OT - Best Way to Book a Flight/When to Use a Travel Agent?
Mates,
OT. In fact, so OT you have to take a plane from 'on-topic' just to get to the OT topic of....Best way to book a flight and when to use a travel agent.
I haven't flown since covid hit but I have friends who live in Alaska who I've been visiting for 30 years. It is now time to get back in the travel mode and I'm taking the twins with me. I can search Travelocity and figure out the basics, and looking at airfare, my-oh-my, things have changed a lot since I last flew. I am a relative novice for travel things (and not overly bright) and don't mind spending at little bit of money to have a pro help book me on better flights and hopefully save me money in the long run.
And that premise leads me to the questions of the day:
1. What is the best way to book a flight and when (if ever) do you use a travel agent?
2. Assuming there is ever a 'yes' to using a travel agent, what should you expect to pay for their assistance.
3. Ifyou've gotten this far, what the heck, do you have a recommendation for a travel agent or just 'google it' and go from there?
Hopefully this topic is helpful to a bunch of you. FYI, blizzard up north, schools and Courts closed early.
Beat Illinois.
XM
February 27th, 2023 at 4:13 PM ^
I mainly use Kayak.com. Search by departing airport, arriving airport(s), number of passengers. Can toggle arrival times, sort by price, least amount of time, require direct flights, etc. When you're picking dates, you can do exact dates, +/- 1 or 2 days, see a calendar color coded by relative price for your flight if your flight dates are flexible. It's an amazing amount of information that makes the process relatively simple.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:43 PM ^
I’ve done this before, booking a flight & a rental car package for Miami. Kayak set me up with a flight to Miami, but the rental car was (surprise) at Fort Lauderdale airport. I got no sympathy at the desk, because after alI, they are not Kayak, and I was the dumbass that clicked on it. Trying to get service from Kayak was futile. Had to rent a ride to get to my rental ride
February 27th, 2023 at 8:06 PM ^
They are basically the same place, so…
February 28th, 2023 at 7:36 AM ^
100 mile skyview, grand scheme of things? Sure. On the ground level? Not even close.
The 2 airports are essentially the same distance as Ann Arbor and DTW (~25 miles)
If you landed in Detroit, and was told that your rental car was actually in Ann Arbor, there's no way in hell you'd be saying "it's basically the same place"
February 27th, 2023 at 4:49 PM ^
I usually check Kayak for pricing. The filters are the sorting are pretty good. It also checks nearby airports. I don't usually book through them. I will either book directly with the airline or through Priceline (a sister company of Kayak) because Priceline will put money in a Upromise account I have set up. Another benefit of Priceline is free cancellation until Monday night if you book on Friday Saturday or Sunday. I think the airline provides better service if you book direct when you have a problem.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:22 PM ^
Kayak is a great aggregator site--they pull together info from lots of places. Use it to get a rough idea of your itinerary, and the vendors you want to use.
Assuming you are comfortable enough with your basic plan, then go to the vendor site (airline, hotel, rental car) and book directly on their site. You will get the best info and prices. Always sign up for the affinity program if you aren't already a member. Sign the kids up too.
Download the apps for the vendors you have chosen. Spend a little time configuring them and make sure you see your itinerary items on the app. Sign up for service notifications (skip the marketing ones) and you will be more likely to have any change info pushed to you. Check for changes now and again, more frequently as the departure date arrives. Make the kids do the same--or even better have them configure your phone.
Finally, remember that the difference between an adventure and an ordeal is your attitude. It's unlikely your plan will go perfectly, but a smile and some patience will go a long way.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:45 PM ^
That's my approach too, using aggregators to get an overview, like reading a book's table of contents.
Then, look to the vendors individually. That makes it easer to deal with them if your travel has any hiccups.
Also, yeah, patience helps.
February 28th, 2023 at 6:10 AM ^
Also use this approach. Because if something goes wrong, and it sometimes does, the finger pointing between a place like Expedia and American Airlines makes life much harder. And in my experience the prices quoted direct from the airlines matches what places like Expedia get you.
Also - for rental car I've not had great luck with anyone other than Hertz, Avis or Enterprise (I used Sixt a few times and it was ok). I've generally found Avis to be notably cheaper than Hertz.....maybe because they are trying harder. You can get lower deals from other companies but my experience has been the cars and the service are not as reliable.
February 28th, 2023 at 9:46 AM ^
I used to use Kayak, but then I noticed that Google Flights was usually finding cheaper, sometimes way cheaper, prices for very similar flight schedules. Now I pretty much just use Google Flights for flying, but Kayak for rental cars.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
Do people actually still use Travel Agents for domestic travel?
February 27th, 2023 at 4:29 PM ^
you and i have the same question.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:55 PM ^
I flew 40 weeks out of the year in 2019. Kinda been around the block a few times doing this.
Business travel post COVID isn't the same but I'm not sure what a travel agent would provide in terms of expertise or value these days.
An airline is a time machine. That's it. There's no rocket science to that. If I have the internet, I don't need a travel agent. No need to have anxiety about any of this.
2-3 hours later I can be nearly in any city in the lower 48. In my car in the same time, I'm 150 miles from home after sitting in traffic.
I'd second the advice to use a kayak or orbitz to see what's out there... they're great schedule aggregators.
BUT... what I would do after that is go to the airline's website and book there.
So if the kayak results say my best flight in terms of price, schedule, convince, etc., is say, Delta. Then I go to delta.com, look up that flight and 9 times out of 10, it's a couple of bucks cheaper than the other websites. I've had the same experience on UA and AA as well. Southwest doesn't use the system all the other sites do (something called Sabre) so you have to go to their website directly.
I heart me some Southwest but if you're a novice at traveling be careful of their website. They'll suck you in with $49 fares in ads but that doesn't always work out and then the next thing you know, you have a $600 ticket (that happened to me a couple of times for work travel).
Also watch the flights on Southwest that may look to be non stop but they aren't. Like you won't have to change planes -- hell you won't even get off the plane... but going from DTW -> LAX may be one flight but it may stop along the way to pick up more passengers.
Plus booking through the airline directly, which has my profile, there's like zero chance something gets effed up with my points or TSA pre-check.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
I second all of this. Also a frequent traveler. Kayak is a great tool for figuring out which options are out there, and Priceline and others are also great for hotels, but you should almost never book through those sites. If you ever run into trouble with your flight or hotel and you've booked through kayak, expedia, etc...you're not going to get little to no help from the airline or hotel because even though your reservation is with them, you didn't book through them. You booked through a third party.
Another thing to pay attention to with airlines is hidden fees. Baggage fees vary quite a bit from airline to airline, so figure out how many bags you're going to check, look up the baggage fees for that airline, and then find out the real price of your flight. There's times buying an upgraded ticket is worth it because it comes with free checked bags.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:30 PM ^
I can testify to the benefits of booking directly with the airline. In the winter of 2019, I got stuck in RDU for an extended period of time, and when my flight finally left it literally flew all the way to LaGuardia and had to turn back because of the weather. Obviously I missed my connecting flight.
It was an incredible pain in the ass to get home, as Expedia was useless and I hadn't bought my ticket from Delta or Westjet (they ran the connecting flight). A rep at Delta eventually took pity on me and got me home.
I will add that buying through Expedia you don't see the class of the ticket you're buying. Delta (at least at the time) had different tickets depending on when you were assigned seats (i.e., in advance or at the gate).
One other thing is that it can also be useful to book directly with the hotel, as the hotel may have more flexibility and it's easier (possible?) to take advantage of their points program.
A hotel points program can be useful depending on how often you travel. My wife used to pay for our hotel in her home town at Christmas with the points she got from semi-regular business travel staying at a Holiday Inn. (Although per my brother-in-law their points program has gone downhill recently.)
February 27th, 2023 at 5:19 PM ^
^^ This is the best suggestion for personal travel IMO.
A travel agent is mandatory for my employer (30+ weeks a year) BUT I still use Kayak to check itineraries and pricing to find what I want to book before calling the agent. If it were up to me I would book direct through the airline once I find the right flights/airlines.
Be aware -- The airlines seem to be getting quite bitchy about people using agents and on-line sites - I flew my wife last week and American refused to help her over the phone when weather issues came up since it wasn't booked direct through them..... (Luckily all things can be arranged if you have elite status and refuse to accept the first no). I can only assume that Delta and United have similar policies to encourage folks to book direct.
Also note the emergence of "basic economy" on the Big carriers - this is very similar to the Spirit Airlines of the world so expect to pay more for any luggage, or seat assignments etc. when "saving" using those fares.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:05 PM ^
We do for Disney only. They get special discounts and they get paid by Disney themselves, so it actually saves money.
otherwise, no.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
I'm a Delta guy (ATL) and prefer to book my personal travel on-line rather than the app. When I run into issues, a quick call gets me to resolution. I'm a Hilton guy (and we have a timeshare with them) so booking on-line at their site is my preference.
My company works with a large travel agency. They have an awesome on-line tool that allows me to book flights (picking from all airlines) and book hotels close to a specific address.
As a sidebar, I'm old enough to remember walking into a travel agent's office and have my trip booked for me.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:50 PM ^
With paper tickets
February 27th, 2023 at 5:06 PM ^
...pulled off a 24-pin printer!
February 27th, 2023 at 5:12 PM ^
Handwritten
February 27th, 2023 at 5:50 PM ^
I remember when Northwest's Frequent Flier "Fly-Write" tickets were carbon copies that you fill out by pressing firmly with a ball point pen
February 27th, 2023 at 6:16 PM ^
oh yeah, well...
February 27th, 2023 at 7:04 PM ^
Giant ribs for your in-flight meal!
February 27th, 2023 at 7:07 PM ^
Brontosaurus ribs, of course.
February 27th, 2023 at 7:48 PM ^
Canon BubbleJet FTW
February 27th, 2023 at 8:11 PM ^
Wait… why are the results online any different from the app?
February 27th, 2023 at 11:34 PM ^
How do you like Hilton Vacations?
February 27th, 2023 at 4:17 PM ^
Another hint is to use private mode when you are looking. Sites will track your history and if you look multiple times crank up the price.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:30 PM ^
Fares are public. This does not happen.
If it did happen, guess what -- private mode doesn't do as much as you think it does. I promise you, if someone wanted to implement this, a private browser window would not be an impediment. At all.
Also, why is it that every single I time I see this posted, it's always that the fares go up? In any other line of business, prices go down to try to attract business, but somehow in the travel industry, they go up?
February 27th, 2023 at 4:36 PM ^
I'm shooting from the mouth here as is my wont, but I suspect that it's because the airline industry, like most others, is a Big Three or Four with vanishingly few off-brand competitors so they could all either play chicken with reduced prices or universally raise prices, which.... yeah.
(Smarter business people than I, which is pretty much everyone, feel free to chime in on where I'm wrong)
February 27th, 2023 at 4:48 PM ^
Fares do not universally go up. In fact, excluding holidays, the sweet spot for booking travel is generally between 3 months and 3 weeks prior to departure. Airlines work hard to try to ensure that their pricing is unpredictable, because they're selling a commodity and predictability leads to decreased margins.
That is, I can tell you that, on more than one occasion, I have eschewed a flight only to see it drop in price. I have also rebooked fares when they've dropped in price, on more than one occasion -- less useful for XM given that he doesn't tly often, but useful for me as I do.
Airlines are experimenting with a type of personalized pricing, but it'll be years before the entire industry gets on board (if ever), and until they do, you can still get the prices that are published through the Global Distribution Systems via a travel agent if necessary. It's just not usually necessary because personalized pricing really isn't much of a thing at the moment.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
Fairs do go up the closer you get to the departure date.
Why?
Because passengers incrementally purchase tickets over time. With fewer seats to sell, the law of supply and demand takes hold. A $150 ticket four weeks ago is now $400 - the cheap back seats aren't available and you're stuck picking from the higher priced tickets closer to the front of the plane.
February 27th, 2023 at 6:46 PM ^
Almost none of what you said is correct -- especially the idea that the seats near the back of the plane are inherently cheaper.
Airplane ticketing pricing is really, really, really complex, and it absolutely cannot be broken down into universal maxims like what you're describing. The best you can ever say is "sometimes" or "often."
In this case, while you are correct that airfare is often higher immediately prior to departure, the reason is not because of the number of seats -- or, at least, not only that. Even if the plane has several empty seats, they will often raise the price because they know that people who book last-minute are more willing to pay high fares.
However, sometimes they'll offer sale fares for last-minute travel too. There are no absolutes.
February 27th, 2023 at 6:01 PM ^
I work for a corporate travel agency. American Airlines has targeted their NDC pricing rollout for April 1st of this year, so its probably coming sooner than you think.
But in general, prices are being constantly updated in real-time and can go up or down based on demand and availablity. Its not uncommon for prices on a particular flght to change between the time you first see the price in your search results and the time you are ready to check out.
February 27th, 2023 at 6:51 PM ^
Ugh, I'm sad that NDC is making it so quickly into the corporate travel world. I know that UA has been using it on their website, which has led to real oddities -- Google Flights will have the NDC price while ITA Matrix has the (higher) non-NDC price, despite the fact that Google bought ITA and uses that technology to power Google Flights. 🤔
That said, I still don't think any of the airlines are going to try to do this kind of micro-targeting that people accuse them of. They don't want the regulators to get involved, and personalized pricing, when not done extremely carefully, is a magnet for complaints since it feels so obviously unfair.
But, yes, your second point is spot on -- inventory, which drives prices, changes constantly.
February 27th, 2023 at 7:09 PM ^
NDC? And what does it mean in terms of pricing?
February 27th, 2023 at 7:19 PM ^
New Distribution Capability -- an industry term that refers to this personalized pricing initiative that the Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) has been trying to get going for several years now.
What does it mean for pricing? The airlines wouldn't be doing it if they thought it would lower their yields. 😁 Over time, NDC will increase the average fare, although it may possibly be beneficial to the budget-conscious traveler anyway as you might end up pushing down discount yields while raising the yields in the mid-tier and upper-tier pricing ranges. That's not the goal, though -- the goal is definitely to squeeze more money out of travelers' pockets.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:22 PM ^
I travel a significant amount, and when booking personal travel my order of operations is always:
1. Use google flights to search for the flights you want. You can even have it alert you to a price change for a flight you select.
2. Book the flight you want directly through the airlines website.
3. If you need a rental car, try Kayak to search prices. I would also always recommend to use the company's direct website for booking, assuming similar price.
A few other notes:
- If you use a 3rd party booking site, you run into issues any time you want to change your itinerary or any issues come up.
- It's always worth it to sign up for the free 'membership' of whatever airline or rental car or hotel chain. You are much more likely to get upgrades, etc, if you are a 'member'.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:31 PM ^
Heartily agree on every point. +1
February 27th, 2023 at 4:58 PM ^
logging in to upvote. Google flights is such a great tool and booking directly through airline always cleanest if/when things hit the fan...
February 27th, 2023 at 11:09 PM ^
And, since we're talking about the airline industry here, things WILL hit the fan.
February 27th, 2023 at 4:59 PM ^
+1 for google flights.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:14 PM ^
Yes google flights for the win. You can even leave the destination blank and search the map for cheap flights. I went direct Denver to Paris for ~$325 a few years ago thanks to that
February 27th, 2023 at 6:11 PM ^
Yup - would never use a discount site, especially for airlines. The slightest disruption to your travel and you are fucked. Use them to comparison shop, but I don't really think they offer better deals and there are alot of potential pitfalls to using them (e.g., some hotels don't let you earn points for stays booked through Priceline)
I find google flights to the best at comparing prices. Pretty good filters, including if you intend to check or even carry-on bags, it will give you an all-in price. Can set times, layover, etc. The price alerts are handy too if you have some time before your travel. Used it this past summer when prices were insane ($2,000 roundtrip for a flight that is usually $800) - booked my tickets when i got the google alert prices came down almost $1,000. A day later, I got an alert that the prices jumped up another few hundred dollars.
February 27th, 2023 at 7:15 PM ^
Agree with all of this.
I'm a Tour Director for travel companies. Did 25 tours last year. Have 26 tours on the books this year. The companies I work for book my flights. I do 5-6 personal trips per year. Usually 2-3 international personal trips.
Use Google flights to find prices then book directly through the airlines. Southwest doesn't show up on Google flights so look them up separately. If you go through Expedia etc. you get a run around if something goes wrong.
I use going.com formerly scottscheapflights.com.
I have saved thousands of dollars using them. They have a free version and a paid version. I use them especially for my international trips. You tell them your local airports and where you want to go. They send you alerts when deals pop up. When a deal pops up they are usually good for 24 hours or less. You have to be quick on the draw and be able to make quick decisions to nail the best deals. Have things figured out ahead of time if you're traveling with a significant other.
I use booking.com for hotels. Especially in a far off place where calling them or emailing them is a hassle or there are language problems. They have a very easy to use site. I have never had an issue with booking.com.
If you're doing domestic you can find a good price on a third party site and then check with the hotel directly to see if they will match it.
Most airlines allow up to 50 LI (linear inches) for a carry-on. Sometimes when I go on a trip to hike, all I bring is a backpack. Losing luggage is a big hassle especially on long journeys with multiple layovers. Having a backpack or carry-on on those type of flights allows you to take it with you in the cabin.
February 27th, 2023 at 8:57 PM ^
February 27th, 2023 at 4:22 PM ^
I have a Delta and Amtrak credit card. I am hoping to visit Europe on my points.
February 27th, 2023 at 5:15 PM ^
Delta's frequent flyer program has pretty weak value. Much better off getting a travel card from Chase or Amex with transferrable points.
February 27th, 2023 at 7:52 PM ^
This.
+1.
My wife travels about once a month for work for a couple of days... so not a lot compared to road warriors with status and are in multiple cities EVERY week.
Anyway... I'm stunned how easy it is to earn award travel with Chase. In the last 6 months we've been to Vancouver, back to Michigan for the holidays, and Turks and Caicos and every single flight was paid for with her points. <-- I'm gold or better on UA, AA, and DL and couldn't have done the same with all the miles I racked up.
February 28th, 2023 at 9:40 PM ^
Yep. Booked a round trip flight to London using 45k United miles (transferred via Chase) and a round trip flight to Madrid for 44k Iberia miles (transferred via Amex). Delta was like 150-200k miles for flights on the same days.
Benefit of racking up Chase & Amex points is you can transfer to multiple airlines AND hotels so you’re not stuck with one airline and risk having the points devalued while they sit unused. Chase’s transfer partner Hyatt provides a ton of value: I booked hotels in excellent locations for Iowa City & Indy for Michigan games last fall for 6-8k points a night while cash rates were going for like $300 a night.