Why do some people not book flights directly with the airlines?

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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I have seen a few cases where people had refund issues and there was an agent involved which made everything more complicated.

This is just the latest example :

Airline canceled flight - refund issue

Hi All, We were traveling via Lufthansa (booked through MyTrip) from Dublin Airport in July 2024 and our flight was canceled by Lufthansa due to climate activists sitting on the runway of Frankfurt Airport. The Lufthansa told us to look at alternatives ourselves as they couldn't accommodate us...
www.askaboutmoney.com

I don't know who mytrip is, but why would anyone book through them and not directly with the airline?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I have seen a few cases where people had refund issues and there was an agent involved which made everything more complicated.

This is just the latest example :

Airline canceled flight - refund issue

Hi All, We were traveling via Lufthansa (booked through MyTrip) from Dublin Airport in July 2024 and our flight was canceled by Lufthansa due to climate activists sitting on the runway of Frankfurt Airport. The Lufthansa told us to look at alternatives ourselves as they couldn't accommodate us...
www.askaboutmoney.com

I don't know who mytrip is, but why would anyone book through them and not directly with the airline?
Click to expand...
In my case, the tickets booked via MyTrip was about €150 cheaper (for 3 persons) compared to the direct booking via Lufthansa.

However, for our next holiday I paid the little extra (€40 this time for all 3 persons) and booked directly via the airlines.
 
You could say this about booking holidays to Europe with travel agents. You pay per person. If you book yourself, the hotel portion is charged per room. Quite often the advertised day trips are simply trips you can take yourself from the local bus or train station.

You often hear I will never fly with Ryanair. I know someone who only flies Air France. Pays three times the price.

Maybe when people book through third parties they arrange the transfers from the airport. I think that some people are terrified to try the transfer from the airport to the hotel themselves.
 
SoylentGreen said:
You could say this about booking holidays to Europe with travel agents.
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I could understand if someone wants a travel agent to book a full holiday for them including hotels, transfers and tours.

But booking flight only doesn't make that much sense.

But I had not realised that they could get you discounts.

I would always try to book the hotel directly but have on occasion found that booking.com is either cheaper or gives you free cancellation.
 
It used to be that the airlines didn't get any payment from the travel agents until the flight was taken (not sure of this is still the case). If you wanted to cancel a ticket booked through an agent, the airline didn't have your money to give back to you.

Travelocity used to sell people airlines' lowest refundable fare, but didn't allow refunds.
 
As someone who regularly uses online travel agents the only reason is price. They are regularly quite a bit cheaper than booking directly with the airline.

I used to use them all the time and then got burned badly with one that went out of business, thought I wouldn’t use them again but now I do again as haven thought through the risks and benefits overall I think is worth the risk

I do try to only use it when
A - they are significantly cheaper
B- Flight is soon enough to less chance of things changing for me or the airline
C- It’s an online travel agent ai have heard of.
 
k06351000 said:
As someone who regularly uses online travel agents the only reason is price. They are regularly quite a bit cheaper than booking directly with the airline.

I used to use them all the time and then got burned badly with one that went out of business, thought I wouldn’t use them again but now I do again as haven thought through the risks and benefits overall I think is worth the risk

I do try to only use it when
A - they are significantly cheaper
B- Flight is soon enough to less chance of things changing for me or the airline
C- It’s an online travel agent ai have heard of.
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To reply to my own post - on reflection I have thought of two other reasons I have used online travel agencies to book flights. One is when tickets are just not available on the airlines website, this happens most often with difficult open jaw routes to Africa or Asia. An online travel agency will price the route but the airlines themselves done seem to be able. I also used online travel emergencies last year in Vietnam when the airlines website wouldn’t accept foreign cards, think this happened in India too,
 
  1. using a site like skyscanner searches all airlines, so it's handy for finding the most suitable airline(s)
  2. price can be cheaper
  3. the best itinerary may involve multiple airlines
  4. if you already have an account with one of the agent companies it can make the booking process quicker as you just log in and it has all your details
  5. some airlines have poor websites, that are either unreliable or clunky to use or designed for people in the airline's home country
 
It’s partially laziness. I’ve booked rental cars and flights through booking.com as it’s a lot simpler. I find a lot of airlines’ websites and apps to be slow and often bug-prone.

I had a friend recently burned by booking.com on a car rental (cancelled an hour before collection) and have stopped ever since.
 
Now could I request all to have a look at the main post?
Brendan Burgess said:
I have seen a few cases where people had refund issues and there was an agent involved which made everything more complicated.

This is just the latest example :

Airline canceled flight - refund issue

Hi All, We were traveling via Lufthansa (booked through MyTrip) from Dublin Airport in July 2024 and our flight was canceled by Lufthansa due to climate activists sitting on the runway of Frankfurt Airport. The Lufthansa told us to look at alternatives ourselves as they couldn't accommodate us...
www.askaboutmoney.com

I don't know who mytrip is, but why would anyone book through them and not directly with the airline?
Click to expand...
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I don't know who mytrip is, but why would anyone book through them and not directly with the airline?
Click to expand...
Mytrip is an online travel agency (OTA). They are the sort of company that Michael O'Leary goes to great lengths to try and prevent selling Ryanair tickets.

They may offer flights at lower prices than you can get from the airline itself (not Ryanair). Price is the only reason to use them They will try and sell you insurance and personal pre-departure booking modification or support at an extra cost.

They make it clear in their T&C that they offer a travel mediation service, and your contract for travel is with the airline or other third party. It's a buyer beware experience.

Personally, I would not buy flights/hotels etc. through anyone that is telling me are not creating a contract for the provisional of the relevant travel services with me.
 
My brother booked a trip to South America at the start of 2020 for a flight in April through a well known third party website. Of course, flights were cancelled due to Covid and he received credit from the airline. However, it was complicated as he booked through the third party website; he couldn't book using the credit online, it had to be done over the phone, no big deal you might say but for some reason the prices he was being quoted over the phone were almost double of that on the website. He eventually got sorted out after months of to and fro with the third party website. What really annoyed him was that a friend of his who was going on a trip with same airline but booked directly was able to use his credit with no hassle. Also as I said the website is not some obscure one but one of the main ones that are widely advertised.

Ever since I heard this story, unless there is a significant saving by using a third party website, I book directly with the airline. I use third party websites for research only and then book with the airline directly, prices are fairly similar these days anyway.
 
With long-haul there are benefits in booking with a travel agent, particularly if multiple destinations are involved . The agent can hold seats on flights to ensure everything links together, including accommodation and car hire, before committing .
Also travel agents frequently have non advertised discount flights, particularly eg premium economy, combined long haul and local flights, etc
 
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PMU said:
With long-haul there are benefits in booking with a travel agent, particularly if multiple destinations are involved . The agent can hold seats on flights to ensure everything links together, including accommodation and car hire, before committing .
Also travel agents frequently have non advertised discount flights, particularly eg premium economy, combined long haul and local flights, etc
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You can gold seats directly with the airlines too.

There's nothing a travel agents can sell that the airline doesn't sell themselves.
 
Fortune said:
You can gold seats directly with the airlines too.
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Yes, if you deposit e.g. EUR 5 – 10 per person to hold the booking.

Fortune said:
There's nothing a travel agents can sell that the airline doesn't sell themselves.
Click to expand...
But not necessarily at the same price or that can be booked with the same ease. Travel agents have access to various fare structures that are not generally or easily available to ordinary clients, such as trade discounts / commissions that they may (or may not) pass on; access to consolidators; and particularly access to distribution systems such as Amadeus that provide real time access to flight structures, e.g. combined long haul and internal or regional, that are not or are not easily available at the client level.
 
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