I thought I knew - flight bookings

danandjens_worldtravels

I really thought I knew and now I'm confused.

I've been looking at return flights to NZ from Manchester, reasonable prices come up on Kayak and Skyscanner and details the flights, airlines and travel agents and prices.

Now, this is what I thought I knew - Go direct to the airline!

But when I go direct to either of the three airlines that code share the route they are all around £400 more expensive than the Kayak price. Virgin, Emirates and Ethiad

So, can travel agents really do it cheaper, is it worth it or will I just get loads of hassle (if I change the return flight date) and a further payment due once they say its 'booked'. I've looked at terms and conditions of two of the agents and can't see a 'we may rise the price' statement, but perhaps its more hidden than I expect. I've looked at tripsta and travel trolley.

So go direct (as I think) or trust a travel agent? :eek:

blindman

danandjens_worldtravels wrote: »

Now, this is what I thought I knew - Go direct to the airline!

Usually the obvious answer.



So go direct (as I think) or trust a travel agent? :eek:

Never, ever trust a TA.

Look at this as a risk assessment.

Is the saving big enough to offset the risk of introducing a third party who is looking after their interest and not yours?

Blue264

danandjens_worldtravels wrote: »

So go direct (as I think) or trust a travel agent? :eek:

Kayak aren't travel agents. They're a scraping site that collate the latest prices from other travel websites. The first line on their website says...

Compare hundreds of travel sites at once.

If you can find a specialist travel agent to NZ, you may find companies that have allocations on certain flights. 20yrs ago, I would have expected this from a few agents based in West London, but I;m not sure these days.

For NZ, I'd definitely be looking at Air New Zealand via LAX. I absolutely love that airline. Alongside Emirates, they're the best I've flown with.

danandjens_worldtravels

Blue264 wrote: »

Kayak aren't travel agents. They're a scraping site that collate the latest prices from other travel websites. The first line on their website says...

Compare hundreds of travel sites at once.

If you can find a specialist travel agent to NZ, you may find companies that have allocations on certain flights. 20yrs ago, I would have expected this from a few agents based in West London, but I;m not sure these days.

For NZ, I'd definitely be looking at Air New Zealand via LAX. I absolutely love that airline. Alongside Emirates, they're the best I've flown with.

I know Kayak aren't agents and they scrape online booking 'agents' who give cheaper prices than the airline direct. I use Kayak as a guide to the routes available and a clue as to which airlines are cheapest.

My quandry is I don't believe these online agents that Kayak finds can do it cheaper - or can they?

I'll have a look for the specialist agents, not something I've ever come across, but have always booked direct and online so there may be some around.

Yes Air NZ is pretty good, but sadly not the cheapest
At the moment cheap wins over comfort for me! (Maybe not Airoflot but luckily I don't think they do the route)

Obviously_the_best

If you use a reputable travel agent, such as expedia or ebookers, you should be fine.

p.s. Aeroflot are pretty darn good nowadays.

richardw

Do you get the same results with matrix ita software ?

Backbiter

In the past two years I've found better prices on Kayak (with Expedia) than on the United site. Plus I've had cashback via Quidco on top.

tamiami

Try airport direct or wefly.com.

Might not be the absolute cheapest but they are reputable and abta and atol covered.

zerog

Blue264 wrote: »

For NZ, I'd definitely be looking at Air New Zealand via LAX. I absolutely love that airline.

I like ANZ as well, but I would never go via LAX unless I was a frequent visitor to the US already

Going via HKG is less hassle, but NZ now codeshares with CX for LHR-HKG. CX is also fine in economy (whereas EK is only really good for premium classes)

Wammer

If you look carefully at the prices Kayak finds it will show you the travel agent the prices have been found with just under the price.

We booked flights with Netflights as they were £170pp cheaper than booking direct with the airline. That was fine until we received notification that our flight times had changed and the ones they had rebooked us on weren't convenient. I went direct to the airline's site and found better flights and that is when the fun began. The airline was perfectly happy to rebook us on the flights we wanted, but they couldn't do it as it had to be done via the agent. The agent refused to change them as it wasn't a major change, ie over 12 hours. I had a couple of very stressful and frustrating days until I finally got someone at the agent with a modicum of sense who changed them for us, but it didn't look like it was going to happen.

alanrowell

Blue264 wrote: »

For NZ, I'd definitely be looking at Air New Zealand via LAX. I absolutely love that airline. Alongside Emirates, they're the best I've flown with.

Are transit passengers still put into the "holding cell" between flights?