Under normal circumstances, I'll try to use TA as much as possible. There are very few occasions that I'll buy online but unless there is somekind of online promotions, it's unlikely I'll buy directly from airlines.

I guess it depends on your needs. My travel is almost exclusively with Air Canada these days to Asia (Japan, China and occasionally, Taiwan). For that, a TA is necessary because the published fare is like twice more expensive than what TA can offer. For example, a return trip from Montreal, Canada to Shanghai, China (discounted economy but upgradeable V class)would be priced @ $2580 CAD or $1612.5 USD would only cost $1290 CAD or $806.25 USD through a TA for the exact same fare class. Furthermore, these fares are surprisingly flexible - more than you would expect from a ticket normally associated with this fare. For example, some of the restrictions such as no stopover or minimum stay or 7 day advance purchase don't seem to apply and flights can be changed provided that the booking class is available. I believe you can't do that with the exact same fare if you book with the airline directly. Don't ask me why, I don't know.

Secondly, I haven't paid for a flight wholly within North-America for almost 2 years now -only award travels because of AC not permitting upgrades from seat sales fares. Nevertheless, if I do, I will also book through a TA just because with one of my credit card, I get 5% cash back on the value of the ticket I buy with any airlines. I got an extra 1% discount for using the card. So for example, the total value of my ticket is $1000. I'll get $50 back (as credit to my card) + my total purchase will earn a 1% dividend. In other words, the dividends worth $10. The total deduction is $60, which means I actually pay $940 for a ticket priced at $1000. That might not seem much but since it applies to all classes of services and all airlines so if I buy a ticket at the price of $20,000, I actually get $1,200 back, not bad at all. For that, I have to go through the special travel agency associated with my card which happened to have its office in Montreal so I usually pass by to pick up tickets.

Finally, for the purpose of keeping good contacts with other people, if I can give other people chances of making money, I'll do it. I mean I don't pay extra if I book through a TA but TA earns up to 5% of commission for booking for me. I see that as important and valuable because I regard this as an intangible asset that I am cultivating - building good relationship network.

[This message has been edited by Guava (edited 11-15-2001).]