Travel With US Tours & Cruises

My boyfriend’s mom very kindly got us a $ 1,000 gift certificate for the holidays to go on a trip to wherever we wanted! Very exciting.
The travel agent’s service, however, was not that exciting. You are required to use the gift certificate for a «package» — airfare and hotel — so even though I was using it to travel back home we had to use part of the funds for a hotel, and ended up paying $ 450 extra that wouldn’t have been necessary if I just stayed at my parents’ house.
She said she couldn’t even pick our seats, so we had to get them assigned together at the airport or at the gate!
Overall, the woman is perfectly nice, but also totally unwilling to accommodate any additional requests for your trip or use any type of creativity in planning. Can I use the gift certificate for flights only? Can we use it towards reservations at a winery? Can we skip the hotel and use it to do something else fun? Nope, nope and NOPE!
Given the number of emails and phone calls exchanged, and paying extra for not exactly the trip I wanted — you’re honestly better off just doing it yourself online. I know I will in the future!