Online Travel Agencies?

dbright asks: "I am currently planning my upcoming honeymoon, and I was wondering if I should try getting my tickets, and/or making travel arrangements online using one of the many available retailers (cheaptickets.com, priceline.com, etc...). I wanted to ask Slashdot readers about experiences with any of these companies, and their thoughts on making arrangements online."

Comments

Don't take chances on Honeymoon

[GuyMannDude]

I know I'm not answering your actual question here, but I would think twice about trying to save a couple of bucks on your honeymoon. Go the safer, more traditional route for something this important and you can gamble with some fly-by-night online agency for a future trip that is a little less important. Imagine if something goes wrong because of the travel agent, your wife is not going to very happy with your decision to go with a relatively new (a few years experience) online agency.

GMD

Re:Don't take chances on Honeymoon

[Strange Ranger]

Along the same lines, when we honeymooned in Costa Rica we went through an agency we found online - Costa Rica Experts. It was WELL worth it. No surprises, world champion white water guides (rather than brave teens with leaky rafts), an amazing eco-resort, etc. I could go on and on but the bottom line is, since we'd never been there, we avoided all the pitfalls, had cheap reliable transportation wherever we went, and could just spend the whole time gaping at our surroundings and enjoying honeymoon type activities whilst the parrots flew overhead.

Because of the discounts the travel agency gets through it's arrangements, our trip was the same price as I could come up with after hours putting it together myself online, except I only had to make 2 phone calls and it was done.
You will be EXHAUSTED after your wedding. Wherever your destination, a good travel agent pays for themselves and more when it comes to your honeymoon.

Also, the wedding is really for the guests no matter how you slice it, but the Honeymoon is ALL YOURS. Make the most of it.

Agency for online travel?

[Dephex Twin]

That's what Google is for!

SkyAuction.com

[MaxwellStreet]

SkyAuction.com

I don't work for them, but I've had nothing but good experiences taking trips arranged through them.

Amazing prices. And even after the trip is over, you'll be wondering what the catch was.

some tips

[Tumbleweed]

Okay, I have used Travelocity for airline tickets for years with no real troubles. You can definitely save some real cash this way.

But...

For something as important as a honeymoon, I don't think I'd do it. See, the way that online ticket pleaces work is that they offer tickets with all sorts of restrictions (both on time and on convenience). Let's say something happens to your schedule and you want to delay a flight. Well, many of those cheap tickets can't BE delayed, at least, not without fees that often exceed the price you paid for the cheap tickets. No, for something "mission critical" like a honeymoon, do yourself a favour and go with a real (and respected - ask around) travel agent. A travel agent will be even more valuable for the non-flight portions of the trip (hotels, destinations, etc.), as a good and experienced travel agent will often have personal experience with destinations. If you can, go to a travel agent that specializes in your chosen destination(s).

Good luck and have fun!

I must really suck at it

[Otter]

People around me swear by CheapTickets.com and Orbitz, but I've never had any luck with them myself. I check them out, find the best price I can and then call STA Travel, which invariably beats it. I'm eager to hear what tips others have that might help.

Regarding STA, by the way, don't be scared off by the emphasis on students -- they have lots of good deals. Besides, they'll give a student card to anyone with a student ID dated after 1850.

Don't use them for unusual itineraries

[RockyMountain]

If you travel a fairly normal itinerary, i.e. one lots of other people also travel, Travelocity et al are great. Not sure about the auction type sites (e.g. Priceline), though.

They fall down badly if you travel a slightly unusual itinerary such as:

• Multi-segment with different stops each direction, or with a stop one direction only -- especially in cases with airline changes needed. E.g. DEN-LHR-CPT-DEN.
  
• Discontinuous, e.g. LHR-LED (discontinuity) MOW-LHR.
  
• Routes where the best fare involves rolling your own connection rather than accepting a mainstream connection, e.g. DEN-LHR-CPT. Travelocity offers you DEN-ATL-CPT which is much more direct, but costs twice as much. But Travelocity won't find the DEN-LHR-CPT even if you explicitly call out the LHR stop. They will only find it if you search twice, once for DEN-LHR, and once for LHR-CPT. (Haven't checked this recently, though. Maybe they've fixed it).
  

For this type of route, with enough patience, you can still do much of your research on Travelocity. But you need to apply trial and error combinations of individual segments, then call the airline to get the REAL price, which is often quite a bit lower, especially in the discontinuous example.

Another reason to actually call the airline rather than book online, is that they occasionally offer you a lower fare that is technically unavalable because the cutoff date has passed. I guess they have some discretionary flexibility. I don't know why they voluntarily do this, but it's happend to me more than once. British Airways is particularly good about this.

Do you care quality?

[BSDevil]

I travel fairly frequently, and have come to learn that both are valuble tools, depending on what you want to accomplish. As many have said, if youw want a well-planned door-to-door holiday, go to your local travel agent. For the most part, they're good and honest people. They'll get you what you need and organize it all, although you (obviously) pay for that priviledge. Almost every family holiday me and the crew go on is done up by our not-so-local travel agent. That's another thing: get reccomendations from friends re a good one. Ours is a bitch to get to, but Chris has never failed us, and has found some amazing stuff for us.

On the other hand, if you just want to get from A to B, do it yourself. Anytime I fly accross the pond I just pull up all the online sites, route myself through a major US hub, and get home cheap. Granted, changing in DC is a pain, and the trip may take a bit longer, but that's why God invented Melatonin. And any small intra-European jaunt is straight to easyJet/Ryanair. If it's within Europe, you don't need a travel agent - flights are all online, and most of Europe speaks one of English/French/German, or has a working knowledge of one them.

My experience: if it's simple, DIY. If it's complicated and/or really expensive, use a travel agent. And make sure they're bonded (ATOL in the UK, I think IATA is international).

We Didn't Buy Online

[Geckoman]

When my wife and I made travel arrangements for our honeymoon, we went to a travel agent. The advice and experience they could provide was more than worth any extra expense (which was minimal in our case). Neither of us had ever been to our destination, so we didn't know anything about what areas to stay in (or avoid), what the good (and bad) hotels were, etc.

When we're traveling for business or to a place we're familiar with, we almost always book online, but for a pleasure trip to an unfamiliar place, real live travel agents are invaluable!