Can travel agents offer better fares than booking directly with airline?
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Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Can travel agents offer better fares than booking directly with airline?
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Can travel agents offer better fares than booking directly with airline?
mnc
mnc
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 06 Aug 2017
Total posts 38
ajstubbs
ajstubbs
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 15 Mar 2016
Total posts 117
Unless it’s a contract fare, or a special partnership arrangement, the answer is almost always no. I have access to some special rates and occasionally contact travel agents just to see. Almost always, their rate is the same as through the airline and sometimes more.
Phil Young
Phil Young
Qantas
Member since 22 Oct 2012
Total posts 259
My understanding is that airline commissions to travel agents are miserable, like about 5% for international, and zero for domestic bookings. TA's make their profits mostly on their other products and bookings, eg 40% on travel insurance.
henrus
henrus
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 23 Oct 2013
Total posts 765
Every airline has a different policy and most are online.
Andrew Barkery
Andrew Barkery
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 21 Mar 2011
Total posts 433
You can save the credit card surcharge if you take funds out of an ATM in a shopping centre and then go to the Asian travel agency and pay them cash.
StuParr
StuParr
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 01 Mar 2012
Total posts 204
It depends, I use a specialist agency who maintains corporate agreements with a Uni I used to work for. They are happy to offer them for leisure travel and even now when I don’t work for the Iniversity anymore. I regularly get quite a good discount but only for certain airlines.
Ourmanin
Ourmanin
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
Member since 08 Jun 2018
Total posts 144
Just remember that you do get an element of protection if you pay with a Credit Card, that you don't get if you pay with Cash or a Debit Card. I would personally never use cash (or if I did only to a company I had used many times and trusted completely). In extremis, should the agent go bust and there is a problem with the booking, like it hasn't actually be made (and yes this has happened before) if you paid with cash you can whistle for you money, if you used your Credit Card, it essentially becomes the Card providers problem and you get you r money back. Hopefully we soon see the changes here that have recently occurred in the UK which outlaw card surcharges.
Dredgy
Dredgy
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 02 Apr 2017
Total posts 182
Usually no, but it does happen.
Exception for me has been RTW flights - Roundabout Travel consistently beats anything I've been able to do myself.
GBRGB
GBRGB
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 21 Jan 2014
Total posts 295
Sometimes, people at our golf club just booked a golf holiday, mostly business class fares through Asia, welll under anything they could find online, even compared to the same airlines they eventually booked with, all foreign carriers.
X
X
British Airways - Executive Club
Member since 24 Jan 2012
Total posts 87
From a technical side there are a few different fare types:
Clancy
Clancy
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 31 Jan 2016
Total posts 79
Presently working for a large organisation and the price for domestic is the same on-line direct or through travel agency which has the contract with us, but they then add their fees...
Warrior
Warrior
Member since 06 Apr 2018
Total posts 7
Not all fares are available on the airline website. I recently booked a simple return ticket to Europe on mixed airlines. None of the participating airlines offered the low fare on their own websites so I had to book with an online travel agent.
Bob Burgess
Bob Burgess
Member since 13 Sep 2016
Total posts 49
lafleche
lafleche
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 08 Jun 2016
Total posts 24
Just remember that you do get an element of protection if you pay with a Credit Card, that you don't get if you pay with Cash or a Debit Card. I would personally never use cash (or if I did only to a company I had used many times and trusted completely). In extremis, should the agent go bust and there is a problem with the booking, like it hasn't actually be made (and yes this has happened before) if you paid with cash you can whistle for you money, if you used your Credit Card, it essentially becomes the Card providers problem and you get you r money back. Hopefully we soon see the changes here that have recently occurred in the UK which outlaw card surcharges.
and furthermore, you may also have travel insurance when you pay for your ticket with your card - depending on which type of course. I'd never pay cash for a ticket.
theduk
theduk
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 05 Sep 2014
Total posts 2
I've found no differences in general between online booking yourself & using an agent. In some cases, actually got better deals online myself than through agents. I recently went through this for a RTW fare & got an online price through OneWorld several hundred dollars per pax better than the agent. And the agent said they get very little comms from the airlines, with some of the European carriers paying nothing at all.