Hi ozb. I am planning a big europe holiday for next year and just want to get some advice on whether it is better to book directly online or use a travel agent such as flight centre. I've never actually used flight centre before however I can get $100 voucher for free (have to wait till jan I think) from this promo (http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/86065) if I spend $1000+. Any thoughts/suggestions would be great
Flight Centre or Online for booking Europe holiday
L2pro4sho on 28/11/2012 - 18:18
Comments
Use expedia.com.au to check flight prices, but there are a lot of these types of sites with different currency used. If you booking with 28 degrees card you can take advantage of the currency difference, for example I used priceline.com at USD to get cheaper rates.
I generally find booking.com very good for hotels. Check airbnb.com too if you can stand not staying in hotels.
Remember to use starthere.com.au for cash rebate using expedia.com.au
Have fun!
I have just come back from a holiday to Hong Kong I booked with Flight Centre. They matched the price I got online, and gave us a whole !!dollar less. We were pleased with it, only thing is we paid by cash as there is a percentage increase paying with credit cards. This meant that we could not use our travel insurance covered by the platinum card. But the price we got online was much better than their price so it worked out about the same . We had the advantage of going to an office to do all the negotiations, and in case of any problems can talk face to face.
I think you should search online and then see if Flight Centre can match it. I have had some pretty mediocre to bad experiences with travel agents so they are not my first port of call. (fyi overcharged, refusal to match prices, renigging on price advertised) I also would consider if you are adding tours etc they are often cheaper online than by the agent. So even if you did end up booking flights with the aagent you might find cheaper accomodation or sightseeing/tours online. Mix and match if that gets you the best overall price. Good luck with your planning and I hope you have a great trip.
Online bookings fall into two categories, online agents and direct with supplier (airline or hotel or tour company). Online agents don't have any advantage over other agents, as far as the traveller is concerned, and only remove the human contact element. Direct supplier bookings may sometimes (certainly not alwasys) have advantages in terms of price but also have disadvantages in that 90% of bookings made this way are "instant purchase / non-refundable". The ability to self book was not created for your advantage it was for their advantage and a significant amount of airline revenue is now generated from cancel and change fees. Most airline ticketing through agents is not done via the airline, its through the IATA BSP system. This means in effect the "ticketing time limits" are not the same as airline direct bookings and in most cases seats can be booked and held for 24/48/72 hours or longer in some cases before payment needs to be completed and tickets issued. This gives time to piece other parts of an itinerary together as often various elements are contingent on others.
And flight centre is certainly not the only travel agent available, just the most well known. There are many other niche agents who know certain products // areas // experiences // etc .. really well and can give valuable advice.
If you decide to self book make sure you read the terms and conditions, we know that most people don't, and many complaints come from not knowing the terms and conditions agreed to.
There are many pros and cons for and against various booking channels and I could write a 10,000 page book and only cover part of it. Whatever you do, research in advance, ask questions, and read the fine print. And one final thing to consider, the total price of everything including time, convenience, comfort, hidden or unthought of costs (and benefits) and risk. The lowest base upfront price may not produce the best value overall.
(disclaimer - I am a travel industry professional)
Last couple of overseas trips (and not something simple like Bali) I did my own airline bookings. Worked fine. I've always arranged my own accommodation and insurance anyway so there wasn't much for a travel agent to do.
A travel agent is useful for holding a booking while they check if a connecting flight is available. If you do this yourself you have to bear the risk of having committed to one flight when another has fallen through. So you need a bit of slack in your schedule for safety. Something similar but less serious applies to accommodation.
I always book all my trips myself. I like to be in control of everything I do, where I sit on the plane, what airline etc, so for me it's a no brainer. I spent three months travelling Europe a couple of years ago and booked all my own accommodation, flights etc and didn't have a single hiccup along the way :-)
Thanks very much for the advice everyone, much appreciated
Online booking.
Travel insurance online (eg. Travel Insurance Direct).
In my last few overseas trips, Flight Centre weren't able to price match the flights I could book myself.