Travel Agency Rebates
 

Does anyone know of an online travel agency that gives cash rebates (or tons of bonus miles) for internet bookings? I can't find any that don't charge an annual fee.

my Mileage Plus Mastercard (through First Chicago) has double miles (2 miles per $ spent)plus the miles you get from First Chicago for telephone bookings. I don't like them very much, though---they seem not very well informed.

I have gotten slightly better fares with Expedia than with United's website, this agency or United by phone. (UA by phone quoted ORD/TXL/ORD at $449, and acknowledged a $425 fare but said it was sold out, but Expedia sold me the $425 fare). Maybe Expedia is shaving their commission a little??

I guess what I am looking for is a travel agency to split commissions for my business. Are there any online agencies that will rebate part of their commissions? Or any others that give bonus miles without having to buy a fee credit card? Any thought would be appreciated.

I had posted this earlier under United:

I don't have a comprehensive list or comparison of such agencies.

One such site is
http://www.cendant.com/ctg/cgi-bin/TravelersAdvantage/

They have an annual membership fee, but will give you a hotel certificate good for a free night at select discount hotels. I think that this is the same outfit which offers CitiTravel for CitiBank customers. They also have a money back policy on their annual fee.

Another site is www.travelersnet.com

A good search engine may point to other sites which offer rebates.

Thanks pgupta. We ought to create a list of these. Sounds like a great future Inside Flyer article.

Yes, it would be good to keep a list somewhere - there is a lot of information and unfortunately some of it is scattered around. I had posted this information under United, and was almost tempted not to repost. There are some other threads too notably on the dining programs which are scattered all over. Sometimes it is annoying to post something and later have someone ask the same question. Also sometimes people ask questions which are readily available on the airline web sites. For example if one has a question about the Northwest dining program first check to see what is available on the Northwest web site, and then ask questions which are not answered there.

..so in addition to OMNI threads we need CLASSIC threads?

I know how you feel about reposting, pgupta, but there is a daunting amount of information here, particularly for newcomers. It can be difficult to read through *everything*, particularly considering how slow the server has been at times.

Agreed. So may I propose:
- a good search engine is needed to search flyertalk.
- readme for newcomers requesting them to look at the airline/hotel/car web pages for information about the programs.
- request for people who ask for information, to contribute as well. Like in this case I would request the_hef to do some digging around and report back on any additional information uncovered.

Fair enough. Any more known rebate sites? Which sites have you used? Do they pay you in a timely fashion? Any advice here would be most helpful.

Try www.aatc.com. They rebate the full 8% minus $25 per ticket. They only rebate for tickets $300 and higher. Max of $25 on domestic tickets and $75 on international tickets due to commission caps.

Raebanski is rebating -- still don't have her site up but you can email me directly for details. Major issue as far as we can see is she can't give mileage bonuses...

When I called TravelAdvantage to cancel my membership and get a refund of my annual fee before the year was up (guaranteed as fully refundable if not completely satisfied(?)), they offered to send me 2 coupons for $30 each to be used instead of their 5% cash back offers as long as I remain a member. I am using them for when I rent a car for one day only and using the 5% cash back on the higher dollar items.

Another thing that might be considered would be a FAQ location for the board--for Frequently Asked Questions. It would save some of the same questions from being asked over and over. They have it on other boards on other topics. Of course, it assumes that the person asking the question is going to bother to read the FAQa, which is not always a correct assumption.

after rehashing numbers, I decided to get a full refund from Travel Advantage and change to some of the agencies you all listed above.