!

I have used Plaza Travel and Dan Maroni for years with complete satisfaction. Plaza books all of my corporate business as well. I’d definitely recommend this agency!

I love these guys… I have been using them for my air tickets. I have saved big big bucks booking my business class tickets thru them. The agents get right back to me. They monitor the flights, before during and even follow up after the flight to make sure all went well. Don’t book another flight without talking to them. Oh, Steve the owner… was just added to the Travel and Leisure A-​List. I can see why!

I find it interesting that the pictures on here showing an invoice for a cruise was smartly edited to not show a second person travelling.
If anyone has ever been on a cruise you will know that the price shown in a brochure is per person. If you travel alone you will pay up to 200% for a single cabin.
If the brochure is showing a price of $ 799 that is per person! and that does not include the port charge and government fees etc.
So in fact you did not get ripped off but trying to make it appear as you were.

In defense of Marilyn, she is an excellent and very experienced agent at Plaza Travel. She cares very deeply about her clients but sometimes, if you look at both sides of the story, there is only so much she can do if things don’t go as planned. She definitely goes to bat for her customers and tries to make things right but at the end of the day, if the vendor doesn’t agree, it shouldn’t come out of her pocket. Marilyn would not make a mistake or mislead a customer on purpose. Plaza Travel has the best agents in the industry.

My wife and I have booked a trip a couple of months ago with Marilyn at this agency and proved to not be true to her word. We had an issue with the rental car agency, Marilyn told my wife at the time to pay the difference and she would see that we would get reimbursed. Now she can’t seem to remember the conversation and won’t step up and be a woman of her word. Lousy customer service and no follow through. I’m done with this joke of a travel agency. Your word in life is most important.

After seeing the 5 star review by Marco… just days after I left my 1 star review (he says he has been using this agency for 17 years… but only now decided it was worthy enough to review it… ok…sounds fishy) I decided that you shouldn’t just take my word on it. So I have included photos of the outrageous price discrepancy:
Our invoice in which we were charged $ 1,669 for a $ 799 inside cabin cabin:
The Brochure price (not the online price. This is the price they put in print, in a catalog… so it is the highest price):
And, since the owner/​manager STILL has not tried to contact us to offer some kind of explanation, or adjustment, my review stands:
Absolutely HORRIBLE experience with this agency. When they hire brand new agents (with no experience), they clearly give zero training, support or guidance in how to properly serve their clients, or even the most basic of customer service.
Having never planned a trip for our family before, my husband hired them to purchase a cruise (I normally do the vacation planning, but I was too busy to do it this time, and my husband was sweet enough to try and do it on his own as a surprise), with two cabins. He specifically asked for either 2 balcony rooms or 1 balcony and 1 ocean view. My husband was giving this trip to me as a surprise gift. The travel agent emailed him and confirmed IN WRITING that she was booking a balcony and ocean view for us, along with payment requirements. Since the email contained confirmation from her of the type of rooms she booked for us, and a payment request was in the body of the email as well, my husband did not think it necessary to go over the invoice with a fine tooth comb. He just made the payment.
Well, when we arrived on our cruise, and went to our rooms, we discovered that although we were charged for a balcony and an ocean view, we in fact were given an inside cabin and a balcony!
To sum up the rest of this experience, what transpired from that point is this:
1) I called/​texted/​emailed and FaceBooked the travel agent to find out what the heck was going on, with no response from her, until days after the trip started.
2) Another agent (manager?) emailed me and told me essentially that I should not be complaining, since I at least got the one balcony room (even though we did not get the ocean view room we paid for)
3) Once on the ship, and realizing we were pretty much screwed, I went to the cruise workers themselves, to try and figure out what happened. They basically said «We have no idea why you were given the inside cabin, since it looks like you were grossly over charged for the entire trip… you actually paid more for the inside cabin then for the room with the balcony… and in fact, it looks like you could have almost gotten a suite for the price you paid here».
4) After coming home we thought for sure the agent or agency would contact us to offer some sort of apology or explanation… NOPE
5) After pointing out that we did not get what we asked for, and we were charge about 40% higher than the actual brochure price, I was told that the president/​owner? basically refused to discuss this with me, and said it was OUR FAULT that the agent booked the wrong room and that we should have double checked her work (even though she EMAILED US confirming she bought us what we asked for)…it’s OUR fault.
Aside from the outrageous lack of customer service/​ethics/​scruples this agency seems to embrace, they do not even attempt to teach the poor agents that they hire on how to properly book a trip, or treat clients. Very sad.
Funny thing… a sincere apology owning the mistake, WITHOUT trying to blame everyone else, with perhaps some attempt to explain what happened, and assistance with trying to have the cruise line adjust the error would have gone pretty far.

Starting in the late 80’s I started utilizing Plaza Travel (Marilyn is my agent) and their service has been a standard by which I measure ANY travel experience. Marilyn has planned everything from Business to a blow out personal trip I made to Tahiti.
I moved to San Diego over 6 years ago and haven’t had any travel needs since that time. However, that has changed and the first (on ONLY) person I contact is Marilyn at Plaza Travel. The personalized service and knowledge cannot be beat. I am constantly amazed when I see someone struggling to book their own travel — I’m always saying «Call Plaza Travel». YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

I don’t know who wrote those two positive reviews, but my experience was in no way the same. Phone calls and emails to try and book seats for flights (LONG flights) were ignored. After booking, there was little I could do on my own to make changes with airlines. Plaza had their money and didn’t seem to care. It’s not about going the extra mile, it’s just about taking care of every customer. When travel is concerned, there are nightmares, and bright spots. I don’t expect miracles, but I would hope to receive a certain minimum of professional effort.
Perhaps the two people who reviewed, and gave 5 stars truly had good experiences. I have to question at least one reviewer’s honesty.
Judy C. — within ONE WEEK you «highly» recommended two different chiropractors that you had been seeing for years? Don’t really get that. Please explain and I’ll retract my comments.
Samara L — I wish I could have worked with Colleen… sounds like she may take great care of you. She wasn’t my contact there, unfortunately, and Plaza Travel is only as good as their weakest link (s).
I was given the impression that they clearly don’t care about the clients they’re booking travel for. I suspect their corporate clients keep them busy because they’re cheap and get the job done. A shame they don’t work just a little harder to make everyone (including me) feel like more than just a confirmation code.
This is just a simple review… I think when my contacts that use Plaza know how I was treated things may change. Haven’t played that card yet… I’d like to think Samara L was right, but I have only my bad experience to talk about at this point.

I have been using Plaza Travel and working with Colleen (and the team of agents) for 4+ years. As a Professional Administrator, I deserve the best at my fingertips. Plaza Travel offers planning flexibility, they keep track of airline credits, email full itineraries have online booking capability and ALWAYS great service. Plus they make me a «Travel Goddess» in the eyes of my company/​team. THANK YOU COLLEEN!

The employees are really nice, but the guy who runs the place is very unprofessional and not the most honest person in the world – not by a long shot!