Mine is a TD Gold Elite, slightly different to the one you are thinking about. This is one card that I found quite useful not so much as a frequent traveller but I basically use this card as my alternative to CAA or AAA membership. Its Gold Auto Club membership is as good as a CAA membership. So I jusitified the annual fees based on this and the occasional plane tickets that I'll buy on this card.

For our American friends, the TD we are talking about here is the same bank when you hear TD Waterhouse. TD = Toronto Dominion Bank. However, I don't think this card can be applied by non-Canadian residents.

As I stated in my previous post, the discounted tickets to Asia that I buy through TA are always in V class, which makes them upgradeable and such a good value. I know they also offer Q class on certain routes but I don't buy them and you only save like $100 at best so why bother? Some routes offer only H class (one class higher than V) but not on the routes I fly regularly so that doesn't bother me.

As I understand it, the special V class fare through certain TA is actually a contracted rate between the airline and the agency. Their agreements prohibit the TAs to sell tickets other than the H or V or Q booking class as stated in their contracts. In other words, special rate only applies to these fares, not other fares. For Y,M fares, sorry, there is nothing they can do. You have to buy the full published fare. Otherwise, it would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Air: No
I fly AA almost exclusively. My Platinum status gets me through to an agent relatively quickly 24 hours a day, and I know if there are any problems at any time, AA both booked the ticket and is providing the transportation. This way I don't have to go through a middleman with my reservation if an emergency comes up. Also, most TAs charge a fee for booking airline tickets, now that commissions are so low.

I also book on AA.com most of the time.

Car: No
I rent exclusively with Avis. With my preferred select status, I quickly get through to someone, usually on the first couple of rings (without having to go through a voicemail system). They already have my profile, so I just need to give them my wizard number and I have a reservation. They're also good about putting my requests in the reservation, so if I want a specical car - it's usually there.

I also book on Avis.com, unless I have a complicated rental (one-ways, special insurance/authorization to go to Eastern European countries, etc.)

Hotel: Yes
I always use my TA for hotels. Unlike airfare and car rental quotes, I typically get several hotel prices before making a decision. My TA can bring up all of those rates for me quickly, rather than me calling several different hotels directly, or going to different Web sites.

But, there are two factors that are the most important in my decision to use my travel agent. First, I am very demanding in what I expect from a hotel. My travel agent specializes in luxury travel and she has been to or has had clients stay at great hotels worldwide. So, if I'm going to a city for the first time, she can give me some guidance about which hotels I should stay in. I always check things out online, but she still has information that's more targeted towards me.

Second, my TA can typically get me upgrades or other benefits similar to the benefits AmEx Plat/Centurion members get at some hotels.

A final reason is that after the stay, if there were any problems I can type up a letter and have my TA submit it to the hotel. Hotels always seem more interested in making sure that she and her firm are happy (by making me happy) than they do about making me happy if I contact them directly. It's the same as the letters in Conde Nast's Ombudsman. When people contact the companies directly, they get ignored or little satisfaction. When the Ombudsman contacts the companies on behalf of the readers - all of a sudden the companies are apologetic and offering all kinds of free stuff to make them happy.

d

I almost always use the same travel agent; I'm fortunate enough to have found a good T/A who meets my needs and often saves me money (especially on hotels) compared with what I find on my own, knows my desires for mileage-run routings and automatically searches for them when booking my flights, and keeps up to date about my preferred leisure desinations and calls or e-mails me when there's a good fare available to one of them in case I want to take advantage of it.

And, as someone else also said earlier, mine has become a friend.

But as some other someone else also said earlier, it's a business with no future and Ann has returned to school and is studying to become a CPA. When she's out of the business I'll probably do most of my own bookings until and unless I can find another agent who does her job as well.

No TA here. I've seen too many people (including myself) steered towards weird routings/airlines/fares just so the travel agent could make an extra buck on me (in order to win a contest, make an "override" commission, etc.)

I had a very similar experience to cordelli at the last company I worked for. There, I was forced to use a TA for "cost control" reasons, and absolutely hated them, mostly because they managed to provide inconvenient times on unreliable airlines and out-of-the-way hotels at high cost. I once entered their cube and found it plastered with a powerpoint slides from a presentation about a contest that the agent was obviously trying to win, involving increasing volume on a specific (low-reliability) airline in selected city-pairs). After a few scuffles, and once they realized I knew what was going on from my travel industry internship way back, we settled on a compromise: myself and my team would pick online the flights and routings and fares that made the most business sense, and they would ticket just that. On my part, I would stop highlighting to the relevant people in the organization their little scheme and how, at the end of the day, the company travel costs were higher both in $$ spent and in productivity losses, notwithstanding the snow job they were making to the unwary finance guys with official-looking CRS printouts alleging lots of savings.

I also felt it fair that part of the savings should go to me or my team members, but the fact that we didn't have to fly those insane routings on those insane airlines was a benefit enough! BTW, the company went bankrupt.

For my business travel (which is most) I have to use a contract TA. But, I do my own research and basically tell them the flights I want unless they can come up with something drastically lower cost.

For my personal travel, I don't use a TA except...I am 60 miles from an airport and there are times when I must be ticketed and it is not worth the agent's fee for me to drive up and back. For example, when using a companion certificate, you must present the actual certificate for ticketing, and so I have no choice. Those of you who live close to an airport or a CTO are very lucky.

Hotels and cars I do on my own usually on the internet.

Shareholder - I've used a the same TA for over 20 years, she and her company are fantastic - what has changed, especially in the last 5 years is the amount of input I provide to a trip. If your simply looking for the cheapest ticket - a TA is not much benifit any more - however if your definition of value includes reduction of hassels, less of your own time used, and most imporant - if there is a problem on any of part of your journey - your TA is the one who can and will help. There are good TA's and some what-a-be TA's -find a good one with references both in the business world and personal world. I would be happy to recommend mine to anyone who understands that value goes beyond ticket price.

PS - I do one thing a bit crazy.... I do book some things online...and when I do, I send her (or hand her ) $20.00 - it's my insurance that any part of a trip I'm on, she has a vested interest in. We both laugh - but I've called her several times on things I've done that haven't gone according to plan

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Askworldtraveler, EXP,4 million AA miles+++Hilton Gold (thanks to EXP)

I'm sure there are a few smart, conscientious TAs out there who know how to work the system on their clients' behalf. I've never had one on my side, however.

The corporate travel resources I've been forced to use have saddled my company with ridiculously high fares and fees and me with terrible routings.

The worst aspect is the lying: insisting to me that the only way to get from SEA to LGA on a Sunday is to depart at 7am on TWA when I am simultaneously viewing twenty more options on Expedia.

The second-worst aspect is the incompetence: having to explain to "travel professionals" that LON is not an airport, but LHR and LGW are two different ones... or that UA does not fly 737s on transatlantic routes.

The third-worst aspect is the expense. Why would I pay a TA $25 to get me a $250 RT on Alaska when I can do it myself on the AS website in less than 60 seconds and score a 10% web-booking discount, knocking the fare to $225?

I find I typically know more not only about the route and fare I want, but the airline/travel infrastructure in general. I don't use TAs unless I absolutely have to, and I am generally suspicious of their abilities and motives.

Like several people here - corporate travel I must use an in-house TA. My assistant is able to a lot of it on the on-line system rather than through the actual people. She will get me a list of available flights around the time I want and then I pick the actual flights before she books them. She has a priortised list of who I want to fly (AA at the top, I won't even step on an AF flight) and all my FF numbers. We have the same system for hotels and the very rare car rental (I drove once in 2001 - hey, I'm from NYC). The on-line system will only let her book me on corporate approved airlines and hotels.

Personal - never, it's the internet for me.

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I Love New York

I have a travel agent, and she is really great. If she thinks I am going to get a better deal from on-line booking, she tells me.

If your travel agent is just an order taker that travel agent will soon be out of a job. If you have a good travel agent the value they provide is worth their wieght in gold. If you are lucky enough to have one of these agents then you will understand this and are more than happy to pay their fees. If you have never had a good agent, you will continue down the path thinking you can do a better job.

I would challenge anyone out there to try to do a better job themselves compared to a good agent. My money would be on the agent.

For flights within North America, I NEVER use a travel agent. I always book it online or call the airline directly (if a complex routing is involved). Since commisions are so low, I might risk getting charged a booking fee of say $15/ticket by my travel agent.

However, for international flights (especially those to Asia), I ALWAYS use a travel agent (I use a Chinese travel agent for flights to Asia, and an East Indian agent for flights to India).

One Chinese travel agent in Vancouver CANADA claimed that although she aknowledges that the airlines are making life harder for them by cutting commisions and imposing caps, she says that since they are an agent with a well defined "Target Market" (which are the Asian people) they often get good deals on airfares to Asia (contract fares, commision overrides that can be like 20-30% [no caps, so they can give back some to the customer]) from both North American and Asian airlines. She agrees that "it is not as good as it used to be", but says that the agency can still survive as they have repeat cutomers (mostly asian, or caucasian people who go to Asia often and probably had asian friends who referred them or were brave enough to walk in).

The travel agency's owner sometimes even go for "dim sum" with the sales representative from one of the Asian airline and build up good "guan xi" (or relationship) in hopes of getting good contracts.

Also, she says that "it is the WHITE CAUCASIAN travel agents who are suffering more because some of them only sell 'published fares' within North America, or those special $499 published fares to Europe with 5% commision and caps like $50 or even $20 per ticket, and occasional 'all inclusive' package to the Carribean." (Note: I don't mean to be racist, but this is what I heard from an agent).

[This message has been edited by daniellam (edited 11-16-2001).]

My travel is almost exclusively within the US on one airline (DL - only airline). My hotel and rental car are arranged through a TA generally (hotel choices vary greatly and generally terrible, but then I have no choice since most are comp'd rooms) and car is always from Hertz (elite status).

I tried TAs for travel. I tried 4 different companies within Jackson before I gave up. I would send them a list of sites I needed to be at for Sep 1-Dec 1 in early August, a second list for Feb 1-Jun 1 in early January, and a third list for Jun 1-Sep 1 in early May. I would ask for best upgradeable fares (since most were weekend travel and DL has this LU fare policy). No travel agent in Jackson got it completely right ever. There would be at least two trips going to the wrong places or correct places on the wrong dates. (Once, I wanted to go to LGA and was booked for LGW instead. Another time, I wanted to go to Orlando and was booked for ORY.) Then, I went with a recommended agent in Dallas with AmEx Business Travel. She managed to book a whole season's travel to the correct locations, but with trips starting in Jackson, MS, and terminating in DFW.

After that, I decided that I would rather do it on my own.

I work as a Travel Agent for a major Scandinavian Airlines(guess which one) and since I am doing all my bookings myself you can say I use a Travel Agent. I would also like to mention I use the best one

I do the same thing. The funny thing is that my company claims to be quite cost-conscious but our in house TAs don't seem to be able to do a whole lot to help that cause. I have routinely been able to find better deals by searching Orbitz, etc. and then directing the TA to the specific dates/flights.

Shareholder,

For air travel, no. Only when required for work.

But a good TA can save you many bucks on a Cruise.