There Are Lots Of Good Reasons To Make A Trip To A Travel Agent

I was planning a flight to Seattle a few months ago and the airline had already sold all the “cheap” seats, the ones you see in those splashy newspaper ads.

There were still plenty of higher-priced seats on the plane, though, so my travel agent called the airline reservation desk and persuaded them to “release” one of those seats to the cheaper category.

The result: a savings to me of about $40 on a one-way flight.

Most people don’t think travel agents can save them money. Many travelers, in fact, think the opposite - that it’s going to cost them money to use an agent.

So Spokane-area travel agents are trying to educate the public about what they do. They have formed the Inland Northwest Travel Agency Alliance, representing almost 30 agents, to spread the word.

Travel agents earn their money from commissions paid by airlines, hotels, cruise lines, car rental companies and other travel providers. For air fares, especially, it has traditionally never cost more to use a travel agent: The price you pay for a United ticket is the same whether you buy it by phone, from a United office or from a travel agent.

I almost never buy a ticket directly from airlines, because they’re only going to quote their own fares - and they’re unlikely to mention special deals unless I ask. Travel agents have virtually every flight and every fare in their computers, and can give you lots of alternatives. They can tell you which days are cheapest, which routes are cheapest and which airlines will accept a discount coupon for another airline.

Says Hugh “Flip” Himmelreich, vice president of Century Travel in Spokane and a member of the alliance: “You’ve got a much better chance of getting the flight you want at the price you want by calling an agent.”

But there are lots of other reasons to use a travel agent. Some examples:

Agents have brochures and other information about thousands of destinations around the world. If you’re thinking about a cruise, for example, you can find information in one place about a half-dozen cruise lines.

Agents have personal knowledge about many destinations, resorts and cruises, because they’ve been there. A good agent, for example, can tell you which Caribbean cruise line is best for younger passengers, or which cut-rate car rental company in Orlando is likely to make you wait in line for three hours.

“We are professionals,” says Judy Martin, owner of J. Martin Travel. “What we do is valuable.”

Agents can keep your personal travel profile - seat preferences, meal requests, preferred airlines - in their computers, saving you time. “The airlines have none of that information,” says Corinne Fowler, owner of NonStop Travel North.

Agents can provide valuable information to travelers going abroad. They can tell you about passports and visas, provide foreign currency information, tell you where to get health information, and provide lots of other useful nuggets - for example, the fact that many airlines won’t allow a solo parent to take minor children to another country unless he or she has a letter of permission from the other parent.

In an area of - unfortunately - growing significance, you are much less likely to fall victim to a travel scam when dealing with an established agent. The number of such rip-offs - stolen or forged airline tickets, bogus travel packages, dubious travel “prizes” - is alarming, but an agent with an established place of business and a reputation to protect is unlikely to be involved with them.

Agents can get good deals at better hotels, which usually quote unrealistically high “rack” rates to unwary travelers. Many agencies are tied in to national travel companies that have negotiated “guaranteed lowest rate” deals with hotel chains - and rental car operators, for that matter.

Agents can do a better job than you can. Planning a rewarding vacation can be incredibly time-consuming for busy families and, too often, we end up making lastminute calls and wind up in second-rate motels (at least I do; I could write a book about bad motels).

Travel isn’t cheap - most American families budget about $1,000 for a week’s vacation, according to the Travel Industry Association - so it makes sense to do it right.

The industry has seen some changes in the past few months because airlines have placed caps on the commissions they pay to travel agents. The result is that, for the first time, some agencies are charging fees to write cheap tickets (especially on Southwest) to cover their costs.

The alliance takes no position on fees; some agents charge them and some don’t. But if you’re a regular customer of a travel agency, you’re unlikely to be charged.

Yes, it can be possible to find “cheaper” travel deals by yourself - if (and that’s a big if) you’re willing to do a lot of research. But if your time is money, you’ll probably save on both by using a good travel agent.