Travel Agents Price Matching on Airfare/Flights

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  bobbified on 24/04/2023 - 18:23

  Why are you still using travel agents? Especially if booking with the airline direct is the cheapest.

  When it comes to changes to bookings, they usually have additional fees and it might be a nightmare to contact them.

  • 

    cookie2 on 25/04/2023 - 07:37

    Myself, never. But I imagine that some ppl still like the peace of mind of someone helping them if shit hits the fan or they need to modify bookings. I know a few older people that will continue to have a travel agent they book with and face to face. Not everyone likes to research themselves and not everyone trusts themselves to plan it all correctly. A TA will help guide on visas, passport expiry, insurance etc and can be useful for complicated bookings/circumstances without having to wait on hold for long periods to discuss with airlines directly.
    But price matching with a TA will remove much of the potential service perks anyway as you'd have no value to them (unless a juicy change fee during your journey).

    • 

      bobbified on 25/04/2023 - 21:31

      Definitely agree with you that TAs can be useful when booking some complicated mulit-leg flights.

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    poormansfriedchicken on 25/04/2023 - 21:13

    I have sometimes find that booking direct with the airline is a bit more expensive than booking through a third party agent. Indeed making changes to the booking becomes a nightmare especially if its not booked direct but if all things go to plan booking through a travel agent usually saves me atleast 10%.

    • 

      bobbified on 25/04/2023 - 21:38

      I've found that sometimes it's cheaper to book through a third party too. Websites like Webjet, etc often have their service/booking fees that don't appear until the end of the booking process that eats into the potential "savings". If there's any chance that there could be a change in plans (that require a change in flights), I'm more than happy to pay the extra that the airline charges because a single change fee with the TA could offset any savings originally had. That's just me - like cookie2 mentioned above, some people prefer to not go through the whole process of researching flights etc, so there's still a market for the TAs at the moment.

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  Trance N Dance on 24/04/2023 - 18:24

  +4

  Ever since airlines slashed commissions to travel agents, no one would really price match anymore. There's no more leeway in profits to absorb price matching. If anything travel agents are re-introducing agent fees to cover the loss in commission.