Originally Posted by
anabolism
The fare and taxes and carrier-imposed fees will in theory be the same using an airline or a travel agent. However, some travel agents will auto-price an RTW using Sabre, while AA (like most airlines) will send an itinerary to be manually processed. Many travel agents will send an RTW to the issuing airline to be priced. The base fare will be the same regardless of auto-price or hand-calculated, and the taxes will likely also be the same, but the carrier-imposed fees can vary due to differences in the way they are calculated.
In my experience, travel agents typically charge around $125-$150 per person per ticket issuance. Some may charge much more or much less, of course. There's also American Express Platinum Travel, available if you hold an AmEx Platinum card (this is separate from regular American Express Travel, which is primarily website). Last time I used them, they didn't charge a fee.
Thanks, anabolism, for explaining how the fares are priced. I am on a learning curve ...
The online TA said his agency uses another company to issue the tickets, and he is charged about $30 to $50 per ticket. I requested him about quoting the fares plus his fees (for transparency), but he did not and just gave me one total to pay. Only after the tickets were issued - he did not say which airline would do the plating - I cross checked all the airlines in the itin and noted that it was CX with the base fare (same as expertflyer) plus all the taxes and fees. So I deducted that the TA fees were around $900 per ticket.
Yes, I do have an amex plat charge card ... but not sure if their agents are versed in pricing RTW tickets.
I have used another TA for RTW tickets and she always quoted the actual fares (including airline fees) and her fee per person. I would have preferred to know all these but I know some TAs just provided an all in numbers ...