Hey Everyone,

I have been looking for cheap flights on web-based travel sites for too long now. Whenever I find one I feel is cheap, I purchase it, and a friend tells me later that he found one for half of the price. I have come to terms with my horrible research capabilities, and now, here is my question:

How do I go about finding a good travel agent?

It seems as though travel agents, actual travel agents (people), are disappearing. When I look on the internet, all I find is Expedia, Travelocity, CheapOAir, and other sites of the like.

Can anyone help put me on the right path? If you can, I would be very grateful!

Thanks in advance for your time!

Where are you located?

The reason most "actual people" travel agents have disappeared is that most of them weren't very competent. The Internet exposed them by giving everybody access to data and options TAs had withheld from their customers.

As for fares going down after you buy them - that's a natural risk of the travel market and no TA will protect you from that. The fare-forecasting charts on Kayak.com or similar are better than any TA's gut instinct.

Where are you located? Where do you usually fly? You looking for just flights, or package holidays?

be sure to check w/ your friend[s] first!.....note that the us airlines don't give ta's commissions as a rule, which means that you would have to compensate them.....good luck...

The travel agencies that have survived are doing mostly cruises, corporate travel and customized itineraries (for which they charge fees). There's so much on the Internet that my husband and I have rarely resorted to one. Once you know where you want to go, what hotels you want, which flights, etc. why do you need someone else to book it all? If you're looking for advice on any of this, then you may need a TA.

Having said that- we have one in town that's been here longer than we have (pre-2003). That's my main criterion- I figure they've been doing something right! I find the European train Web sites user-hostile and have had them get tickets and/or railpasses for us. They get a commission, it doesn't cost us anything extra, and we have the tickets in hand. We just dropped in Saturday with a request to book an Alaskan cruise- we knew the line/date/itinerary/cabin we wanted and she used the same darned Web site we did! It's a small ship so I doubt there are bargains. (I tried CruiseCompete. I got an automated e-mail that said they'd get back to me. That was over a week ago.)

Those are some answers beyond your original question, but I'd sum it up by saying you should figure out what you want them to do that you can't do for yourself, then interview local ones and see if they know any more than you do or if they just push package tours from glossy brochures,

First, how do you know your friends got the same itinerary for half the price? I'm not saying they are lying, it's just that hyperbole can get the better of us sometimes. And remember a published fare is not the same as an available fare.

Published fares, those available to the general public, are out there for all to see, to both agents and individual travelers. So generally when you are looking at availability at any given time within the same time period, I should not think there would be be a great deal of difference between sites- certainly not by half.

Travel agencies often use unpublished or consolidator fares that are negotiated rates cheaper than published fares. But these come with restrictions-- less to no FF accrual, etc. These are mostly for international travel.

As for finding an agent, recommendations and using one enough that you become a recognized client can help. But there can be a lot of turn over. Just as soon as you find one you like, they leave.

Ask around. That's the first step.

I have a travel agent who is great, especially for far flung not-so-familar routes. But I pay him for the flights he books. It can certainly be worth it, for example, his negotiated First and Business fares make sense for me to purchase through him and pay his fee - but it is never worth my while paying him to book e.g. Toronto-New York, even if he saved a few dollars, it wouldn't cover his fee.

(my bolding). Unless your friend tells you a (physical) Travel Agency got the fare and also assuming he's not simply playing you, it happens all the time.

No guarantee a Travel Agency will get a better deal than you can yourself, bucketshops excluded. Often those touting themselves as 'cheap' ticket sellers really aren't. As always, caveat emptor.

Subscribe to one of the fare-watching websites and in addition to getting notified of a good fare when you want it, you'll also see that fares go up and down all the time. If there's a dominant airline in your hometown, subscribe to their alert, 'web special' or whatever it's called program.

Otherwise don't sweat it. To some it is worth spending hours at a keyboard to save $100, to others it isn't. Nobody gets the best fare every time, nobody.

I heard that the New York Museum of Natural History is planning on putting a stuffed Travel Agent on exhibit shortly, alongside the Dodo bird, the Passenger Pigeon, and T-Rex.

What kinds of routes are you buying tickets for? Simple domestic routes or obscure multi-leg international ones? I find it hard to believe that someone is finding prices half of what's being shown on Expedia/Orbitz/Travelocity/etc.

You ever walk by a travel agency in a mall? Sears has travel agents..

Co-op, AAA/CAA as well

Yes they are still there but mostly selling packages, cruises and the occasional fight-only deals to resorts. Out-and-back flights to mundane destinations are not their focus.

They aren't. TAs don't know anything Kayak doesn't know. There is this myth that there's a secret underground of lowball fares not visible to the general public, as evidenced by the newbies who show up here n FT asking for the sub-$600 transatlantic tickets. Consolidators / bucket shops aside, they don't exist. There's a whole bunch of predatory Internet fly-by-night "agencies" that take advantage of this public misconception though.

I agree..

Though the mainstream TAs do help at times.. I find it easier to shop myself and score on the latest deals.. but the FT question was having a TA assist on mainstream bookings..

For the special excursions.. definitely a specialty TA expert would be in order..

Are there travel consolidators on the Internet? I went to one thinking it was a consolidator but their rates are same as other travel sites. Anyone have any consolidators (for Latin America travel, preferably on AA) they would recommend?