Not sure if you're still interested; I'm just seeing this now.

What jumps out at me here is that they want 50% wired to them vs. allowing for a credit card.

I've used a Cape Town-based agent for 9 years, and they'll *always* take my credit card, with the exception that if a vendor won't take cards, then it needs to be a wire transfer or cash.

So if I book a ticket to Namibia for a Wilderness Safari visit, the plane ticket portion (BA or SA or whomever) goes onto a credit card, and then I need to pay cash for the Wilderness portion, since Wilderness doesn't take cards. Because I have a longstanding relationship with my agent, what we end up doing is having her agency take payment from the card, and tack on what the credit card company charges them (so the agency stays whole). They're huge sticklers about getting an imprint and signature, so that's something to note.

If you'd like, I can send your question to my agent to see what she thinks about the registration part, but I don't want to do that if you're no longer following this thread or have finished your planning/booking.