Booking online vs travel agent
Jan 12, 2017, 2:00 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2
Booking online vs travel agent
My last trip I booked with a travel agent where I live. She went thru her consolidator and saved me $40.00 Today, I went online to the airlines website and their price was over $200 cheaper. I have never booked online before and would like any feedback
Jan 12, 2017, 2:12 pm
#2
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Prince Edward Island
Programs: Air Canada P25K, Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Gold, MGM Gold
Posts: 1,582
I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with on-line transactions. I never use a travel agent and would only ever consider it for something like large group bookings. But, I live on-line (work, banking, shopping), others apparently prefer human contact 
I often wonder how this industry survives, but I guess there are still people who use them. If that's where your comfort level lies, then use an agent. I don't know if there is any difference in the price on any given day. However, prices fluctuate constantly, so if you checked on-line several days after you booked, you are likely to see a different price.
I often wonder how this industry survives, but I guess there are still people who use them. If that's where your comfort level lies, then use an agent. I don't know if there is any difference in the price on any given day. However, prices fluctuate constantly, so if you checked on-line several days after you booked, you are likely to see a different price.
Jan 12, 2017, 3:09 pm
#3
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 31,452
I'm not sure I follow...how much time between your TA booking and checking online? Perhaps additional seats were released in lower fare classes, maybe you were buying from a consolidator, maybe your travel agent listened to your needs and sensibly got you a fare which allows changes which the online source doesn't, etc etc. There are many reasons.
Don't compare apples and potatoes, the underlying tickets are likely to have different characteristics. Don't forget that, until ca 24 hours before travel, the agent owns the ticket, meaning that any changes need to be made through them. A live human is a lot easier to get in touch with to sort out a problem (schedule change, for example) than a OTA call centre that has little interest in helping you.
Don't compare apples and potatoes, the underlying tickets are likely to have different characteristics. Don't forget that, until ca 24 hours before travel, the agent owns the ticket, meaning that any changes need to be made through them. A live human is a lot easier to get in touch with to sort out a problem (schedule change, for example) than a OTA call centre that has little interest in helping you.
Jan 13, 2017, 9:52 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA Plat, DL GM and Flying Colonel; Bonvoy Platinum
Posts: 24,233
I use a human travel agent for two reasons:
1. She gets me tickets I can't book online. For example, I'm looking at a trip to Australia on Virgin Australia. I want premium economy across the Pacific, but when I put that in, online sites also book internal Australia flights in business class at a much higher fare than I'd prefer to pay. She can get trans-Pac PE and domestic economy on one ticket. That saves me hundreds of dollars, and I don't have a separate-tickets, no-protection problem if anything goes wrong.
2. She solves problems. I returned to LAX from, coincidentally, Oz last August right into Delta's computer meltdown. The wait on the Gold Medallion phone line was 90 minutes. Airport service desk lines were longer than that. The line to the Sky Club was way out the door and they only let people in when someone else left. I called her. She got me the last seat on the only BOS-bound plane that took off that afternoon. Without her I would have been there for at least another day, perhaps two.
Either of these is well worth $35 per trip.
1. She gets me tickets I can't book online. For example, I'm looking at a trip to Australia on Virgin Australia. I want premium economy across the Pacific, but when I put that in, online sites also book internal Australia flights in business class at a much higher fare than I'd prefer to pay. She can get trans-Pac PE and domestic economy on one ticket. That saves me hundreds of dollars, and I don't have a separate-tickets, no-protection problem if anything goes wrong.
2. She solves problems. I returned to LAX from, coincidentally, Oz last August right into Delta's computer meltdown. The wait on the Gold Medallion phone line was 90 minutes. Airport service desk lines were longer than that. The line to the Sky Club was way out the door and they only let people in when someone else left. I called her. She got me the last seat on the only BOS-bound plane that took off that afternoon. Without her I would have been there for at least another day, perhaps two.
Either of these is well worth $35 per trip.
Jan 13, 2017, 11:01 am
#5
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 228
I use a human travel agent for two reasons:
1. She gets me tickets I can't book online. For example, I'm looking at a trip to Australia on Virgin Australia. I want premium economy across the Pacific, but when I put that in, online sites also book internal Australia flights in business class at a much higher fare than I'd prefer to pay. She can get trans-Pac PE and domestic economy on one ticket. That saves me hundreds of dollars, and I don't have a separate-tickets, no-protection problem if anything goes wrong.
2. She solves problems. I returned to LAX from, coincidentally, Oz last August right into Delta's computer meltdown. The wait on the Gold Medallion phone line was 90 minutes. Airport service desk lines were longer than that. The line to the Sky Club was way out the door and they only let people in when someone else left. I called her. She got me the last seat on the only BOS-bound plane that took off that afternoon. Without her I would have been there for at least another day, perhaps two.
Either of these is well worth $35 per trip.
1. She gets me tickets I can't book online. For example, I'm looking at a trip to Australia on Virgin Australia. I want premium economy across the Pacific, but when I put that in, online sites also book internal Australia flights in business class at a much higher fare than I'd prefer to pay. She can get trans-Pac PE and domestic economy on one ticket. That saves me hundreds of dollars, and I don't have a separate-tickets, no-protection problem if anything goes wrong.
2. She solves problems. I returned to LAX from, coincidentally, Oz last August right into Delta's computer meltdown. The wait on the Gold Medallion phone line was 90 minutes. Airport service desk lines were longer than that. The line to the Sky Club was way out the door and they only let people in when someone else left. I called her. She got me the last seat on the only BOS-bound plane that took off that afternoon. Without her I would have been there for at least another day, perhaps two.
Either of these is well worth $35 per trip.
Jan 13, 2017, 12:57 pm
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA Plat, DL GM and Flying Colonel; Bonvoy Platinum
Posts: 24,233
I'm not sure this will help you or anyone else, but I'm happy to answer the question.
When I traveled a lot for business from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, I used a small travel agency in my home town. The owner was quite knowledgeable and understood my frequent flyer program needs. (I no longer live there, and that agency went out of business ages ago.)
I then went through years of doing everything myself online. I accepted the occasional problems as the price of progress.
When I first encountered the problem of trying to book different classes of service in one ticket through a Web site, I thought a person might be able to do what online services could not. I looked up my old travel agent on LinkedIn. I found that he now works for a large agency in, of all places, my current home town (after five or six moves over the years). I called him. He doesn't have a customer-facing position, but he recommended a specific colleague by name. I got in touch with her. The rest is history.
If you're interested in an agent in southern New England, please PM me.
When I traveled a lot for business from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, I used a small travel agency in my home town. The owner was quite knowledgeable and understood my frequent flyer program needs. (I no longer live there, and that agency went out of business ages ago.)
I then went through years of doing everything myself online. I accepted the occasional problems as the price of progress.
When I first encountered the problem of trying to book different classes of service in one ticket through a Web site, I thought a person might be able to do what online services could not. I looked up my old travel agent on LinkedIn. I found that he now works for a large agency in, of all places, my current home town (after five or six moves over the years). I called him. He doesn't have a customer-facing position, but he recommended a specific colleague by name. I got in touch with her. The rest is history.
If you're interested in an agent in southern New England, please PM me.
Jan 14, 2017, 10:00 pm
#7
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 228
I'm not in the area, but I appreciate the offer, as well as the story. You never know, it may end up being the golden ticket if I'm in a similar situation.
Jan 14, 2017, 10:36 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Sydney Australia
Programs: No programs & No Points!!!
Posts: 14,222
I use a travel agent that knows me and knows the style of travel I like. She has given me some great hotel and airfare suggestions.
When I visit her I have an idea of where I want to go and what the best airfare might be. However, she hunts stuff down and offers me suggestions I hadn't even thought about.
Once I decide I want to go away I am bored by the booking process. I let her do that and if something goes wrong it is her fault. She says she doesn't know why people book their own tickets as she hears so often how it went wrong.
When I visit her I have an idea of where I want to go and what the best airfare might be. However, she hunts stuff down and offers me suggestions I hadn't even thought about.
Once I decide I want to go away I am bored by the booking process. I let her do that and if something goes wrong it is her fault. She says she doesn't know why people book their own tickets as she hears so often how it went wrong.
Jan 14, 2017, 10:55 pm
#9
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 6,338
Same as Efrem. I use a Travel Agent when I can't get the online tools to do what I want.
I consider myself reasonable skilled at online booking..... but sometimes the sites we use just don't let you book the way you want.
I consider myself reasonable skilled at online booking..... but sometimes the sites we use just don't let you book the way you want.
Jan 14, 2017, 11:29 pm
#10
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 1
I bounce between booking my own and using a travel agent. most times i use a travel agent i'm disappointed. everytime i book my own it's spot on. At the moment, i've got a corporate relationship with a travel agent and it's still not that good. after talking through how important FF programs were, they managed to somehow stuff up the bookings so i lost a years worth of Aquire points.
everytime i've had a spectacular failure, it's been with a travel agent. only issue with booking my own so far is forgetting to book one leg on a 20 city run through the USA.
everytime i've had a spectacular failure, it's been with a travel agent. only issue with booking my own so far is forgetting to book one leg on a 20 city run through the USA.
Jan 15, 2017, 6:43 am
#11
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Prince Edward Island
Programs: Air Canada P25K, Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Gold, MGM Gold
Posts: 1,582
Same here. I used a travel agent a few times years ago and was very disappointed in the results. Since then, I always do my own research and book on my own. The bottom line is that a travel agent doesn't care as much about my trip as I do, which is completely understandable.
Jan 17, 2017, 7:43 am
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,719
Good travel agents are few and far between. I took matters into my own hands (in 99% of cases) years ago. Tired of explaining to my "expert travel consultant" that a one-hour LGW-LHR transfer is impossible, or that HOU and IAH are not the same airport, or that there are more ways to get back east for a Monday meeting than that one Sunday morning United nonstop she is fixated on, because her agency is getting spiffed.
This past fall I helped my English cousin reset a bunch of Bay Area ground arrangements after his UK "expert travel consultant" booked him into a ghetto hotel in a dank district of Oakland and thought he should drive there in a Hertz car from SFO, never having heard of BART.
More power to you if you find a competent agent.
This past fall I helped my English cousin reset a bunch of Bay Area ground arrangements after his UK "expert travel consultant" booked him into a ghetto hotel in a dank district of Oakland and thought he should drive there in a Hertz car from SFO, never having heard of BART.
More power to you if you find a competent agent.