on-line booking engines $56 more per ticket on average for 2007
I always get the question why should I use an agent versus book on line. I have always had an idea why but not really known how to put it into words. I have seen the big discrepancies in price with online booking sites versus what we can find as agents as well I have seen numerous times where hotels are sold out yet they erroneously show rooms available on various sites. The other gotcha with the internet is when you have a problem who are you going to call? Do you really have an extra hour or 2 to sit on the phone and be transferred only to be told no?
Having said that, we do have a booking engine. The great benefit of ours is that a live person goes through each booking and looks for better fares and options before ticketing what has been purchased on-line If we find something better we will call the client to offer them the other option
Recently I had a client that her father was diagnosed with leukemia. She made one phone call to us that lasted a minute and by the next day we were able to get a waiver and change the name on her fathers ticket so someone could accompany her. I wonder how that would have gone if she would have booked with the airline directly or one of the online sites? Now days you usually talk to someone in India or the Philippines when you call the airlines. Getting them to understand you can be difficult at times let alone getting them to change a name would be next to impossible. The airlines just don’t do name changes unless you know who to talk to.
Trent –Velocity Tours and Travel 801-296-8687
Since 2001, Topaz International has conducted comparative studies of corporate travel airfares between actual corporate travel agency booked itineraries and various public internet sites, including Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity and airline direct websites. During the most recent results from 2006, Topaz found that business travel itineraries booked by a designated corporate travel agency averaged $75 less than the same itinerary booked on a public internet site, one of the largest margins since 2002. In addition, the average agency fare and average internet fare were the highest they have been since 2002.
Business Travel Comparisons
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Average Agency Fare |
Average Internet Fare |
Differenc
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YEAR AGENCY FARE // INTERNET FARE // DIFFERENCE
2001 $458 // $629 // $171
2002 $594 // $748 // $154
2003 $503 // $572 // $69
2004 $478 // $558 // $80
2005 $427 // $483 // $56
2006 $508 // $583 // $75
2007 $442 // $498 // $56