cpx

Thats correct. Most of the US based airlines dont have
Agent Discounts, but a lot of European airlines still offer
these discounts.

If you are savvy enough, you can pickup similar deals from the
airline website directly.

I remember paying about $40 more for a VS flight from
JFK-LHR. TA price was cheaper by about $40. But I dont
see that in any of the US domestic flights. TA would charge you to
book the flight instead.

Guy Betsy

As a TA for the past 20 years, I'd like to add my 2 c worth to this thread:

Most fares to asia have consolidator prices - which are not published fares and therefore most TAs who know this will not bother even looking up the fares. But as consolidator fares go, most fares CHANGE for the remainder of the year in September. Sure they can quote you a fare, but it's a published fare and not on 'discount'.

I've had my share of horror stories to tell too...

When clients themselves don't know what they want.

We hate those calls we get in Feb (mid winter) when we get the most "Get me outta here" calls.... or "Getme somewhere hot." Ok.. how about, Mexico, Florida, Hawaii, California, Arizona, Caribbean.. etc... No, no, no, no... so where would you like to go.. "I don't know.. anywhere hot." Sigh.

We then get the other type of clients... The ones that want to change their seats because he didn't like where we was sitting. Ok.. I check on the reservation and realised that , hey, he should be ON his flight right now and he's calling me? Yeah, turns out he is on the plane and called me from the plane to say that he wants to change his seat!

Or the one who only wants to sit where the sun doesn't shine. So you have to imagine how would one have to think where the plane is flying , in what direction and where the sun would be if it was shining!

Being a TA is not for the money..it's for the joy and challenge.. at least for me anyway. Sure the internet has taken up some business but for the most part, most people still prefer to deal with the human factor. And yes, I do know my planes, seats and meals (having ordered them myself before so that I can tell my clients what they taste like!)... PS don't order vegetarian on QF - you'll end up with peanut buttter sandwiches most of the time!

the_traveler

Many years ago, I wanted to be a TA - even going after a Travel & Tourism degree in college. However, after a internship at a TA, I decided against it.

With the choices via the internet now, including the price comparisions between the different airlines and/or routes, hotels, rental cars, etc..., I now (and for many years) do my bookings on my own! I can not remember the last time I used a TA!

We FT'ers seem to know more about the industry/locations/aircraft types/etc... than many TA's! (Examples - Your meeting is in southern Denver, but you're booked in a hotel in Golden/northwest Denver because the hotel is listed as "Denver". Or a more current example is your meeting is in Taunton, MA - near Boston. Your TA books you into MHT - because it is called "Manchester/Boston". When you arrive @ MHT, you discover you need to drive 80-90 miles to Taunton! Actually PVD - or even BOS - is closer to Taunton than MHT! )

miesterjustin

In defense of TAs, I've found that working with an independent TA has been much better than working with the corporate TA at my prior employer. My firm only works with a TA when we are booking complicated international itineraries with refundable fares. We occassionally spot-check fares from the Internet, and the TA is usually giving the same lowest price available, plus a $150 booking fee. However, when our itinerary changes in the middle of the trip, the TA is able to handle the changes easily and apply for refunds on the appropriate airlines. These changes are also subject to fees, but we've found the firm loses less in forgone refunds and absolutely less in hassle to our administrative staff than if we went it alone.

KMHT FF

I have nothing against India or offshoring per se but this is a case in point about why offshoring travel booking to foreign countries is foolhardy.

This is not to say that offshore agents could not learn geographic proximities as in the converse competent agents in one country know all sorts of locales in other countries.

But there is a degree of specialization involved that is precluded by the very nature of these offshore centers being stocked with low-cost, adequate-but-only-sufficiently skilled labor.

buddhaman

I always book my own hotels and flights through the internet or direct with an hotel.

I have yet to find a competent TA who really knows their job and has been able to come up with a better deal than the ones I find.

Corporate TA in my experience do not seem to know about the existence of discounted flights and always seem to book the most expensive ( albeit most flexible) flights.

Thank God for online booking!!!!!!!!!!

mkt

ditto... most of the ones I've dealt with are only in it for their commission, and nothing more

B747-437B

There are plenty of times when a good, reliable travel agent can be invaluable. Some recent examples from the last 3 months.

a) I was flying out of Monrovia on SN Brussels en route to Heathrow via Dakar and Brussels (connection). During our stop in Dakar, I checked my voicemail to find a desperate message telling me that I needed to get to Gatwick instead to deal with a crisis that had come up there. I called my TA who had booked the original itinerary and told him what had to be done. By the time I reached Brussels a few hours later, I just collected my new boarding pass at the desk and caught the first Gatwick flight.

b) I needed to book a one-way ticket from Mumbai to Doha on a Thursday night and Qatar Airways was refusing to sell me a one-way without proof of onward travel. My onward travel ticket was to be collected in Doha from another airline but I couldn't get a copy of it faxed to me due to the Qatari "weekend". So I called up my regular travel agent who took my word about the onward ticket and issued me the same one-way ticket that the airline wouldn't sell.

c) Virgin Atlantic does not permit online payments for flights departing from India. Instead of schlepping an hour each way to the Virgin office in downtown Mumbai and rushing back to the airport for a 1pm flight, I simply called my TA who issued the e-ticket and sent me an invoice to settle when I got back.

Sure, if you travel primarily domestic or on the North Atlantic corridor, the benefits an agent can provide are few and far between. However, the moment you start traveling further afield and especially into the developing world, an experienced travel agent is absolutely vital if you are going to be productive.

sadiqhassan

and also... for the people who have better (as in more productive) things to do with their time, using a TA is not a bad investment even if it does cost more.

Personally I enjoy looking for deals and going to the different sites, so using a TA doesn't make sense for me.

Cheers

painintheuk

I've tried to use TAs - really I have! I'm forced to use an incredibly incompetent corporate TA for one client, and even when I walk them through the precise routing, plane numbers and fare classes, they still manage to get it wrong - to the cost of the client and my lost time.

I tried to use a TA that was reccomended to me for a 'complex' multi-city itinerary with stopovers, an open jaw and 2 different airlines. This exactly where professionals should excel, and I'm happy to pay for that. She did the same 'take a fare off the first page' method. I do ALL my own bookings now.

Dr. PITUK

zoricr

Majority of Travel Agent I know is clueless on question about metal of any particalar airline

JBLUA320

I wonder if the situation is different in Europe (well I only have experience with Eastern Europe) -- when I lived in BEG, you pretty much HAD to use an agent and they were great, same with KBP & SVO based agents.

simpleflyer

I now know why I could never be a TA. I would most certainly have taken that request and told him to stick it where the sun doesn't.....

757-300

I run a part-time TA business specializing in Disney in general and Disney cruises in particular...I've cruised Disney 50+ times, so I do know my stuff. But before I became a TA, my hair would curl at some of the B.S. stuff other people would tell me that their TAs told them. I don't even bother with air; the closest I come to that is referring clients to Mr. 757-300 for free assistance in booking WN if that's who they're going to use, and I also do their online check-in for them. But basically I think the only really good, knowledgeable TAs are the ones who: a) specialize in one particular area; and b) have done it themselves and have personal experience. With Disney, there are lots of training seminars/certifications, but they don't mean dog poop. They just give you the "company line." If I were on the other side of the keyboard, I would search for an agent who had visited there every year at least twice!

JDiver

Travel Agents are like any other profession, they have a full spectrum from very competent, dedicated people with long-term views of building and maintaining business to greedy resellers of packages searching mainly for easy deals with the best commissions for them.

I've had many experiences and friends among the former, and keep running into the latter (and avoiding most of them by managing my own travel.) Two TAs I've liked an dtrusted have passed away; two others I have lost track of because it was too difficult doing business by long distance. I certainly was willing to pay for services as the providers of travel curtailed their commissions and incentives.

The last one in the greedy grouping was "helpful": I requested a flight set with dates, times, flight numbers - she booked nonrefundable fares on another airline that required me to travel back to their hub for intercity travel at very inconvenient times and at siginificantly higher cost than what I gave her (she had told me she could easily beat my original cost estimates with her agency's connections.) An Internet search revealed government documents that revealed the airline she booked me away to (6A, AVIACSA,) gives a 10% commission, iirc.

When the airline changed a flight significantly, I struck - as it was a unilateral change, they had to relaese the booking, and we booked on MX and CLick! Mexicana as we had chosen earlier. This woman also booked us at hotels I ahd requested at rates I had told her - rates which allowed 48 hour cancellations, but she issued me vouchers for the hotels that were highly restricted in cancellation terms (30 or more days,) so if I had had to change plans, they would have kept the money themselves.

I decided to use the agent because the company and agent had been recommened by a friend and a relative - once I reviewed some of their travel plans, it turns out they were being given inconventient and expensive travel plans disguised as "necessary" or "this is a deal I found for you." When in Mexico, avoid at all costs dealing with Viajes Internacionales Marco Polo, S.A. de C. V. in Polanco, México D.F. (Mexico City.) My caveat and warnings to others is the least I can do to repay their extreme solicitude and excessive kindnesses (unfortunately, to themselves, not their clients.)