10 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

I think this is the right forum for this question... 8)

Does anyone have advice on travel agencies in town? I'm looking for low price over anything, and preferably an agency that doesn't specialize in deals for students.

Thanks

[Holden West]

I've found TravelCuts to be rather expensive.

I'm old school and shy away from buying tickets online.

All agents generally have the same access to the latest info, so it's a matter of finding a creative agent who can figure out the best airfare. For instance, for me dates and destination are somewhat flexible so there's a lot of leeway there. Like Frankfurt is usually a lot cheaper to fly into than Rome or Paris.

My technique is to go into an agency and make a B-line for the desk with the oldest looking agent. Unfortunately, the last time I tried this I was intercepted by Miss Junior Trainee who merely quoted me the current cheap fares from the fax machine. Thankfully, an experienced veteran agent came by and with a few creative twists of dates and destinations managed to pull an cheaper airfare out of the computer.

[Mike K.]

So that's how it works!

Thanks, Holden.

[rayne_k]

I'll buy online for domestic flights, but I'm nervous about international tickets so this is my technique:

1) Look up best fares online - 2) write down all the information (airline, departure times,stops, flight numbers, etc). 3) go to a travel agency and see if they can get me the exact same deal. I've used the Flight Centre and the downtown Travelcuts (which has a very affordable cancellation insurance policy).

Of course this is flights-only. I like making my own arrangements, so I'm not in the market for all-arrangements-travel agents, just cheap-ticket agents.

[Holden West]

This is a good how-to guide from the NY Times on buying airfares online.

[G-Man]

Never had an issue buying international destinations online and so far not many issues booking hotels online either. Just use reputable websites.

[piltdownman]

I like Orbitz for booking flights, because they also have the charter flights. Sure you might end up on a foreign tourist flight where the movies aren't in English, but often you will save a bundle. Kayak is a multi site search which works pretty well. For hotels I almost always use Hotwire which is great, except you don't know the exact hotel. I'm told that hotwire is so cheap because their cut is really low. For example if you book the Grand Pacific through Expedia, that website takes 30%, where as hotwire only takes 5%. Another thing you can always do with hotels is call the hotel. So if you see a deal on some website, call and quote that price. Now if they are willing to give you that, then ask for the "pay now rate". Normally they will knock 5-10% off, if you pay on booking as non refundable.

[Holden West]

Very interesting feature from the Times blogs on how little store-front travel agencies routinely beat the web sites on complex international routes.

The trick is to find the little agencies the immigrants use, not the fancy mall agencies that specialize in resorts and cruises.

I first tried Travelocity, which gave me an astonishingly high $2,923 round-trip fare to Dubrovnik. Orbitz came up with $1,313, and allowed me to sort the results by travel time, a nice touch. Kayak’s price, $1,008, was better; Vayama — which frustratingly doesn’t add up total trip time — came up with $862; and Expedia, after much shuffling of dates, was the online winner with a quote of $798.

Then I called Pan Adriatic Travel, a Croatian-owned agency in Astoria, Queens[...]His fare: $480, taxes included. That’s 40 percent off the cheapest online flight I had found.
[...]
A clue you’ve come to the right place: the Web site looks as if it were designed a decade ago, does not have online searching, and directs you to call a phone number associated with a real address. It’s possible you may run into language issues, but every spot I tried had solid English speakers.

[jklymak]

^ was that blog post made before or after the flight was successfully completed? ;-)

[Mike K.]

Right

[maniac78]

Google airline consolidators. There's good info on flyertalk.com about the various ones.