PrintAlthough booking airline tickets online is the most popular way to purchase tickets, some travelers still prefer to use a travel agent or buy directly from an airline. Each offers advantages and disadvantages, so the method you choose really depends on how much you value convenience, service and price.
Using a Travel Agent
Building a relationship with a traditional travel agency has some benefits. Travel agents reserve flights for a living, so they are experienced travel planners who are in tune with airline schedules. Using a travel agent is the way to go if you want personalized service.
You also can work with a travel agency to arrange a monthly or quarterly summary of your business´s travel activity. This is useful if you don´t have a dedicated staff overseeing your expenses. Some agencies will even help you craft a travel policy and ensure your employees adhere to it when they book business trips.
Travel agencies once relied on airline commissions to stay afloat, but airlines are now cutting commissions. Instead, many agencies are charging per-ticket or per-itinerary fees of $5, $10 or $20, especially for business travel.
Making an Online Reservation
Two words describe this method of booking tickets: anytime, anywhere. There´s no waiting or hoping your travel agency is still open — you can make a reservation at your convenience, choose your seat, order special meals and have your itinerary available at your fingertips.
Using travel Web sites is the fastest and easiest way to get low fares. Most sites recommend the lowest available price for your destination and will constantly look for cheaper alternatives to the routes you build.
Some also offer 24-hour customer-service support and innovative e-services like automatic text or email paging if a flight is delayed or cancelled — without charging an additional fee. And most major online agencies — Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, and others — don´t charge service fees.
Booking Through the Airline
Booking directly through an airline offers some advantages. It shortens the "blame chain" if something goes wrong with your reservation. And working with the airlines saves you the per-ticket or per-itinerary service fees some travel agents charge. In addition, airlines will help you manage your frequent-flyer account.
But unless your business does millions of dollars in travel per year, you´re not likely to get special rates from any major carrier, even if you choose to deal directly with one airline exclusively.
Airlines´ Web sites are catching up with the dot-com travel agencies, in part because they´re partnering with big technology companies or outsourcing their Web ticketing systems to travel Web sites. Airlines such as USAir, Continental and others offer online ticketing, flight schedules, frequent-flyer account information and other services.
