I don’t think there’s been one of these before, so why not.
I’m a corporate travel agent, based in Canada, who now specializes in “International Fares”. This means other agents send me their files, and I check them for best value to the client. Thus, I know many tricks for getting good deals (some, apparently not so kosher - which I’d never recommend, unless you take upon yourself all risks entailed).
I’m up for any question, and will try to get back quickly, with examples.
Codeshare, alliances, upgrades, split tickets for better rates, currency conversion to your advantage, routings, anything.
Just curious: How much of a logistic hassle have our airport closures here in Bangkok been for you? We normally get a lot of Canadians this time of year, but tourist arrivals from everywhere are down.
Well, when it happened, we ran a report of travelers going through BKK, and came up with about 30 people. They were re-routed, with very little effort. Remember, I’m in a department of 15 dedicated international travel specialists.
I always assumed it was basically for older people who weren’t comfortable with the internet or didn’t have access or people planning group or corporate trips. I have no idea if either one of these is correct.
Do you only provide the cheapest route or do you also send other options?
I ask because there have been for example times when I’ve had to argue for a direct flight Newark-Sao Paulo when the offered one was Philly-Atlanta-Dallas-Sao Paulo and would have taken 8 hours longer (counting from when I left my house suitcase in hand to arrival at the hotel, so including the two “metro” trains Philly-Newark).
Do you get information about things like whether the traveler will be going directly to work or other things that may affect their company’s travel policy? In the example above, I was, so by company policy I could travel business: the direct flight in tourist was cheaper than the connected one in business.
A timely thread; I never ended up getting anywhere after trying to get this answered two years ago, and I was just recently considering asking it again.
So: If I told you that I and one other person wanted to travel to Europe or Asia for any one-week period from April to December of 2009, and gave not a smidgen of a damn about the specifics beyond that, except that we wanted to do this as cheaply (“cheap” being defined as airfare* + hotel in which we are unlikely to be stabbed in the night) as was possible:
Would you be able to do anything with that vague of a request?
Would you advise speaking with a travel agent for a request of this sort, or is there another avenue of research you’d recommend?
Based on past experience, where and when do you estimate I’d likely end up?
*This is not meant to exclude the possibility of seafare, or NASA-fare, or giant-eagle-fare, or any other method of travel!
A corporate travel agent is different than the type of travel agent that sets up shop in a strip mall or something. Most companies don’t want every employee with travel needs booking their own tickets.
I agree. However, our company travel agent was an idiot (6 hour lay-overs, 3 connecting flights, etc). We always had to find our own deals on Travelocity or whatever, send the link to her, and say, “Book this, please.” She was probably some poor schlub who was told, “By the way, your job description now includes booking all corporate travel.”
A competent travel agent would have been a blessing. From what I understand, this is what my daughter-in-law (she’s a Yeoman) does for the Coast Guard, including making moving arrangements for personnel. No wonder she comes home frazzled.
