Article: Is a Travel Agent Renaissance Coming?

[AFF Editor]

Is a Travel Agent Renaissance Coming? is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Is a Travel Agent Renaissance Coming?

The coronavirus pandemic has sadly forced many bricks-and-mortar travel agencies to close, putting many skilled travel agents out of jobs. To make matters

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Archipelago]

This comment may not be relevant to AFF members in Australia - but as an AFF Australian expat overseas - yes.
There is definitely a move back to using qualified/credible travel agents.
For countries such as in the region where I am (SE Asia) - online flight aggregators are no longer reliable. Too many reports of flights showing up on the usual flight aggregators - that when booked - turn out to have never been scheduled, or have later been cancelled.
As per the article linked by Matt - Ghost flights have been far too prevalent in the past year, and continue to be.
Even booking direct with airlines (for regional flights) - I see far too often that the country regulatory authorities had never approved the flights - the airlines had posted them in anticipation of the routes re-opening without any guarantee. Leaving the passenger picking up the pieces
Travel agents have been coming back to the mix. (and this is from someone who used to book all of their flights online)

 

[drron]

We will continue to use our travel agent for quite a few things. We have always booked RTW,Circle airfares plus the BA return BKK when on special.There has been no price advantage booking direct. That will change but from experience when things go pear shaped the TA is invaluable.
Three examples stand out.
Qantas grounding. We were due to fly to BKK on QFF 2 days after this was announced. We were in Sydney and had been out all day and hadn't heard the news. Got back to the hotel to see the news so immediately decided to email our TA. However there was already and email from our TA with the changed booking to BA.

Yellow shirts take over of BKK, We were scheduled to fly out on BA to BKK the day after.Added to that mrsdrron had fractured her patella that morning so glad to accept BAs offer of full refund. Previously on a non BA booking it took 3 months to get refund and TA warned it might be some time. money was back into our account in 3 days.

Belmond. When we travelled to Burma we got a Belmond package staying at their Yangon hotel and using their river cruise. There were several problems which we let Belmond and our TA know about. Belmond just said sorry and goodbye. Our TA then complained and $3000 compensation received.

We are well in front. But our TA is a private agency with extra benefits such as being a Virtuoso agent.

 

[henrus]

I'm going to start by saying no, I can't see a massive resurgence. Sure the private agencies might be popular but the run of the mill Flight Centre or Hello World (which makes up the bulk of the agencies) aren't going to help much and in my opinion might stuff your trip up even more then you'd hope.

Travel restrictions constantly change (even whilst on the trip) and no travel agent is going to spend excessive amounts of time constantly following and updating their clients on these changes unless there is something in it for them. As mentioned in the article airlines are further decreasing the amount of commission meaning they need to sell something else (tours/insurance etc) to actually make money.

I've got family into cruises and amazingly the local flight centre has been pushing and selling cruises throughout the pandemic despite no actual date. More recently I know someone flying from SYD-SIN, amazingly the work travel agency booked them on a non VTL flight meaning they weren't eligible to travel, amusingly they weren't alone at the airport showing up for the flight but being rejected. Had they booked direct with SQ they would have seen the numerous banners that appear about VTL flights on the website.

 

[Human]

My wife and I had a long-delayed European holiday over December and January and, yes, it was affected somewhat by COVID delays and cancellations. But the fact that we had a local inbound travel agent on the ground meant that the disruptions were minimal and stress free. The travel agent efficiently dealt with the rebooking, cancellations and itinerary changes.

I don’t always use travel agents, but at the moment until things settle down, they’re invaluable.

 

[justinbrett]

Because booking through travel agents usually renders self serve functions on the airline website inoperable, it's a hard no from me.

 

[jakeseven7]

God no haven’t used a travel agent since I was a student and got special student deals that had to be booked through a travel agent.

I can however see that for older or less confident flyers they would be helpful though.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I’m very experienced booking travel myself online. And I still sometimes do that for some simple point to point stuff.
But I have an amazing TA whose knowledge and ability far exceeds my capabilities and they do anything non-vanilla. Their service is something I could never replicate online.
Once you find the right person, no way you would it yourself.

 

[itchy feet]

Is a Travel Agent Renaissance Coming? is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Is a Travel Agent Renaissance Coming?

The coronavirus pandemic has sadly forced many bricks-and-mortar travel agencies to close, putting many skilled travel agents out of jobs. To make matters

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Even pre COVID I used an experienced travel agent. Their fees were a small price to pay for peace of mind when plans changed during my travels. Now (re)booking a Europe stop and agent found a route with reward seats we had no hope of finding ourselves.

 

[123tehehe]

Is a Travel Agent Renaissance Coming? is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Is a Travel Agent Renaissance Coming?

The coronavirus pandemic has sadly forced many bricks-and-mortar travel agencies to close, putting many skilled travel agents out of jobs. To make matters

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

During the major lockdowns of Covid I had to cancel several flights and accommodation. Those booked with travel agents caused the most issues. Working through an agent delayed the process, made it more complicated and ultimately cost me money as the agent kept their fee. I will never use a travel agent again. They provide little to no assistance, usually have less experience in managing issues than a FF and provide no material savings. Personally I hope this is one middle man industry we see gone for good.

 

[kookaburra75]

Because booking through travel agents usually renders self serve functions on the airline website inoperable, it's a hard no from me.

That's an issue for me, where I have to book through our work travel agent. Although, they do have a good 24 hour support centre and can make changes quicker, transfer flights and manage refunds better than I could. For my leisure travel, most of the time we book our own flights, but for something a bit more complex, or first time to a country, I use small specialist travel agents to save the worry.

 

[JessicaTam]

I am very happy to use a TA for the 'out of the ordinary' stuff. She has recently started asking for a small non-refundable fee as the airlines have slashed their commissions and her workload has gone up. A small price to pay for keeping someone with her skillset employed.

 

[drron]

During the major lockdowns of Covid I had to cancel several flights and accommodation. Those booked with travel agents caused the most issues. Working through an agent delayed the process, made it more complicated and ultimately cost me money as the agent kept their fee. I will never use a travel agent again. They provide little to no assistance, usually have less experience in managing issues than a FF and provide no material savings. Personally I hope this is one middle man industry we see gone for good.

Unfortunately you didn't use a good TA. My experience is the polar opposite to yours. Changes made before I was even aware of the cancellation. Whereas with those I have booked myself hours on hold,not ringing back when promised,no replies to website queries. Absolutely frustrating.
Give me a good TA. I actually use 2.

 

[Dalescott]

Booked a flight with Qatar to UK to see dying Father, but due to Covid it was cancelled, so Mrs Dalescott has a credit. Went to local Travel Agent and they politely informed us that they can not use Qatar credit ?? We would like to use the credit, but as we are looking at cruises in EU and touring UK. The TA is the safe option, but if we cant use the credit ?? why use the TA. Catch22 maybe, we will continue to talk with TA.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Booked a flight with Qatar to UK to see dying Father, but due to Covid it was cancelled, so Mrs Dalescott has a credit. Went to local Travel Agent and they politely informed us that they can not use Qatar credit ?? We would like to use the credit, but as we are looking at cruises in EU and touring UK. The TA is the safe option, but if we cant use the credit ?? why use the TA. Catch22 maybe, we will continue to talk with TA.

........ or maybe talk to a different TA.

 

[Hvr]

Yellow shirts take over of BKK,

I actually flew into BKK while this was underway and was due to fly to SYD on QF the next day.

I had booked the ticket directly with QF and a separate booking from SYD-CBR. This was one of QFs finest hours in how they looked after those of us stranded in Thailand, bussing us to HKT, flying us to SIN and then back to Australia.

No TA could have done what QF did for those of us on the ground. QF even honoured the SYD-CBR booking.

I appreciate both sides of the argument, but for me with less complex travel I am quite happy to book it myself.

And while there were delays, getting a refund from QF for COVID cancelled flights was a lot easier than through a TA.

 

[mrsterryn]

We had an amazing TA (actually through flight Centre) he was incredible. Knew what we liked. Excellent. However he went on long service leave (long time before covid ) and the quality of his replacement was horrendous. She actually cost us money.
Anyhoo by the time he came back we decided we would no longer use them
TAs have their place , sadly we don't know a decent one anymore.
As most of our flights are not big trips nowadays , I think booking our own flights is ok.

 

[JackMiles]

Would anyone like/be willing to recommend a particular travel agent? Especially one expert at RTW ticketing? (I imagine spruiking specific people or businesses might not be allowed in a forum post, but is it permissible via private message?)

 

[BCons]

Used to have a great TA, inherited from my dad who did a lot of 60's/80's biz flying. She invariably knew a bar, restaurant or hotel wherever we thought of going. But she retired around the time we could all start booking online for ourselves. Went thru a long period of booking direct, with all the consequences of sorting problems ourselves (usually OS and at night..)

But now very happy in current confused travel mkt to be using a TA again. Example; trying to add a side trip into a just-booked MEL/LHR, trip. Dealing direct with the airline we would just hv just bumped our return flts to later dates to make room, and bought separate tkts for side trip, but our TA was able to get a much better deal by incorporating the side trip into the orig booking. To get the same deal direct from the airline you'd need time, patience, seniority and a real good, real onside operator to get that sort of concession.

 

[RooFlyer]

Because booking through travel agents usually renders self serve functions on the airline website inoperable, it's a hard no from me.

I’ve used a TA for 15 or so years and never found that to be a problem. After the first flight you have total control of airline bookings ( or I do/have). And a good TA has 24/7 service where they can make changes ‘on demand’ and easier/ *quicker* than you can ( fancy waiting on Qantas’ STH Africa call centre while in Amsterdam?).

The trick is to find and then stick with a good TA who knows you and your preferences and if necessary, when a problem arises, can rebook you before you even know there is a problem.

Or do it yourself if you like.

Would anyone like/be willing to recommend a particular travel agent? Especially one expert at RTW ticketing? (I imagine spruiking specific people or businesses might not be allowed in a forum post, but is it permissible via private message?)

I’ll PM you