Travel Agent - Yes or No

[androiduk]

My family and I travel up to half a dozen times a year near and far and I was wondering if it's better to use the services of a travel agent. Up 'til now, I usually book everything online but was wondering if there's an advantage to using an agent.

 

[shlammed]

My family and I travel up to half a dozen times a year near and far and I was wondering if it's better to use the services of a travel agent. Up 'til now, I usually book everything online but was wondering if there's an advantage to using an agent.

The only advantage I see is them doing the search for you. Other than that...I'm not sure of any advantages.

You can maybe find a very educated agent who can recommend certain hotels, etc.

 

[Admiral Beez]

A travel agent is akin to a blind man's guide dog, it overcomes an inability to do what to everyone else seems obvious.

 

[James]

In my opinion, the main reason to use a travel agent is simply time. For those who are frequent flyers, there really is no benefit. If you're already well-aware of airline reward programs, hotel preferred guest programs, the rental car process and enjoy reviewing different hotels prior to booking, you might as well just continue making your bookings online. The few times I did use a travel agent over the phone, I actually found it much more difficult to compare different flight times and different hotels. It was, in fact, much easier to do it myself online so I could see all the options on my screen at a glance. The other thing I like is that I get to see all my upcoming itineraries and stays all organized on my online account with the respective service provider's website.

I could see the ocassional traveler to find an agent helpful but in this day and age, you have pretty much the same access to resources and information as any travel agent. I've been told that because a travel agent may do more business with a certain airline or hotel that they may have some leverage on securing bookings when it's busy but in my experience, I've never had to resort to an agent to get me onto an alternate flight or another hotel room on an overbooked night. This is even less relevant if you are a frequent flyer and a member of a hotel preferred guest program. You'll have just as much, if not more, leverage than a travel agent (in my opinion and from my experience).

 

[someMidTowner]

In the days of Priceline and other William Shatner-esque services, does anyone else think that the profession of "travel agent" is on the path towards extinction?

 

[androiduk]

Thanks for the comments folks. The reason I initially asked is because I still many travel agents around and I thought they may be providing some benefit that I wasn't aware of.

 

[gabe]

Thanks for the comments folks. The reason I initially asked is because I still many travel agents around and I thought they may be providing some benefit that I wasn't aware of.

The thing with travel sites like Travelocity, Expedia, PL, HotWire is they have stricter cancellation policies and typically there is no one to be found if you run into problems. Travel agents come in handy - when you have a problem like when these low budget vacation airlines go bankrupt and leave hundreds of passengers in airports and at their travel destinations stranded and out thousands of dollars.

 

[jett]

I travel often, here's my take. I usually do all the work myself, I don't use travel agent much. However, a travel agent is good for a few reasons:

1, for booking tours i.e. Cosmos, or a cruise. It's better to use them. They make all the arrangements.

2, when you find a flight that you like, but don't want to book right away, a travel agent can hold the spot for you for 24 hour. Last year, I found the flight to Morocco that, believe it or not, fluctuated like stock market. The price changed a few time in a day. My travel agent told me that he could hold the rate for me for 24hr, and that night, if it went down, I could go ahead and book it on my own. If it went up, then he could book for me using his rate the next day. The rate went up overnight, but I was fine cause he reserved the rate for me.

3, discount! My travel agent usually gives me a discount. Not much, but it's better than nothing.

 

[can332]

We do travel a lot and do the vast majority of bookings ourselves, online. The only time we find it easier to use a travel agent is when there are no english-language websites for the services we want to use. We also found that making bookings on Eurorail from Canada is almost impossible without a travel agent.


worldlycanuck.blogspot.ca

 

[Admiral Beez]

I'm thinking of using a travel agent, simply because I have the time and money to travel, but am not sure where I want to go. My thinking is I can tell an agent, I have three weeks and $15k, here are some of our interests, what do you suggest. That's the situation my wife and I are in now, what do we want to do this summer?

Expedia and the like are fine if you know what you want. Same as the www.realtor.ca site for housing, if you know what and where you want, it's great. But if you want creative thinking and knowledge beyond your own, and expert may help.