It pays to follow Rick's advice!

Thank you, Vernon. As a former travel agent I feel vindicated. Travel Agents sometimes get a bad wrap but I personally enjoyed my job very much and always challenged myself to get the best available fare for my client. Never mind which search engine/website you use for booking flights on the internet nothing beats the computers a travel agent use because it can do a lot more. Have a great trip!

My husband always does the preliminary research then contacts our AAA travel agent. She has saved us major $$$ and many headaches over the years.

I agree -- I always purchase my overseas tickets from a TA. Always get a good price.

Ken,

I've had the opposite experience. For years I used a travel agent to book all my business flights and was consistently amazed at the high cost of the tickets. We just changed to a system where I book my own flights. Now I can decide the best time to travel and whether it's worth the additional costs.

One of my former employers gave us travel dollars as a bonus to use through the company travel agency. Whenever I used my bonus, I found I had to do all the research myself then pay a service charge to the agency to book it.

If you have a great travel agent, they can probably contribute a lot. Many don't know nearly as much as I do and don't have much to offer.

Brad..I agree. I've never found TA's to be of much help. If you're internet challenged, elderly or new at the travel game perhaps..But on the rare occasions I've had to deal with them I find they're working inside a very small box. The solutions they've offered were terribly obvious ones. Solutions that they could create by the click of a mouse.

I'm not saying there arent any good ones, but for the most part I've never dealt with any capable of thinking outside the "fam trip", "
package deal" box.

I have to give a shout out to the travel agents too...on my VERY first trip to Europe - weather delayed our connection and we missed our flight to Frankfurt by 5 minutes. We were getting a run around from the airline (saying they were booked up for 3 days out) and finally I called my travel agent, who booked the original flight, and she fought the battle for us and got us on a flight the next day. Not only that, but she contacted our hotel in Italy to let them know we were going to be one day late so our reservation didn't get cancelled. I was a mental case and she took control and solved the issue.

Larson what is elderly?Im 70 and I can book my own trips but I use a travel agent after doing a lot of research my self.She usually does better and for 20.00 I found it is well worh it.Car rental she always does better then I could find.

First, for the ground part of my trip, I can book family run B&Bs from town websites in Germany for far less than a travel agent could book me. And I usually buy Länder-Tickets over there and online discount tickets cheaper than any agent could do.

The only part of the trip where a travel agent could "help" me might be with air travel.

A few years ago, I found and booked a pretty good flight to Germany on my own. Wondering if I had really made a good deal, I called a local travel agency and pretended I was still looking and asked them what they could find me. They came back with the same flight I had found but for more (including their commission, I think). They were so insistent that I book with them that I enventually had to admit that I had already booked, and was just comparing costs, and that they weren't competitive.

More recently, I was trying to find out about German Rails "Fly and Rail" program, which only seems to be available from a travel agent. I went to the same agency (different person, the other one had long ago retired). I was told that on top of the fare that they found, I would have to pay them a $50 commission.

Needless to say, I don't use travel agents.

Of course, I am retired and have more time than money. I have also been using computers for 45 years, so finding stuff on the internet doesn't intimidate me. For someone who is "cyber-challenged" or short on time, a TA might make sense.

I can't get over so many say you find good deals from and agent on airfare! I've been to many agents, and the air fare is way too high! Even the agent tells me I may find a better deal on my own online! So, I give up on travel agents here in Austin.

I've had no luck with an agent, either (once upon a time, I did, but that was a looooong time ago.)

I have talked to friends who travel to India or other Asian countries and they do get deals through agents. My coworker was able to play agents against each other for a better deal. Go figure!

I've used travel agents when I have a complex ticket or if there is potential for problems. They've been helpful in those types of situations. I've gotten a car for Europe from a travel agent, but I may try on my own next time. Pam

I have not had much luck with travel agents either. On my first trip to Europe (Italy), I went to a travel agent who told me I could likely get as good a deal myself online. She only had certain hotels she would book for me. When I asked her about booking a place in Lucca, she said she wasn't familiar enough to do that and I should do that on my own. Needless to say, I have done all of my travel planning - on my own since then. I did purchase a through Orbitz several months ago - to Italy. The ticketing airline was United partnered with AirOne. When AirOne joined with Alitalia, that alliance was void and my flight cancelled. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with orbitz, but eventually they were able to rebook my Itinerary - it would have been really nice to have a travel agent do that for me - that was incredibly frustrating!

There are good travel agents, and there are bad travel agents. If you find a good one, treat that person well because he/she can make your travel planning much easier. A bad one can make your life a nightmare. They're the ones who put their commission first over trying to get a long term client.

What shocks me is how many people here complain about sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc....uh folks....these are nothing more than online travel agencies. Only you don't get to deal with someone unless there's a problem. And then that can be a headache.

When you find a flight you want on these sites, why not then go directly to the airlines website where the price will probably be better.

"When you find a flight you want on these sites, why not then go directly to the airlines website where the price will probably be better."
Good point Frank. I do that fairly often right through the airlines, no middle man. I did get good deals that way also. I'm a fan of Expedia. I've used them many times, and they have been very helpful. I used Travelocity once, when I went to Salzburg. They were only okay.
I know a wonderful agent for cruises. But for now, I don't care to go on a cruise. I've been on two, and enjoyed it, but now I really love traveling on my own, by myself.

Hi ken, yes great travel agent advice. Using such has saved time and money from u.s. to europe, and all around europe. Rick's suggested agents in greece save me much trouble last year traveling around rhodes, patmos and samos while also finding great hotels. Good to say hi again, as we met at castle edmonds last month during alumni weekend.

My feelings are mixed. Ken, my wife and I happened to get caught up in the Zoom demise. In fact, I got the last Calgary to Gatwick flight! Imagine my dismay when I got an email the next morning with the news! However, we got all our money back from Visa whose card we had used. I checked with TA in Ireland they advised me to try elsewhere, as the prices they could get were exorbitant. I got a Canadian Affair flight out of Manchester home - via the Internet - and Visa, of course.

On the other hand, when I have booked cruises I have almost invariably got a better deal at the TA. But, when I told them I planned to use Canadian Affair to meet this year's cruise in Europe, they had never heard of it, and denied that Thomas Cook had planes, which they do and Canadian Affair uses them and Air Transat planes .... so?

Go with what you are comfortable with and enjoy your trip.

Iain,

Sorry to hear that you were one of those affected by the Zoom situation. I'm sure that caused a few "anxious moments", which is never pleasant during a holiday.

Your experiences with the Travel Agent not being aware that Thomas Cook offers flights is quite interesting and somewhat coincidental.

Prior to a trip I took to the U.K. in 2004, I was never aware that Thomas Cook had aircraft or offered flights. It was my Travel Agent that found the flights for me and booked open jaw flights (into Manchester, home from Gatwick).

I've also found that my Travel Agent has been able to get some good deals on car rentals, so I usually arrange that at the same time as flights (although I usually arrange domestic car rentals on my own).

My Travel Agency also offers insurance services (Insurance Brokers work in the same office), so I can take care of travel medical insurance at the same time(or baggage or trip cancellation if I decide to buy it for a particular trip). Nothing like "one stop shopping"! I may try getting an annual medical insurance policy this year, as it might be a bit less expensive than getting a policy for each trip.

Cheers!

I'm going to stake a middle-ground opinion here. My experience with travel agents for most of the heavily-touristed areas of Western Europe were not helpful. The "savings" and package deals they offered were for upper-tier hotels and sight-seeing plans that I would never book anyway. I have found over the years that staying at the mid-range establishments recommended by Rick and Lonely Planet and self-touring save far more money than any package deal can offer... and allow you get closer to the local culture.

But for some destinations, a good travel agent is invaluable. Russia and Serbia are two examples. Both have confusing, Byzantine and opaque entry laws requiring some on the ground know-how that the average traveler like me could never hope to fully comprehend. Leaving St. Petersburg by train for Vilnius, I will never forget the look of fear on the faces of a group of American travelers who were held up for not having the proper documentation. To this day, I don't know what happened to them.

In my opinion using a TA is "old fashion". I have never found a better deal at a TA than online. When I tried to book a flight last time thru a TA (many years ago) the return flight was way to expensive, something like $1500 from paris to Cleveland. I told the tarvel agent that I found a round trip flight for about $1100 and she couldn't believe it. I have her the flights number and she said she couldn't find them. Plus she was asking me when I wanted to travela nd I told her that it disn't matter, just find me a good deal and again she couldn't search.
This was happening when you could search for domestic and internationa flights on yahoo within a longer period of time, not just by a certain day.Now yahoo doesn't allow that anymore.
Also a travel agency charges you fees, which I don't agree to pay.
Now with the powerful internet you can get so many great deals.

Ken,

$3400 just for a return flight sounds out of the reality. Where was that flight from?

Sorry, there is little one could say that would change my preference to book and research my trips myself. I started this years ago after noticeing that the agents we used often suggest more expensive options as being the only options,, but I seemed to find deals that I would bring to them,, then all of a sudden they could find those deals too. I just cut out the middle man( ta's) .

I also use small hotels that most ta's do not even know about. They often promote bigger or worse, chain hotels. Its the products they know and often the hotels that pay them commision that they recommend...

An exception to not using an agent might be some very complicated trip to Asia or Africa,, but since I am not actually interested in those types of trips it doesn't apply to me.

Frank,

"What shocks me is how many people here complain about sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc....uh folks....these are nothing more than online travel agencies"
This is only partially true. I don't know about Orbitz, but Travelocity and many other web sites are consolidators type of agencies. They buy the tickets in bulk, so they get a higher discount than a non-internet travel agency.

Bea, the expensive return flight was from Milan back to my home area in Canada. Keep in mind that I was using a different airline for the inbound flight to Paris, so that's primarily the reason the cost was so high. I'm now using the same airline for both inbound and outbound open jaw flights and the cost is much more reasonable.

Also the expensive return flight required three different legs (I'm working with very specific dates and locations, so had to find something that accommodated that).

Cheers!

I've never gotten a better price on Travelocity than I've gotten on the airlines websites.

Travelocity is part of Sabre Holdings which used to be owned by American Airlines. They were spun off in 2000. (Sabre is also one of the larger reservation systems used by travel agents.)

Expedia is owned by the same company that owns Lending Tree, Match.com, hotels.com, citysearch and Home Shopping Network. (Barry Diller)

I went to a travel agent recently and she was supposed to call when she found a good deal. Well, she still hasn't called and a few weeks ago I found a really good deal to Germany and bought the tickets myself. She also told me she could book our hotel in Paris, the cheapest being about $300 per person a night.

Hello everybody, first post here. I have only ever contacted a travel agent a couple times, and they have never been able to get a price better (or really even close) to what I could get on my own. I have no objection to using their services, and I would be happy to pass on some of my money if I thought they could help.

Besides, part of the fun of the trip is in the preparation for it. I enjoy the searching for flights, making room reservations, deciding what to do each day, etc. Although on a long trip to europe it can quickly get overwhelming.

Kathleen, my point exactly about hotels in Paris, the tas seem to prefer to push only the expensive ones that pay them commisions, fair enough, they do need to earn a living, but the point is not everyone needs a ta to book a hotel for them, and if you do it on your own you can often get a much better price and more suitable product .

Al,most of us would agree with you that doing the research and planning is half the fun,, but I do realize that for some it would not be fun ,, or even possible( my own mother never used the internet, she didn't even own a computer, shocking , but true, LOL )
Forums like this one, as well as the many others out there, are very helpful, and you can always learn from them,, no matter how often one has been somewhere.

I only us TA's when booking cruises. I prefer to book my own transportation and lodging for European travel.

Getting in a little late here, but I must agree with Frank; You can get better prices by going direct to the airlines own website than any other site I,ve ever checked. Just booked two round trip flights Tulsa, Newark, Berlin for under $800 each. Every other site I checked was $100 more and the connections really sucked. I usually check prices then let my TA do the actual booking; sometimes he comes up with something even better.

Ash,

"I usually check prices then let my TA do the actual booking"

Absolutely! That's the same method I use and what I was referring to in my OP. My experience has been the same as you described, often the TA can find either a slightly better connection or a slightly better price.

Cheers!

And, it's nice to have someone to whom you can yell for help if all else fails when you encounter a problem like Amy from Madison. I don't mind my TA making a bit on the deal, because I have his mobile number and he knows I will call him regardless of whether it's day or night if I get really stuck.

The TA's I have contacted ie AAA etc. do not want to sell me air unless I buy a land package from them. Tried 2X once to Europe another to Bali. Guess I just can't find the right agents. They always said"oh just book your air online".

I like to do it online myself, I have found I can do better than what TAs can do for me.

I haven't used a travel agent in ten years, as the last one I used said that the free rental car that was included with our flights was "only valid in Great Britain".
We were flying into Heathrow and flying home from Glasgow.
She did not believe that Glasgow was in Great Britain, and I had to get her to look at an atlas to get my free car.
Yikes!
I do it all over the Intenet ever since, with great success.

ASh,, I think your travel agent must be the exception, in that I do not think most tas give their clients their cell numbers out.

personally I have never had any success with travel agents. The few I went to were horrible and didn't know anything. I personally do everything myself online.

I have read people have found great travel agents