The death of travel agents.

[AlecWest]

Today, I learned a lesson. Fortunately, it only cost me about $5. But, it's a good thing to keep in mind.

I'm going to a mystery-related literature convention (Bouchercon) in Chicago later this summer. A few months ago, I checked round-trip airfares between Portland and Chicago -- and they all hovered at around $400. But, this was at a time before the last lull in oil prices ... and airfares usually follow the trend in crude-oil prices. So today, I decided to check ticket prices again. The convention's official travel agency, U.N. Travel in Philadelphia, wanted $306.90. CheapTickets.com wanted $297.00. Travelocity.com wanted $296.90. And Expedia.com wanted $296.88. So, I bought the ticket through Expedia. All tickets were for air travel on Frontier Airlines.

Then, I got an email from U.N. Travel telling me they couldn't beat the other airfares because airlines are no longer paying commissions to travel agents. That's when the realization hit me ... that Expedia is just another travel agent, too. So, I went to Frontier Airlines' website and, sure enough, saw that I could have bought the ticket direct from them for only $291.90.

As more and more airlines market tickets direct to consumers through in-house websites, and since they no longer pay travel agents a commission, this pretty much puts a nail in the coffin of the travel agency business ... offline or online. To some agencies, airfares were their lifeblood. And in the future, the only surviving travel agents will be those who've read the handwriting on the wall and specialize in "package deals" (air/hotel/car) or cruise deals that give them leverage. Even so, the "package deal" niche isn't being overlooked by savvy airlines either. So, the future of travel agencies doesn't look like it will be a rosy one.

BTW, with gas prices expected to reach all-time highs this summer (with jet fuel prices following suit), now would be a good time to book any kind of air travel you plan for later in the year. And if do buy airline tickets now, check the online sites for the cheap airlines first ... then go direct to the airline websites themselves to see if they can do better. You might save a buck or two (or five).

[MackemX]

this has always been the case with most things online (I've shopped online for a few years now) but it's not always true. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose going directly online to the source of whatever you want to purchase

I've booked 5 flights this year and firstly I got a good idea of the price range and then get a target to aim for. Most online services offer a telephone service so I will then ring up a few and eventually get a good deal. I do this as sometimes they can offer something cheaper than what is offered online to Joe Bloggs who just wants the simple one click approach

Sometimes it's direct from the service provider and sometimes it's not but it's best to shop around for a price and then start bartering by phone/email if you think you can get it cheaper 8). It all depends how bothered you can be as sometimes it's not worth the effort to save a few £'s

Car insurance is very similar also as you can play the pricing game too due to the range of quotes you canget

I've done this for years as my cars have always been high insurance groups so insurance isn't cheap. I've had some great deals in comparision to people I know but it's not always the cheaper option to go direct to the company. I ring AA insurance and they tell me it costs £450 to insurance my car but it's underwritten by Churchill (I think underwritten is the correct term ). So I then contact Churchill directly but they quote me £500. I tell Churchill that I can get it for £450 with them via AA. Sometimes they will match or at least get close enough to deal direct but at times they can't help

one reason they will charge more is because I'm just a little fish and they make very little from me if they take the business direct. AA will be sending them £1,000's of business so they get bulk discount to begin with. The other factor is most of the work behind the scenes is dealt with by AA and not Churchill

it's the same for most things. If you go direct you may or may not save but if you go to a bulk buyer who gets a discount, they may just be the cheaper solution than going to the supplier 8). It's all down to how bothered you can be to shop around to get the best deal at the time

[AlecWest]

it's the same for most things. If you go direct you may or may not save but if you go to a bulk buyer who gets a discount, they may just be the cheaper solution than going to the supplier 8). It's all down to how bothered you can be to shop around to get the best deal at the time

Could you mention a few bulk buyers, please. I know my ex (through friends) dealt with bulk brokers to get cheap tickets to the Philippines. But generally, you couldn't find them in the phone book. And online, is there a good way to tell the difference between an "agent" and a bulk-buying "broker?"

Online, I only know of two ... PriceLine & HotWire. But until I'm retired ... and as long as I have to be in a certain place at a certain time on a certain day, I can't buy from ticket sellers who won't disclose flight times to you until after you've purchased their non-refundable ticket.

[MackemX]

I'm in the UK so it's no real help giving you any sites as they were flights out of the UK only . I guess they are still classed as agents but they don't need to have such a great profit margin per sale due to the lost cost they get them for by supplying regular custom

I used to use Teletext years ago before I started using the net also as that also gave some good bargains on flights

who on earth makes you buy tickets before giving you the flight times?

[glockjs]

most of the bigger company's buy in bulk. of course they can't cover every single flight. all those online companys make money, where do u think that extra $5 came from. normal airfare they only get paid $.50 per booking.

there will always be travel agents. wherever there is something to sell you will always find a human.

[ViRaL1]

most of the bigger company's buy in bulk. of course they can't cover every single flight. all those online companys make money, where do u think that extra $5 came from. normal airfare they only get paid $.50 per booking.

there will always be travel agents. wherever there is something to sell you will always find a human.

Who's selling the cheap plastic rings in the plastic bubbles that you get out of the gumball machines? :P

[AlecWest]

who on earth makes you buy tickets before giving you the flight times?

It's standard operating procedure for PriceLine.com's "name your own price" fare and HotWire.com's "flexsaver" fare. They will not reveal the airline names or flight times until after you buy a non-refundable ticket from them. See the examples below:

From PriceLine.com:



From HotWire.com (read the last sentence at the bottom):



The funny part of all this is that neither PriceLine nor HotWire had the cheapest fare. The airline itself had the cheapest fare. Frontier Airlines (and others) no longer pay agent commissions ... and discounts are so deep now that bulk buyers don't find too many bargains.

[MackemX]

jeez, that's a bit daft isn't it and it also includes the chance of being stuck with a connection also

but isn't that because you can name your own price?

[AlecWest]

jeez, that's a bit daft isn't it and it also includes the chance of being stuck with a connection also

but isn't that because you can name your own price?

Well, the trick there (from personal experience) is that the price you name will never be accepted unless it's real close to what can be bought from an ordinary online seller ... the one exception being "last-minute" type tickets. But that can be risky. Sometimes if you wait till the "last-minute," there are no tickets to be had at any (reasonable) price.

BTW, those tickets I bought from Expedia for $296.88??? Two days later (yesterday), the price had jumped up by $60.00. Talk about timing (phew). I guess the airlines are finally feeling the pinch of the recent fuel price increases.