Originally Posted by
mlin32
The same reason I book direct with any other air carrier : I don't want a third party managing my résa unless necessary.
I do all my travel bookings direct whenever possible- flights, hôtels, hire cars. Only if there is a substantial price savings or other technical issue do I revert to an OTA.
Originally Posted by
moondog
Even when the carrier's own staff is hopelessly incompetent and/or impossible to reach?
AIRLINES:
I like moondog's answer here. I also MUCH prefer direct flight bookings when it comes to airlines for ANYTHING other than China, as I found trip.com far easier to deal with than the [Chinese] airline directly.
It's almost like the good old days where you went through a travel agent (late 80's early 90's for me); the real good ones took all the headaches away from you and provided a great service. Trip.com is like that to me nowadays, and I'll gladly pay a few dollars more for that convenience. As soon as they drop in the service they currently provide, I'll move away from them and likely also book directly with the airlines.
HOTELS:
Hotel booking I almost always found better to be booked through a third party like trip.com or booking.com.
With the exception of the chains I am a fairly high ranking member, such as Marriott, I only very rarely book directly with the hotel.
I remember a motel in New Zealand telling me to "book with us directly next time"; yeah: because you don't have to pay all the fees, but the actual cost-per-night was more than what I paid for: No.Thank.You.
CAR HIRE:
Always book direct - again because of high membership tiers. President's Club & Circle.