[hoops330]

Does anyone still travel using a travel agent? What benefits are there in doing so? What can I travel agent do for me that I couldn't do myself?

[Gringo]

Do things yourself, the internet is a wonderful thing. Independent travel is the only way to travel.

[thegmanifesto]

I would rather just pay someone to figure it out for me.

I have posted on here before looking for one and nobody came up with anyone I remember.

Anyone have one?

To answer your questions:

"What benefits are there in doing so?"

The greatest benefit of all: Time

"What can I travel agent do for me that I couldn't do myself?"

Save you time.

[Gringo]

Where's the fun in paying someone to figure it out for you. Planning trips is half the fun.

Anyone have what, G?

If you pay travel agents to arrange your trip for you then you'll pay much more than you need to and have less flexibility. Makes no sense considering how cheap and easy it is to do it all over the internet these days.

[thegmanifesto]

"Where's the fun in paying someone to figure it out for you. Planning trips is half the fun."

I can't stand planning trips. The fun for me is doing.

Hell, I would pay someone to pack my bags if I could find someone.

"Anyone have what, G?"

A Travel agent.

[mikeymike]

I'm with G, I have a destination in mind let the expert work out the details, it's their job. I also like the flexibility of knowing wherever I am I can just call my agent say change this and they'll take care of the details instead of me trying to scrape around and call hotels, airlines. Most of the time the price difference isn't really a premium anyway, it's very close to what I find online and if you trust your agents advice they'll know your tastes etc so you don't have to dig around travel advisor and sites like that for ratings, blah. Boils down to convenience and as G said, time, you can buy anything but time.

[Gringo]

We obviously do very different types of trips, mines are all about independent travel, nothing booked in advance, no real solid plans and longer term of 3 months mimimum. A travel agent would be the last thing I needed / wanted.

[mikeymike]

(04-24-2011 03:18 PM)Gringo Wrote:  

We obviously do very different types of trips, mines are all about independent travel, nothing booked in advance, no real solid plans and longer term of 3 months mimimum. A travel agent would be the last thing I needed / wanted.

valid point, my trips usually have time constraints so time is really an issue, any time wasted is time I'm not enjoying my trip. At this point I don't have the luxury of the 3+ month trips so maybe it would make an agent less useful if you're able to flex a day here or there

[oldnemesis]

(04-23-2011 11:16 PM)hoops330 Wrote:  

Does anyone still travel using a travel agent? What benefits are there in doing so? What can I travel agent do for me that I couldn't do myself?

- If you book a multi-city trip with missing legs (for example, you want to use a low-cost airline for some of legs), your options on traveling sites will be very limited. An agent would do a better job here.

- Agents may have access to more than one booking system - not just Sabre/Amadeus. This becomes extremely important when you plan traveling through Eastern Europe or Russia. Only few Russian carriers are on Kayak.

- Sometime agents have better prices, or have tickets available while nothing is available online. This is typically the case only with large agencies who work with airlines and reserve seats.

For regular roundtrips between US and Europe/Asia agent is definitely not necessary.

[The_CEO]

(04-24-2011 03:18 PM)Gringo Wrote:  

We obviously do very different types of trips, mines are all about independent travel, nothing booked in advance, no real solid plans and longer term of 3 months mimimum. A travel agent would be the last thing I needed / wanted.

Gmanfesto rolls to the gym in a suit while smoking a cigarette so i think he does different types of trips than anybody.

[The_CEO]

it's a really nice experience to have all arrangements taken care of by a travel agent, not to mention a car/driver waiting when you arrive at your destination.