Australia - Use an agent or book independently?

Mardrew

We are thinking of going to Australia for 3 weeks in the summer doing a tailor-made holiday - flying - Man - Cairns - Ayers Rock - Sydney - Man and have been getting prices from the key players in the market but I have also priced it up if I was to book everything independently (using the price comparison companies to highlight the cheapest companies for booking my chosen hotels/flights) and it is looking as if it is significantly cheaper to do it independently.

My question is how much extra would you say it is worth to book through an agent and what are the advantages? (I've looked at so much info my head is totally spinning!)

Many thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Mardrew

HXDave

Mardrew,

with an agent, you have knowledge, expertise, a single point of contact.

As for cost wise then yes, it would be cheaper doing everything seperately, however just imagine if between booking everything and departing something went wrong, one of the hotels closed, a flight got cancelled, one of the operators you used went bust, the airline went on strike, flight schedules disrupted due to weather / engine failure on a previous flight / ash clouds, forgetting something like your ETA, maybe even realising the 2000Km between 1 hotel you have booked and the next hotel in the itinarary is not drivable in one day.

i trust you can see that there is so much that could go wrong, and just the simplest thing (for example a connecting flight to Heathrow for example cancelling) could mess everything up.

However doing everything through a travel agent or a specialist tour operator who will put the whole thing together 'as a package', eliminates all the hassle and worry, and you only have 1 call to make (usually to someone in the uk) if you have a problem.

HXDave

stephb34

How competent a traveller and booker are you. Do you know that what you want is actually doable are you going the right way round australia. How much cheaper do you think it will be to do it yourself, and will you be able to sort it if a problem occurs as listed above, sometimes the less stressful option is better even if it costs more.

spottydog

If you are used to booking things independently I'd say do that. Australia speaks english so apart from the time difference you should find communications with operators easy.

With flights from Manchester unless you want to go via Heathrow you are limited on airlines (Emirates and I think one other). Ayers rock from Cairns will be limited to Qantas I expect and Ayers Rock to Sydney is Qantas or Virgin Blue.

In Cairns I'd stay close to town, tour operators for day trips will generally pick up from most places in the centre and you can often pick up heavy tour discounts by booking last minute. With Sydney if you stay in the CBD, Rocks or Darling Harbour you can't go far wrong, https://www.wotif.com does last minute hotel rates and there is no shortage of places to stay in Sydney especially in the middle of winter. In Ayers Rock you don't get much choice of hotels, it just depends on what you want to spend what quality you get (dorm to 5*) as I think they are all owned by a single company. if you are planning on hiring a car again that is easy to do and it also helps that Australia drives on the same side of the road as the UK

If you can avoid the last 2 weeks of July you may find prices a bit cheaper in Oz (as this is the school winter holiday period).

Also don't forget to apply for your eVisitor visa which you can do at no cost online yourself (some travel agents will charge you if you get them to do it).

Doshwaster

On a long trip it's nice to have some flexibility in the schedule so that you can stay an extra night one one place or change hotels. That is very difficult if you have everything pre-booked as a package deal.

Booking things yourself also allows you to exactly tailor your trip the way you want. For me, that's the most fun part - creating virtual itineraries and the ripping them up and starting again.

It's usually much cheaper to book day trips and tours once you get there.

ferf1223

don't forget the option of booking hotels directly with the hotels - when you have them narrowed down to a few, worth checking.

Sometimes the cancellation policies are much more flexible that way which takes away a lot of the potential risk if things go wrong.

We would DIY it - we always do...we prefer to have our relationship direct with the airline/hotel/hire car...we would rather risk having to make several calls should something go wrong. We prefer to have every option out there available to us, not to be restricted at all...we prefer to know that we can contact the airline/hotel and don't have to wait for the agent to do so on our behalf, and then get back to us (that seems like a potential for a lot of sitting around frustrated to me). Are all UK agents open 24/7? Given you're going to Australia, that might be worth considering.

I would, however, book as much as I could flight-wise on one ticket...and if I couldn't get it all on the same ticket for a reasonable price, I wouldn't book a two separate flights on the same day...too much risk there...but your intinerary doesn't seem to need that anyway.

I suppose it depends on how much this significant savings is, and how happy you are to handle everything yourself.

tiamaria

We're planning a similar trip to Aus. I will probably mix and match, I usually book things myself but as it's such a big trip I will most likely book the flights and car hire through a TA - then they can take the flack if anything goes wrong! There's so many things to remember & I'm guilty of making minor mistakes in the past:o

I'm likely to book most of the hotels & transfers, trips and trains/buses myself. With hotels I can choose the specific ones i've had recommended and have researched.

Doshwaster

As long as you book with major airlines and hotels then it's much more likely that your high street travel agent back home will go bust.

fifeken

spottydog wrote: »

With flights from Manchester unless you want to go via Heathrow you are limited on airlines (Emirates and I think one other).

Etihad is probably the other one you're thinking of, but they could also go wirh Air France (via Paris), KLM (via Amsterdam) or Lufthansa (Frankfurt) without any more stops.

Mardrew

Many thanks for all your comments. For the last few years I've always booked everything independently but we've never done a trip as big as this before.

When I made the post I was thinking of using Etihad as they had fewer connections. At that point, I had had one price from an agent - I had had others but then decided to change the route i.e to go to Cairns first rather than Sydney and also changed a couple of the hotels I was wanting - and it was coming in at least £500 more than my independent prices would do. This seemed a lot of money more. I then phoned Austravel and basically he said what HXDave said and also totally advised against using Etihad owing to the monopoly Qantas have on the Ayers Rock route. (The disadvantage to using Qantas is that we have to do an extra connection on both legs but I've come round to that now.) He worked out a new price for me and it was comparable (once I add on the couple of hotels/apartments he can't quote me for) to my independent price. In fact, I've ended up getting a better apartment in Sydney so it's all booked now apart from a couple of hotels and the car hire plus of course any trips that we want to do. I've not got a problem with booking them.

I'm feeling very, very excited about the trip now and can't wait until the summer!

shockingmoment

Hope you have a great time - I'm sure you will.

The only thing I would have done differently.... would be to add a couple of days in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.
It breaks the journey up and these are both great cities!
Bit too late I suppose?

Do a little bit of research on the Uluru trip - can be extremely expensive.....