Travel Tom

Here is what he wrote to me...
HTH
I have helped a number of honeymooners from the LI Weddings community
recently and would be happy to help you. FYI, I am a travel agent
with American Express Travel, and I specialize in honeymoons, packages
(like to Hawaii, Europe, Asia, Vegas, Disney, Caribbean and Mexico,
etc) and cruises. Due to the volume AmEx does, we usually get the
best prices for these types of packages.

Also, I also do not charge any fees for my service. If you are happy
with the service and the prices, all I ask is that you tell others
about me - that is the best thanks I can get (just like some of the
other brides on the board)!

Do you have some time this week to review your requirements? I find
that a 10 min conversation goes a long way in defining requirements
and setting expectations. If so, can you please let me know the best
time(s) and number(s) I can reach you and we can catch up?
Alternately, please feel free to call me as well when you have some
time.
Tom Varghese
AMT American Express Travel
cell: 301 755-4641 (anytime from 9AM to 10PM EST) (no, I do not work
'normal' travel agent hours!)

Tom is awesome. He helped me pick our honeymoon spot and gave us a great deal!
His email is [email protected]

I was wondering who he was too. Everyone's been posting about him!
Thanks for posting and thanks to thse who answered our question!

He tries to sell you on going to Jamaica.

I told him 4 times I didn't want to go to Jamaica- he kept trying to talk me into it. Finally- he got it and gave me pricing for other places.

I did better on my own.

I will say that he was nice and quick to respond, I just felt more comfortable doing it myself.

we booked with him for our hm and got a great deal. fh and i just spoke with him about another trip, and he's very up front........because he works for amex, i think he only gets deals on certain places/packages. he couldn't help us with things in sacramento, but could for LA. Just something to keep in mind. BUT, I definitely feel he is worth talking to.....he'll give you some great options, he showed us some places we never heard about, and he's very honest. He was also more concerned about our budget than we were, hehe. Besides, it's a 10min phone call....see what he offers.

We're staying at Jade Mountain in St. Lucia for our hm

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Posted by kahlua716

He tries to sell you on going to Jamaica.

I told him 4 times I didn't want to go to Jamaica- he kept trying to talk me into it. Finally- he got it and gave me pricing for other places.

I did better on my own.

I will say that he was nice and quick to respond, I just felt more comfortable doing it myself.

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Thats so funny cause he did the same thing with us! I knew i didn't want to go go Jamaica but FH was open. We looked at the resort and i asked about others. We ended up booking with him for Excellence Riviera Maya. Like May24bride said I really think he only gets specials on certain resort and probably gets commission from them thats why he pushes so much. Overall Tom is informative thou. I would check him out!

Tom doesn't charge you for his services, so it can't hurt to call him and get some info. I assume that the way he gets paid is by booking you into certain hotels that he gets a kickback from. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Those hotels are big, popular hotels that you would probably find for yourself anyway and being a TA he can get a better rate most of the time.

I had him put together a package for us to Hawaii - 2 weeks in 3 hotels with 3 interisland flights, plus cars, then said 'thank you very much, I'll call you tomorrow' and I went online and looked up the prices myself on Expedia, Travelocity, etc. I also checked out the hotel reviews on Tripadvisor.com. The price Tom gave us was $200 cheaper than I could do on my own (not a huge bargain when you're talking a $5500 package) but he picked the same hotels I would have picked for myself, if I'd had the time to do the research. So in the long run, I saved myself $200 AND the hassle of researching hotels and comparing prices between web sites, etc. That's why he was worth it to me.

I'd recommend him.

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Posted by kahlua716

He tries to sell you on going to Jamaica.

I told him 4 times I didn't want to go to Jamaica- he kept trying to talk me into it. Finally- he got it and gave me pricing for other places.

I did better on my own.

I will say that he was nice and quick to respond, I just felt more comfortable doing it myself.

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REally!!! He never tried to sell me Jamaica.