Who Should Book Your Trip? One Man's Opinion

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 03:45 AM

by Ben Meisner

Recently there was an article written and published by the Prince George Airport Authority as to why you should use a travel agent to book your trip.
Well I read the article and while it may have helped to some degree in penning this article, I felt my own impressions in traveling would be much more in tune with my own experiences and why I choose to use a local travel agent.

I am not a jet setter, although I have done my share of traveling, I am not in the league with those who flip flop across the country and around the world. This however I can say, if you want to ensure that you have a real live body at the other end of the phone and you want someone trying to get you the best value for your traveling buck, book local.

For starters, when you’re booking with an agent in the US or say for example Toronto or Montreal, many do not even know where PG is, the routing can be brutal and you can find yourself spending a lot of time hanging around an airport waiting for the connecting flight.

You may have been able to save ten bucks, but when you factor in a lunch here and there, a beer here and there, (in the case of leaving from Vancouver or Calgary) a night here or there and suddenly that ten bucks turns into an additional three or four hundred out of your pocket. It may not come directly from the air travel but money is money no matter which pocket it comes from.

When I hear people saying they booked on line and made a major saving I can’t help but smile. Do you think the people on the other side of the phone are tooth fairies working for nothing? Of course not.

Your local agent wants to work with you. There was no better example of this than this past winter when I needed a couple of airfares from Vancouver to PG and return to hook up with the Mexican trip. I booked on line rather than bothering my friend Becky over at Uniglobe. When she heard the way I had booked, she asked how much I had paid, took the reservation and got me flights at a a cheaper rate than the on-line people could, and gave me a credit from West Jet. It was an example of the local folk doing it cheaper.

You pay a commission no matter where you book and at the very least booking at home ensures that when you put some omoney into the pickets of the local travel agents, those dollars will be spent at home, who knows, maybe even at your business.

So the next time you want to travel, try a local agent, anyone of the many that are around town and remember, the commission is the same for everyone whether they're from Toronto or Montreal or old PG, the big difference is the fact that when you book local, a small chunk of your money stays in our town.

I’m Meisner and that is one man's opinion

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