flyou10

I have the BOA Travel Rewards Credit Card. If I book through their Travel Center I can get double the points for that purchase.

Are there drawbacks to booking through a 3rd party such as BOA that I am missing? I don't travel enough (2-3 times per year) to actually gain status with an airline or car company. Nor do I use the same one over & over. That is why I am considering using BOA, might as well get as many points that I can for something I would use it for.

Is this a horrible idea? Should I only book direct? Or will this work fine for my travel habits?

Thanks!

swag

In fact, unless it's a deep-discount consolidator fare, you should be able to earn airline frequent flyer miles on a ticket purchased from a 3rd party.

The main reason to avoid it is if something goes wrong, you may have to deal with two companies instead of one. Some here will tell you to always book direct, for that reason.

But for a simple trip, like a domestic nonstop roundtrip a few weeks out, you'll probably be ok with the 3rd party booking. For something more complex, like a multi-stop itinerary far enough in the future that schedule changes are likely, I'd forego the extra points and book with the airline.

WorldLux

If sh** hits the fan, you'll be potentially in trouble. You hear every now and then horror stories of customers that face OTAs (=Online travel agency), who are unwilling to make modifications despite the airline having change flight times or having cancelled the flight all together.

An OTA isn't automatically untrustworthy. There are very good ones too. Those are usually not among the cheapest ones.

sdsearch

The answer may different for airlines vs rentals cars.

For airlines, there's little downside. It's prepaid in any case, and you can still earn miles with the airline program. And at least with some programs, you still even get the benefits of the associated airline program credit card, though with some other programs those benefits may only apply if you use that credit card for booking direct. (But if you'll never have any airline credit cards that give flight benefits, that wouldn't matter.)

For rental cards, it means you probably can't use their "skip the counter" program, which is free and doesn't require any particular number of rentals per year. OTOH, depending on the third-party site, you may get extra insurance coverage or you may not. And if you are depending on a credit card for collision coverage, that may or may not work through a third-party site, you'd have to check the credit card insurance policy very carefully. Finally, you may have to lock in a rate, whereas sometimes rates drop (perhaps even drastically) after most people would have booked a car, and you can't reprice when you see a lower rate if you'd used a prepaid rate (and third-party car rental sites are usually prepaid, whereas direct you have a choice of period or pay later).

swag

I'll agree that I wouldn't prepay a car rental just for extra points; I'll only prepay if the savings are very significant, and that's true whether I'm booking 3rd party or direct.

On the other hand, I frequently do car bookings from 3rd party sites, most commonly AutoSlash but also Costco Travel and even Southwest Airlines, and I've never had a problem using the skip the counter service anyway. I've done it with the no-membership-needed Alamo skip the counter service, but also with the (free) membership accounts to Hertz, Avis, Budget. As long as the 3rd party site has a field on the reservation form to enter your car rental company membership ID - and most do - then the program conveniences should apply as normal.

telabadmanwot

Read the terms & conditions. Its not uncommon for a 3rd party to offer a better service than the supplier direct. It might ease your concerns.

If everything goes smoothly, there is absolutely no issue in using a 3rd party. But usually when things go wrong, booking with the supplier ends up being more simple to find a solution
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