The way travel agents make money has morphed in the last decade away from commissions on flights. I still book my plane tickets to Europe with a living, breathing travel agent for whom I’m very thankful. Who else still uses a travel agent? Why? For what? And, when it comes to getting a ticket from the USA to Europe, what tips do you have for scoring the best fares? How about tickets for flying within Europe?
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I use a travel agent because her experience allows her to do in 20 minutes what it take me hours to do. She finds tickets cheaper than I do, knows the airports and thinks of less obvious alternative routes.
Haven’t used a travel agent in over a decade. Planning the trip is part of the fun for me, but since I’m retired I have the time available.
For travel to Europe, if I’m not using FF miles, I start with sites like kayak and airfarewatchdog, and then check consolidator sites like onetravel, and individual airlines like Virgin and Icelandair. I pay close attention to connection times, and I won’t take a routing with more than one connection, even if it means I spend a couple of nights or so in New York or Washington to break up the trip.
For flights within Europe I use whichbudget and skyscanner, and check the budget airlines directly, along with checking Lonely Planet to see if there are additional, new, airlines for out-of-the-way destinations. I’ve been finding lately that “budget” airlines can be more expensive than national carriers once you factor in one checked bag and the (infuriating) fee for paying with a credit card. TAP easily beat out Easyjet for flights involving Portugal on a recent trip.
Most of the time I book on my own but when I want a “package vacation” meaning a hotel and airfare I use an agent and the internet. Agents have always been able to match any internet package and I have the comfort of dealing with a real live person. Most of my European travel has been done with a fantastic tour operator, Astrid Baur of European Castles Tours. She has the “Rick Steves” philosophy and we have enjoyed all 4 tours we took with her.
I use a travel agent except for trips using frequent flyer miles. I have gotten deals as good as those from online only sites. And in these days when there is little flexibility in the travel system, an agent can straighten out problems and help with rerouting far easier than you can on your own. A good agent is well worth it.
I’d rather pay more and have somebody else do the work and provide the back up services – the only reason I once took a Rick Steves tour. Lucky me. Of course there are those who have more time than money and I admire their approach greatly. I’ve done it both ways and prefer an intermediary. In a perfect world, somebody would pick me up at my door and wake me upon arrival at my destination. Getting there has never been fun for me no matter how luxurious the travel (ugh) arrangements.
I always use a travel agent unless I have to do my own because I’m using miles for part of the fare. I thoroughly enjoy planning all other parts of my trip; in fact I probably over plan, but there is so much I want to do. I do my hotels, tours, daily plans, etc. That’s where I like to spend time. To me having a travel agent find my ticket is worth the extra money.
Sites like HereStay.com have made much of the travel agent’s duties redundant. I can compare for the best vacation home rental, get free airline reward miles, and book my trip online…so why pay someone else to do it for me?
My experience is that travel agents don’t want to be bothered with booking airfares for me unless it involves a package deal (i.e., hotels, tours, etc.). I’ve been researching and booking my own airfares for years. Many of my friends come to me as their travel agent, since I enjoy researching and finding the best deals. I usually start my search by getting an idea of the “going price” on one of the big travel sites, and go searching on my own from there.
My wife and I travel to Europe in the summer. Every year beginning in February I begin to research fares. I use expedia, travelocity, and orbitz, but I also go right onto the website of the airlines that fly into the country and look at their fares every single day until I find a deal which may take a month. Kayak also gives information.
We often find that Aer Lingus has the cheapest flights and our layover is usually less than two hours for a connecting flight. While in Europe we fly Ryan Air, Easy Jet, and other cut-rate airlines. To find them, I go onto the website of the airport we are flying into while in Europe. I find out which airlines go there from the destination we will be flying from and research their prices. We flew between Scandinavian countries last summer for incredibly low rates.
I am very surprised to see so many people still using travel agents in the days of online booking and fare promotions.
I am happy to say I have never used a travel agent and am confident enough to state that I have always found the most affordable fare for my trips to, from and within Europe.
I think anyone with a realistic understanding of what fares to and from Europe cost AND who know what their own airfare ‘allowance’ is can easily find the best fares from the US to Europe on their own.
I think you should keep the explanations of High, Low, and shoulder seasons in your book and explain what typical fares (using past dates) are during these times. You should also include a step by step run down of how to find affordable fares from the US Europe – one way, round trip, open-jaws. This will allow readers to see it is possible to find those fares, and if they are so inclined,to do it themselves. The following is how I look for my own fares and how I advise past students and my family to look for theirs:
1. Know what time of year you will be flying: High, Shoulder, Low. Know that high season is more expensive, etc.
2. Know how many days you will be traveling from and whether or not your departure dates (on both ends of trip) are flexible.
3. Determine which airport (s) you could fly out of. Sometimes it is cheaper to fly from your town into a larger US City and fly from that City’s airport to Europe. Keeping this in mind can help you save money on your flights. Also, if you live near a major Canadian City and don’t mind driving there to fly out of, look into flights from/to that city – especially if you are traveling to the UK: flights to London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, etc. are typically much cheaper from Canada than from the US. I live in Buffalo and ALWAYS fly out of/into Toronto – it’s an hour drive, but a big savings for me.
4. Do a quick search for you trip dates on a service like Travelocity, Kayak, Experdia, etc. THESE ARE NOT where you buy the tickets. These are simply the sites you use to get a “good” idea of what it costs to get to/from Europe and which airlines fly there from your airport. NOTE: not all airlines available will list on these types of sites.
5. Now go to these airlines specific sites and look up your dates. Are they cheaper than the Aggregate sites (typically they are)? ALWAYS pay attention to small print and extra fees: does airline charge for baggage etc.? Bookmark the cheapest 2-3 & write down the prices.
6. OPTIONAL: Go to your airport of choice’s website to see if they display which airlines fly from / to Europe. Using this info go directly to these airlines’ websites for pricing on fares.
7. Compare airline prices for the most affordable (and with the most ticket flexibility if necessary). At this point if the fare is within your budget: BUY IT and forget about buyer’s remorse. Know that no matter when you buy, a better fare will appear. However if you wait, those lower fares never show up :)
8. IF YOU HAVE TIME before your trip (3-6 months): Hold off on buying IF YOU CAN HANDLE THE RISK OF FARES POSSIBLY GOING UP, and check your shortlist of airlines twice weekly until a specified cut off point. Have any fares dropped? Have any airlines offered promotions or sales? If fares drop during this time to within or below your budget: BUY TICKETS NOW and forget buyer’s remorse!
As far as flying within Europe, I think it makes a lot more sense these days than when I first went to Europe. Fares are dirt cheap and flying is “quick”. When I need to find fares witihn Europe I typically do a quick Google search for airlines that fly within Europe to see what my airline options are (some companies go bankrupt etc.) and then head over to skyscanner to get an overview of what prices I’m looking at. Once I have that figure in mind, I go to the individual airlines’ websites for (typically) better pricing. Plus most Intra-Europe airlines will have a map of where they fly to so this could help in the planning process a bit too. I typically follow the same process for air-travel within Europe as I do for my international flights. HOWEVER, when flying within Europe it’s absolutely essential that you be traveling light (ie 1 bag within certain weight restrictions) or you will find yourself paying double, triple or more than your original fare for baggage costs. Once you find an affordable fare for your journey BUY IT. I find that these low-cost airlines don’t typically have TOO much fluctuation in price from week to week but sometimes still do $1 ticket promos. It’s also worth noting that although flying is much faster than taking a train to your destination, the added cost of getting to / from the airport to the city center AND the added time going through security and waiting to board/unboard your flight could take almost as long as a train trip. My rule of thumb is this: Fly if the train tip is over 4 hours (assuming costs are comparable). Anything under 4 hours is typically a wash.
Even in the internet era, I still like to use a “living, breathing” Travel Agent for some things including booking flights to Europe, and like you I’m also thankful for her expertise.
During the trip planning process I typically search for the best flight options, using Expedia, Travelocity, Hipmunk or other search sites. I always double-check the information and prices using the airline websites. When I’ve found the best flight combination for time, cost and number of flights, I ask the Travel Agent book them (in my case, trips to Europe usually involve 2 -3 flights). I usually purchase my travel medical and other insurance at the same time, arrange rental car booking (if I plan on renting a car) and renew my I.D.P.
Although I usually spend many hours researching flights to find what I think is the best deal, the Travel Agent is often able to find a slightly better price or a better combination of connections. For residents of B.C, one benefit of using a T.A. is that flights purchased through a licensed Agency are covered by a mandatory Travel Insurance fund. If there are any “issues” such as the airline going bankrupt, it’s relatively easy to get a refund. That type of thing DOES happen on occasion (anyone remember ZOOM?) and could certainly happen again given the current financial pressures being faced by the airlines. It’s also important to me that I have someone to call for assistance if any flight problems occur when I’m in Europe, so I don’t mind paying a reasonable “service fee”.
For shorter domestic flights and European budget airlines, I always book directly using the airline websites. As these flights are typically very low cost, I don’t feel that it’s worthwhile to pay a service fee for those. However with flights to Europe, considerably more money is involved, so that’s a different situation (the air fares for my 2011 flights were $2000+).
I’ve found that one of the best ways to get a low fare with budget airlines in Europe is to book EARLY. They often seem to use a “sliding scale” with prices increasing as the flight fills, so booking early is the best way to get a cheap fare. However, I’m resigned to the fact that the price will ALWAYS be higher than advertised, once “fees” have been added. On my 2011 trip, I had to pay a €16 surcharge for the “privilege” of using a credit card with a North American financial institution, when booking a flight with a European budget airline.
One other point to mention regarding European budget airlines. I always know that I’ll be checking luggage with every flight, so I make sure that I pay for that during the booking process. I have a fairly clear idea what my main Pack weighs, so I use that as a guide and pay for the next higher weight tier. Even though I might be paying a bit more than necessary, it’s considerably more expensive if paying luggage charges at check-in time!
Craig Campbell has said what I wanted to say better than I would have said it. One difference is that I don’t fly within Europe. I try to stick within a relatively small area that is easily accessible by ground public transportation.
I love traveling by train and use that time to write in my journal. I do not want to spend my European vacation time going through slow and intrusive security procedures to take a cramped flight.
Keep pushing open-jaw flights, Rick, the biggest money and time saving hint there is. Too many people fly round-trip to London and make twice as many cross channel journeys than they need to.
For some guidance and information on longer flights, different costs, and sometimes specials it is easier to go through a Travel Agent. However, I have also use websites directly for American, Delta and United and had no problem in searching for a flight that I liked and an amount that was reasonable. However, in saying this, I left for Europe this last March for 1 1/2 months but had to start looking in Sept. But I also used Orbitz, Travelocity, and search engines to get an ideas where the least costly flight would be. So in other words, us whatever makes you comfortable and takes the least amount of time.
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I like to use hipmonk to check on prices and have found that orbitz can match most fares without the fees.
the last time I tried to use a agent I beat their best price be several hundred dollars per ticket on the same trip from the same cities on the same day.
We recently used a travel agent for our planned trip to Italy. She was willing to do however much we wanted, e.g., flights only, train travel, accommodation, museum tickets. We had her book flights as she had access to better prices than we could find online. She was also able to give us some good advice about where to fly into/out of to reduce transfers and to get us in and out of places at reasonable times of day. We did not use her for booking accommodation as the travel agency uses major hotels only and prices were high. We were also interested in staying places outside the major cities as well and it was fun to search for places to stay.
Dorothy