The Costs of Booking Trips with Travel Agents vs. Independently

There are a number of ways to book a trip. You could visit the airline’s website and search for deals or use your accumulated frequent flyer miles. Or, you could visit one of the many online travel sites that offer flights or combinations of flights with hotels and rental cars. Then again, you can also book your trip with a travel agent.

As an IT person, to everyone’s surprise, I always choose the last option. Now you’d ask: why go to a travel agent to book a trip when there are so many tools available on the Internet? My reply usually goes like this:

Drawbacks to booking travel online include some hidden costs, things like not accruing any air miles on your frequent flyer account because of the type of fare sold. Some fares are negotiated by the booking sites to give buyers a fantastic deal, but in order to do that, all of the perks are stripped away. Flights might also be subject to large change fees, again because of the fare class. Those change fees can sometimes exceed the face value of the original ticket.

Travel websites sometimes fail to make it clear what the taxes and airport fees will be, so the end price is not as cheap as you thought it was going to be. They also do not let you always get a seat on the flight, but rather place you on stand-by. If you need to make connections or attend a business conference, stand-by can be a big problem. 

Often on business trips, your agenda changes and the bookings need to change accordingly. Have you tried to make changes on-line? You will end up talking with someone, paying fees and spending a long time on the phone because the majority of the online booking systems cannot handle changes automatically.

So how can you avoid all of this? Book your trip with a travel agent. Travel agents are particularly helpful if you have to book multiple legs of a journey, or add on hotels and travel excursions, or coordinate your trip with a conference at a hotel. Agents can also make sure that all members of your family or business colleagues get seated together on the same flight.

They often know which hubs serve which areas, so they can put you in the center of it all and save you time on your trip instead of leaving you to traipse around yet another airport. They also have access to all airlines, not just the ones who have agreed to be served by the travel booking sites.

Agents are also familiar with airlines that are running super fare sales and they can help you put together all of your possible savings. Many agencies offer a price protection plan, so even after they coordinate your trip, if any portion goes on sale, they will give you the price difference back.

Plus, some travel agencies offer financing options, giving you a chance to pay your trip off over time with a low deposit. Travel agents do charge you a fee for their services, but when they have worked out every deal possible to save you money much faster than you could have by yourself, you’ll more than recover that fee. 

On top of all of the above, your regular travel agent knows you, knows what you like, how you like it and how much you accept to pay for it, resulting on a high level of service making your live much easier.

Last but not less important is when something goes wrong during your trip. Maybe you need to change something, you lost a flight or there’s an ash cloud grounding all flights and you need to return home. Believe me, that’s when you will love having a travel agent on the other side of the phone line.

So why not take back some of your time and save yourself the headache and hassle of trying to piece together your trip yourself? Let a professional travel agent help you. His or her experience and knowledge can be your best travel assets. 

by Rui Figueiredo, COO @ TTS