[danielribo]

I went to a travel agent to book some flights and accom for an upcoming trip I'm taking. After reviewing the information she got for me, I was left thinking what the point of even using a travel agent is. She searched for accomodation on the agents website which only offered two (pretty ordinary) properties. I went home and looked on Zuji and Travel and came up with 20+.

Then it came to the flights. I needed four flights (SIN-BKK, BKK-CNX, CNX-HKT & HKT-BKK). Now after looking around at the respective carriers websites I found fares:

SIN-BKK - Swissair - $153 (Incl Taxes)
BKK-CNX - Thai - $81 (Incl Taxes)
CNX-HKT - Thai - $153 (Incl Taxes)
HKT-BKK - Bangkok Airways - $85 (Incl Taxes)

Now on the SIN-BKK sector she wasnt able to find the Swiss flight (closest was Indian Airlines at about $200) and on all the others she found the same fares, however a $14 "tax" was added to each of them plus a $30 booking fee.

Now I can understand wanting to use an agent to have everything booked together (and she was a very helpful person, obviously knew quite a lot about the destinations), but I thought they were supposed to be cheaper, not more expensive (with less options)!

You hit the nail right on the head, why bother using a TA?
Most of them charge an extra fee for CC now too

The only reason I use one is to include stopovers in multi-destination itineries, and for double points on some credit cards, at times.

TA's usually are "full service", compared to online being self serve, cheap nasty etc... with a little bit of travel knowledge booking online is definately the faster, cheaper and more efficient option.

[Damien]

You're absolutely correct. I never use an agent for my personal travel.

IMHO, just about anyone who can use the internet can get a better deal. It helps to have a little bit of knowledge, and that's where sites like this one come in handy.

[Lindsay Wilson]

I have finally given up using a TA - pretty much the same reasons as previous posters. It's sad when one can find deals or know information that the TA doesn't. I don't profess to know it all, but I can source whatever I need using friends through AFF and Flyertalk to help me with my research. I now book directly with the airlines.

[NM]

remember the TA is only going to "recommend" services that earn them a commission or for which they can charge you a service/booking fee. Avoid those fees by booking direct.

And remember, Google is your friend :wink: .

I made all the plans, bookings etc for a 3 month RTW holiday for 7 people without speaking with a TA once. Air travel booked as FF awards directly through QF. All accommodation booked via the net, mostly directly with the hotel chain web sites or email to some non-aligned hotels. Car rentals booked via the rental company web sites or travel service sites (sometimes gave a better deal). Trains in Europe booked on-line via Australian agent for Eurail. So I didn't have to pay anyone a commission and had access to all the options.

Much of the fun was in planning the trip .

But for complex business travel, the air tickets always go through a TA (a company requirement since they get a kickback from the airlines when it is all tracked via the agent). And I have often made them earn their money , with last minute cancellation, rebooking and changes to RTW fares.

Things like calling at 8:30am and telling them to cancel my ticketed DONE4 that was supposed to leave tomorrow, and book me a BNE-SIN-KUL-HKG-BNE-MEL-SYD itinerary leaving on the 1:55pm flight today, and then book a DONE3 nested in that itinerary, travelling KUL-HKG-LAX-MIA-DFW-JFK-LHR-FRA-LHR-CDG-LHR-HKG-KUL. And it was all done for me to collect the first section as a paper ticket at the airport 3 hours later and the e-ticket receipt via email for the DONE3 before I left home!

Of course it took most of the hours between receiving the 3am phone call to get to KL on the next available flight, and the TA starting work at 8:30am, to find the flights that I wanted with appropriate availability. That is when KVS is my friend .

[browski]

Domestic - book yourself.
Internationally, there may be an argument to have a TA on hand if your are in a backwater and need your flight dates/times rebooked.

However, now that I think about it, when this happens, I still find myself communicating with the airline directly in the country that i am in - so maybe TA's are redundant/futile.

[Lindsay Wilson]

browski, you answered your own question well.

That's exactly the reason why for our upcoming trip to USA/Canada, I have booked directly through AA. Regardless of where we are, I feel comfortable ringing the AA Patinum Desk for any changes, etc.

The service from QF Res USA is very hit and miss and I would rather be transferred through to Premium Desk in Camberwell, but if I'm ringing at a time that it isn't operating, I'll get normal Res staff. Ask them anything about AA or AS flights and I'm not sure I'll get the right answer and a timely one at that.

[icarus]

I've also given up using a TA after my last trip to the US, where I wound up basically finding most of my own fares and reorganising most of the arrangements she put in place. The hotels she was able to offer in the US looked OK until I went and read some reviews on TripAdvisor.com and realised that in fact they weren't fit for rodents. I went back to her with the details of a few well-priced, well-reviewed hotels on that site and she wasn't able to book them for me. So I booked myself over the internet or by phone. I had no trouble with any of the arrangements.

For my stint in New York I wanted to book tickets to several Broadway shows. She was able to offer me very inexpensive ($80 AUD) tickets, but only to three popular shows that are already touring Australia. Also at that price I doubt the seating would have been good - there wasn't an opportunity to check out the seats in advance. Instead I trawled broadway.com and telecharge.com and bought premium seats for five shows. They cost US$100-odd each, but I was able to look at the seating plan and choose, as well as obtain a lot more information about each show.

Finally, I was also really disappointed in the flights booked. I was travelling to Chicago (from SLC) and then New York, and in each case MDW and LaGuardia were the closest airports. The agent could only offer me wildly incovenient times and multi-leg journeys. A bit of research on Expedia showed me that I could get cheaper and way more convenient and quicker flights by travelling to ORD and JFK instead. Again it had not occurred to the agent to look at these options, and I had to ring her and ask her to book for me the flights that I had found online. While these airports are a few minutes further from my destinations, as I usually organise to be picked up by a town car rather than a cab, this has very little impact. (She was also not able to organise the town cars for me, which I was also able to do quickly and easily by phone and internet). She also didn't prearrange seating on the flights; no biggie, but again it's actually very easy to do online.

I was also ultimately very annoyed when I stipulated that I was choosing slightly more expensive AA flights because I wanted to ensure that I received FF points and SCs. I had her confirm this for me twice. Then the flights showed up on my FF statement but with no points or SCs against them on the basis that they were not eligible flights. This I am really annoyed about because I could have booked less expensive flights (with better service) on another carrier whose programme I also belong to.

When I wanted to alter flights I just called the airline directly. I was surprised to find that I actually got a much cheaper fare that way.

All in all there was absolutely no point in using a travel agent for this trip; I did most of the work myself, saved no money and wasted. If I were travelling somewhere exotic, and needed specialist information about travel requirements and so forth, then I might use an agent, but I'd still doublecheck most of what was offered.

The problem with discount of chain TAs is that they are focused on price rather than service, but it is only service that will distinguish them from DIY websites and the like.

[aasz1978]

People use TA because:

(a) To book a seat well in advance to ensure a cheap seat for being an early bird;

(b) To rely on their service to tell us what to expect if you're on tour. Nowadays, they're just more of the money grabber rather than providing a service.

(c) To book a seat but doesn't have to pay until 1 month before departure so some cash flow benefit here. If you pay online, you'll be charged the airfare straight away.

(d) You get to choose your class. It's unlikely a web-based reservation would give you a straight W class price.

[Damien]

Originally Posted by NM

remember the TA is only going to "recommend" services that earn them a commission or for which they can charge you a service/booking fee. Avoid those fees by booking direct.

Just in case there are any doubts, that includes Qantas Travel as well. I had a nice voucher because a flight crew went missing that could only be used on Qantas flights booked via Qantas travel.

I went in and booked some flights, and they charged me $28 for the privilege.