Should You Use a Travel Agent
Or Book at an Online Travel Site?
Which is Better?

When a Travel Agent is Better Than an Online Travel Site

A Travel Agent Provides Customer Service

1. Not all travel agents charge fees, but if they do, fees may run about $75 per transaction.
2. You may save in the long run because travel agents often have access to special deals on travel packages that are not published online.
3. A personal travel agent will know your travel preferences, your family needs, your likes and dislikes and your air mileage plan.
4. With a travel agent, you have someone to fall back on, reliable customer service, and possibly a local office to visit.
5. And if your time is valuable, it's just easier and quicker to have someone do it for you.
Offline travel agents bring the human element to your travel planning. They educate the traveler, make recommendations, provide services and compare travel options.
6. Travel agents still sell over 50% of all airline tickets, 87% of all cruises, 81% of travel tours and packages, 45% of car rentals and 47% of all hotel stays.

When an Online Travel Site is Better Than a Travel Agent

1. An online travel site usually gives you quicker results than a travel agent. It may take a day or so to get back your final itinerary and fees.
2. If you know exactly what you want, and are comfortable buying online, you can easily do it yourself. Your booking is just a few clicks away and you're done.
3. Online travel sites with their advanced e-commerce software are open 24/7, 365 days a year.
4. You can book ahead for cars, hotels and air flights online. Especially if you know the hotels you prefer, the car rental agency that suits you and the airline that has your mileage program, you can book a good trip for yourself online.
5. Naturally, cheaper fares sell out first.
6. Only you can decide some of the travel details that come up. For example, you may want to pay an airline extra for the right to change flights later if you want to stay over at a business meeting or if you want to get home quicker.

Seven Well-Known Online Travel Sites

1. The three large online travel portals are Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz.
2. Priceline is another company in this category that helps users obtain discount rates for travel purchases such as airline tickets, hotels, car rentals and cruises. In addition to the standard travel offerings, Priceline has a feature that invites you to "Name Your Own Price."
3. To help you find the best travel prices there are also online sites with travel search engines, called meta sites. They operate like comparison-shopping pages by searching many retail travel sources for you and aggregating the prices. Examples of these meta search sites for travel are Kayak, Sidestep and Mobissimo. These sites find what you want, return the best prices available and then refer you directly to the airline and hotel web sites for purchasing.

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