Originally Posted by
narvik
AIRLINES:
I like moondog's answer here. I also MUCH prefer direct flight bookings when it comes to airlines for ANYTHING other than China, ....
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. ..... 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.
I guess the Customer Service in the US is better then, because dealing with Lufthansa InTouch Brno etc. (previously known as Lufthansa Global Telesales), AF/KLM - which is mostly handled by BlueLink in Prague - is a royal pain in the back. Even Singapore Airlines has outsourced its Customer Service to Teleperformance Hellas in Athens and the service provided sucks most of the time.
Regarding Rental Cars: I used to book via Hertz with my CDP No. (
CDP Name: : HERTZ EUROPE SRVC CNT LT), but nowadays it is only 15 % discount. Used to be 50 % back in the days, more than all the VIP's with their management invitation etc. got. Nowadays I prefer a broker like Sunnycars with all the insurance etc. included.