Alternatives to Travel With Guns (TWG) in San Antonio, TX?

[CamoManJ]

+1…Travel Express, I couldn’t be happier or in better hands.

 

[Philip Glass]

Hi everyone. I first used Travel With Guns (TWG) of San Antonio, TX in 2016 when going to Namibia. At that time they were great; professional, prompt, and knew their stuff. I used them recently for a trip in October this year which started planning/booking in April. My experience was the exact opposite from 2016. Details I won't bore you with but I just gave them a frank/negative review on their feedback request. Can anyone recommend alternatives to TWG that me and my friends can use in the future? Many thanks.

TWG is basically a call center now without true agents to assist you.

 

[Hunt anything]

Jennifer at Travel Express handled my trip in 2021, I can’t remember how many times she booked and rebooked our trip due to Covid. Openings, cancellations and restrictions were all over the place and she kept me posted and up to date on country requirements on shots, masking and all of the other BS that went along with Covid.

This was the first time I have used a travel agent and it was worth every penny.

 

[Philip Glass]

@Tiger2001 there are many on this forum that extoll the virtues of travel agencies that I respect. Particularly, @Red Leg and @Philip Glass .

I've had bad experiences similar to yours, so I'm in another camp. I'd ask the biggest question for you to consider: Do you even need a travel agent whatsoever?

From my perspective:

1.) It's my problem when things go wrong
2.) I pay less buying the tickets online direct from the carrier who guarantees lowest rates on their own website (e.g. Emirates)
3.) I have to do my own gun permits anyway, so its a "me" problem. (e.g. Emirates. You do it online yourself)
4.) In addition to a higher ticket price, the agent also has a ticketing fee on top of that.
5.) The baggage search services added on to the travel agency as a value-add is largely displaced by the air tags and similar. I was highly suspicious of air tags and equivelant in Africa, but friends on this forum have proven me wrong. There are enough smart phones to triangulate signal even in Africa these days, you can find your bags.
6.) Do you really need a travel agent to find you another flight in the event your return flight is cancelled? Your premium International airline will re-book you on next available auto-magically anyway. It is what it is.

This forum is a fount of wisdom. I'd argue the knowledge on this forum of what airlines and destinations are problematic for travleing with rifles exceeds the knowledge of many gun travel agents. I respect the intel here more than the intel coming from agents.

My agent that was once a sponsor here made $500-$700 off of me. They got paid. When things went wrong, I lost 1/2 a safari worth $10,000 real dollars to me. I paid $500 to mitigate my losses. Their damages? None. They had no skin in the game when the chips were down, they had been paid and had no authority to solve my problems whatsoever.

There some inaccuracies here and one large issue to point out.
1. Wrong
2. First of all TA's can get you the same or lower price than what you can find yourself. It is not going to be higher.
3. Wrong my TA does all of it.
4. True
5. Neutral on extra perks offered
6. If you are flying just Delta just from ATL-JNB and your outfitter is picking you up you certainly don't need a TA. If you are like me and have 3 airlines to deal with to get where you are going it is a different situation.
7. My TA is truly involved in the business and is on the phone and online daily keeping up with everything going on with the airlines.

Finally there is one thing you can't do yourself that all TA's do for you. That is to have your rifle noted on your electronic ticket. This is a "behind the scenes" benefit that can alleviate many problems before they start.

My Main Point in these discussions: Far too often we hear of folks who bought their safari airfare on their phone with no knowledge of anything related to international travel. They have an issue and return as the ambassador of "It's too hard to take a rifle to Africa so just borrow a camp gun". This sickens me, makes me mad, and is totally unnecessary. A trip ruined to save $300!

Rook is right about one thing and that is no matter what you choose to do we all should be savvy travelers and know as much as we can about the travel process.

 

[rookhawk]

There some inaccuracies here and one large issue to point out.
1. Wrong
2. First of all TA's can get you the same or lower price than what you can find yourself. It is not going to be higher.
3. Wrong my TA does all of it.
4. True
5. Neutral on extra perks offered
6. If you are flying just Delta just from ATL-JNB and your outfitter is picking you up you certainly don't need a TA. If you are like me and have 3 airlines to deal with to get where you are going it is a different situation.
7. My TA is truly involved in the business and is on the phone and online daily keeping up with everything going on with the airlines.

Finally there is one thing you can't do yourself that all TA's do for you. That is to have your rifle noted on your electronic ticket. This is a "behind the scenes" benefit that can alleviate many problems before they start.

My Main Point in these discussions: Far too often we hear of folks who bought their safari airfare on their phone with no knowledge of anything related to international travel. They have an issue and return as the ambassador of "It's too hard to take a rifle to Africa so just borrow a camp gun". This sickens me, makes me mad, and is totally unnecessary. A trip ruined to save $300!

Rook is right about one thing and that is no matter what you choose to do we all should be savvy travelers and know as much as we can about the travel process.

You’re allowed your opinion, but not your own facts @Philip Glass

1.) It is your problem if your guns don’t arrive. You’re on safari. You’re out $20,000-$50,000. The travel agent if they admit it’s all their fault, what are they going to do, say sorry and give you back $700? TWG ruined half my first safari. I got nothing from them. Just a “whoops”. Tangibly, their error cost me $10,000. It also cost me a $500 bribe to get my guns back. The whole point of using them was to avoid the situation that they caused.
2.) This is contrary to the fine print on virtually every airline website that pledges “we will always have the lowest price” and of course logically they can, since they are selling direct to consumer. Emirates has this pledge, many domestic carriers do as well. I can’t speak for your carriers because I don’t know who they are.
3.) This is 100% false if it’s Emirates. How do I know? You have to be LOGGED IN AS YOUR OWN USERNAME on their website. So the only way someone else could do it is if you surrender your user name and password to them. You also have to attest at the bottom of the form under penalty of law that it is truthful…you cannot transfer such liability onto a travel agent. In order to get the approval, you have to have your PDFs of 4457s, your ammo weight and quantity, etc. What value-add is happening by having to supply all that to a TA so they can log in as you and do what you can (and legally should) do yourself.


Your point #6 is really the lynchpin on why one might wish to have a travel agent. I fight tooth and claw to avoid multiple carriers because I invite a shitshow that requires a TA, whereas if I take a slightly longer route on a single carrier, I’ve de-risked the trip and also eliminated need for a TA. This may not be possible for you depending on source and destination, but for many Americans, you can fly single carrier to places like Jo’Burg, Lusaka, Harare, Dar Es Salaam, etc.

 

[wesheltonj]

Again it depends on a lot of factors. I booked a trip to RSA and used an agent, not Gracy. She booked the gun on the domestic RSA portion of the trip and told me to call BA to book my gun. I could have done all of that myself. I booked a trip to Zambia transiting RSA, huge problem with Qatar and booking in the gun. I had to use Gracy to get the gun on Qatar. I booked a trip on BA to Slovania myself and the gun no problem. I called Nicole at Gracy to book my Tanzania trip next year as it's on Qatar to Arusha. Not going to have the same problem again with Qatar. In fact as insurance, I am flying from Houston so there is no connecting airlines while my family is flying out of San Antonio and connecting to Qatar.

 

[rookhawk]

Again it depends on a lot of factors. I booked a trip to RSA and used an agent, not Gracy. She booked the gun on the domestic RSA portion of the trip and told me to call BA to book my gun. I could have done all of that myself. I booked a trip to Zambia transiting RSA, huge problem with Qatar and booking in the gun. I had to use Gracy to get the gun on Qatar. I booked a trip on BA to Slovania myself and the gun no problem. I called Nicole at Gracy to book my Tanzania trip next year as it's on Qatar to Arusha. Not going to have the same problem again with Qatar. In fact as insurance, I am flying from Houston so there is no connecting airlines while my family is flying out of San Antonio and connecting to Qatar.

In summary. It depends. Thanks for the context.

 

[Doug3006]

For what it’s worth……

There are opinions, and there are facts. Most importantly, I think, are one’s experiences. @rookhawk had what I’d call a catastrophic experience with a TA regarding his guns. My experience using a TA (4x with Gracey and once when Patrick was with TWG) couldn’t have been more different.

First of all, the ticket prices have been exactly the same as I could have bought directly from the airline website. I always check to make sure I’m not getting gouged. My first trip, this caused me some agita. I was thinking that a TA should be able to get me a discount because they buy in larger quantities. But no. Same price. But never higher than the carrier’s website price,

In each case, the TA sent me instructions along with the firearm forms needed for the airline and country. I completed them and sent them back to the TA. In one case they spotted an error that could have caused me problems with Emirates, I fixed the form and had no problems.

Now, in one case, I experienced a mid trip crisis that the TA handled efficiently and saved me a lot of hassle. I was hunting in Namibia with @Jeff505 . On the fifth day, Jeff received a phone call from home. His wife had been diagnosed with a very serious illness. We had to cut our trip short and get out of town quickly. I called the TA at 9 PM and he changed our tickets and all of the associated firearms paperwork so we could leave on the first flight out the next day! One call. Problem solved. And I could concentrate on helping Jeff make it back to the states. As an aside, an important one, his wife fully recovered, thank the Lord!

So this has been my experience using TA’s. Your experience may vary.

 

[JimP]

The big thing why I would use a TA is that when things go sideways one way or the other you have someone to do the work for you. Rather than sitting in camp with spotty WI Fi trying to do it yourself.

That right there is the big reason that I'll continue to use them. On a side note, Jennifer at TE caught a flight problem on my first trip and had it taken care of to the point where she just needed my OK to finish things up..

 

[rookhawk]

For what it’s worth……

There are opinions, and there are facts. Most importantly, I think, are one’s experiences. @rookhawk had what I’d call a catastrophic experience with a TA regarding his guns. My experience using a TA (4x with Gracey and once when Patrick was with TWG) couldn’t have been more different.

First of all, the ticket prices have been exactly the same as I could have bought directly from the airline website. I always check to make sure I’m not getting gouged. My first trip, this caused me some agita. I was thinking that a TA should be able to get me a discount because they buy in larger quantities. But no. Same price. But never higher than the carrier’s website price,

In each case, the TA sent me instructions along with the firearm forms needed for the airline and country. I completed them and sent them back to the TA. In one case they spotted an error that could have caused me problems with Emirates, I fixed the form and had no problems.

Now, in one case, I experienced a mid trip crisis that the TA handled efficiently and saved me a lot of hassle. I was hunting in Namibia with @Jeff505 . On the fifth day, Jeff received a phone call from home. His wife had been diagnosed with a very serious illness. We had to cut our trip short and get out of town quickly. I called the TA at 9 PM and he changed our tickets and all of the associated firearms paperwork so we could leave on the first flight out the next day! One call. Problem solved. And I could concentrate on helping Jeff make it back to the states. As an aside, an important one, his wife fully recovered, thank the Lord!

So this has been my experience using TA’s. Your experience may vary.

I accept this is a fair critique. I'm a personally accountability mindset person, coupled with a person that has managed risk for a living. I don't think my risk of damages are backstopped very well by a TA so I deem it a false sense of security for a limited-value surcharge. Others may have different opinions, hence I invited Red Leg and Philip Glass to speak their piece from the opposite vantage point.

 

[Philip Glass]

I accept this is a fair critique. I'm a personally accountability mindset person, coupled with a person that has managed risk for a living. I don't think my risk of damages are backstopped very well by a TA so I deem it a false sense of security for a limited-value surcharge. Others may have different opinions, hence I invited Red Leg and Philip Glass to speak their piece from the opposite vantage point.

From my vantage point: you and I are savvy travelers who have done it over and over. We don't need any help. My advice is directed to those who are going for the first (2nd, or 3rd) big overseas trip with a rifle.

 

[fourfive8]

I’ve done it both ways for international travel, with and without a specialized travel agent. I see no advantage to DIY international travel, especially for a hunting trip with guns. I do my own booking, ticket purchases for most domestic US travel that is fairly simple with few connections or carriers. I have proven to myself by lessons of the hard knocks of excess stress and lost time and lost $ that using a travel agent for international travel is worth the extra $300 no matter the type or reason for travel.

 

[rookhawk]

From my vantage point: you and I are savvy travelers who have done it over and over. We don't need any help. My advice is directed to those who are going for the first (2nd, or 3rd) big overseas trip with a rifle.

Completely fair statements. For a newbie, I try to steer them to K.I.S.S. method. Keep It Simple Stupid.

I find that some newbies get in real trouble by making a left turn at Albuquerque, flying to Paris on miles, then going to kraplachistan, then to Jo'Burg on the back of a seagull.

Recently, a member on this forum took the Chicago-Dubai-Lusaka-Harare route on Emirates upon my suggestion. Bad news is that its a 14 hour Dubai inbound layover and landing in Harare required a 6 hour truck ride to camp. I recommended a path that was a pain in the ass. The benefit was he was single-carrier the whole way since he was obsessed (as I would be) about his guns and ammo making it the whole run. I think that's a 37 hour flight in and a 27 hour flight out. Certainly, if people have a lot of carriers involved and you don't know the gun rules of every single country you're going to enter, you better hire experts to figure this out. Save the frequent flyer miles for a non-hunting trip.

Another perfectly good reason for a TA was what you did @Philip Glass , If I recall you had a herd of hunters coming from all over planet earth, all on Qatari, all heading to your camp in Africa. Yeah, you better have an expert because its just too complicated for one hunter to keep track of the idiosyncrasies and issues of a pile of hunters, some that may be negligent in getting all the paperwork done correctly as they try to converge on a destination.

I don't hate middlemen, I just demand they provide a significant Value-Add to an experience. It bothers me when people take without delivering value which is occasionally the case with TAs, Booking Agents, and salesmen. It has to be something more than arbitrage being offered to a consumer.

 

[TRAVEL EXPRESS]

We appreciate all of our clients, and positive feedback above!!
While every travel agent may not specialize in travel for hunters, we do. And as a part of our services ($200 agency fee), we handle the country of transit permits (such as transit via Frankfurt), airline preapprovals (such as Lufthansa) AND formal airline permits (such as Emirates).

We also welcome our clients to check our prices against what the airline publishes online!

 

[Doug Hamilton]

@Tiger2001 there are many on this forum that extoll the virtues of travel agencies that I respect. Particularly, @Red Leg and @Philip Glass .

I've had bad experiences similar to yours, so I'm in another camp. I'd ask the biggest question for you to consider: Do you even need a travel agent whatsoever?

From my perspective:

1.) It's my problem when things go wrong
2.) I pay less buying the tickets online direct from the carrier who guarantees lowest rates on their own website (e.g. Emirates)
3.) I have to do my own gun permits anyway, so its a "me" problem. (e.g. Emirates. You do it online yourself)
4.) In addition to a higher ticket price, the agent also has a ticketing fee on top of that.
5.) The baggage search services added on to the travel agency as a value-add is largely displaced by the air tags and similar. I was highly suspicious of air tags and equivelant in Africa, but friends on this forum have proven me wrong. There are enough smart phones to triangulate signal even in Africa these days, you can find your bags.
6.) Do you really need a travel agent to find you another flight in the event your return flight is cancelled? Your premium International airline will re-book you on next available auto-magically anyway. It is what it is.

This forum is a fount of wisdom. I'd argue the knowledge on this forum of what airlines and destinations are problematic for travleing with rifles exceeds the knowledge of many gun travel agents. I respect the intel here more than the intel coming from agents.

My agent that was once a sponsor here made $500-$700 off of me. They got paid. When things went wrong, I lost 1/2 a safari worth $10,000 real dollars to me. I paid $500 to mitigate my losses. Their damages? None. They had no skin in the game when the chips were down, they had been paid and had no authority to solve my problems whatsoever.

Sorry Rookhawk, you are wrong on points points 2, 3 and 4. A good TA can save you money most of the time. They can and do find the lowest rates available. They are paid a commission by the airline, not by the traveler. The airlines will not undercut the TA's. Those are their bread and butter. TA's do not charge the customer an extra fee for ticketing.

It's all based on sales commission. If you actually found something different, you got a bad travel agent, but that does not mean that on the whole you are better off trying to do everything on your own.

 

[wesheltonj]

Sorry Rookhawk, you are wrong on points points 2, 3 and 4. A good TA can save you money most of the time. They can and do find the lowest rates available. They are paid a commission by the airline, not by the traveler. The airlines will not undercut the TA's. Those are their bread and butter. TA's do not charge the customer an extra fee for ticketing.

It's all based on sales commission. If you actually found something different, you got a bad travel agent, but that does not mean that on the whole you are better off trying to do everything on your own.

I think your information is a little outdated. Most airfares are not commissionable or have reduced commission, that's one of the reasons agents charge fees. Agents have not been air carriers bread and butter for years, the air carriers website is their bread and butter.

https://saleslink.aa.com/en-US/documents/Archives/AgencyRef/Commissions.pdf

https://www.travelpulse.com/voices/opinions/twenty-years-after-the-commission-caps

 

[Doug Hamilton]

I think your information is a little outdated. Most airfares are not commissionable or have reduced commission, that's one of the reasons agents charge fees. Agents have not been air carriers bread and butter for years, the air carriers website is their bread and butter.

https://saleslink.aa.com/en-US/documents/Archives/AgencyRef/Commissions.pdf

Well, you could be right. It has been a long time since I've made all of my.own arrangements. I still like the convenience of using Travel Express and will continue to use them.

 

[rookhawk]

Well, you could be right. It has been a long time since I've made all of my.own arrangements. I still like the convenience of using Travel Express and will continue to use them.

the last time I used TWG the fee they assessed, plus the higher published rate over Emirates.com cost me $700 for a single-person booking. Just explaining the facts, not saying it may not be worth the +$700 to you.

 

[Tanks]

TWG is not Travel Express @rookhawk

 

[rookhawk]

TWG is not Travel Express @rookhawk

I used Travel With Guns. I've never used Travel Express.