New costs for the consumer from Flight Center...???

Forums › Travel (planes, train, cruise) › New costs for the consumer from Flight Center...???

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#3179446 9-Jan-2024 17:03

AUK-SFO has always been more expensive than AUK-LAX afaik. If price is more important to you than SFO, i.e. your aim is to just do a road-trip from a US airport to LAX, you could also try Houston.

We got the Captain's pack thrown in as a worthless freebie from Flight Centre.

sir1963

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#3179475 9-Jan-2024 19:26

mattwnz:

With that Captains pack, why is planting trees the number 1 listed feature of it? Is it supposed to make people feel better about the CO2 produced from air travel?

And lets them claim how many trees they planted ... not saying the customers did that though...green washing.

sir1963

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#3179476 9-Jan-2024 19:29

frankv:

AUK-SFO has always been more expensive than AUK-LAX afaik. If price is more important to you than SFO, i.e. your aim is to just do a road-trip from a US airport to LAX, you could also try Houston.

We got the Captain's pack thrown in as a worthless freebie from Flight Centre.

Interesting flying into SF is far more reasonable than flying out, so we are going to "reverse" our trip and do SF first -> Vegas -> LA -> Cruise -> LA Disney -> Home

larknz

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#3179484 9-Jan-2024 20:02

Have you tried a different travel agent?

sir1963

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#3179486 9-Jan-2024 20:19

larknz:

Have you tried a different travel agent?

Nope, we are booking it ourselves now.

shk292

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#3179491 9-Jan-2024 20:59

Travel agents were really useful when there was no internet, I remember doing my first independent UK-NZ trip and phoning around the various "bucket shops" in London to get the best fare.

Now, unless you're tech-phobic or have really unusual requirements, I fail to see their value add over expedia etc. And they seem to be a layer of bureuacracy between you and the airline, so if you want to change your seat or apply for an upgrade, you can't do that on the app or website.

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sir1963

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#3179501 9-Jan-2024 22:31

shk292:

Travel agents were really useful when there was no internet, I remember doing my first independent UK-NZ trip and phoning around the various "bucket shops" in London to get the best fare.

Now, unless you're tech-phobic or have really unusual requirements, I fail to see their value add over expedia etc. And they seem to be a layer of bureuacracy between you and the airline, so if you want to change your seat or apply for an upgrade, you can't do that on the app or website.

Just spent an hour with AirNZ as their system has some issues with SkyCouches when booking.

Very helpful, FREE, so flights all booked now

Internal US flights will be Southwest, and we have always done our own accommodation so we are set there too soon.

Insurance is via work so we get corporate rates/benefits

No travel agent needed and we rehashed our entire travel plans to fit around cheap flights etc tonight ourselves

GV27

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#3179518 10-Jan-2024 06:07

Definitely a trend for more thing that used to be part of the service to be bundled separately; concert tickets are a classic - a 'service fee' on top of the actual price of the ticket. Service for what? You sell tickets! Why does that require an additional fee on top of the actual cost you are charging?

It's not like you're a shoe retailer that has had to branch out into a new line of work and stand up new resources.

sen8or

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#3179554 10-Jan-2024 09:46

I will use a travel agent for big trips, but for anything "local" (e.g. Aus), even the agent (my cousin) recommends just booking local.

Agents still have access to flights and deals that might not be easily locatable, and where there are multiple connections involved, their knowledge / expertise can be invaluable (e.g. making sure you are on a continuous fare for example, so that in the likely event of a delay, you are the airlines problem to solve. If you book individual fares and something happens, its your problem).

Weve used him again for our April trip, sourced flights in and out of Ft Lauderdale at competitive prices, same price as booking direct on cruise line website, so no difference there, but there is an element of comfort knowing that someone knowledgable has given the trip the once over.

frankv

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#3179560 10-Jan-2024 10:29

sir1963:

frankv:

AUK-SFO has always been more expensive than AUK-LAX afaik. If price is more important to you than SFO, i.e. your aim is to just do a road-trip from a US airport to LAX, you could also try Houston.

We got the Captain's pack thrown in as a worthless freebie from Flight Centre.

Interesting flying into SF is far more reasonable than flying out, so we are going to "reverse" our trip and do SF first -> Vegas -> LA -> Cruise -> LA Disney -> Home

I guess pricing is that way because they're discounting the AUK-SFO because there's more people wanting to fly the other way. Dunno.

We went SF-Sacramento-Yosemite-Death Valley-Vegas on our first trip... highly recommend those, especially Yosemite & Death Valley. Both of them would take a week to do them justice, but were still rewarding for a short visit. In Death Valley, go to Rhyolite ghost town as well as Furnace Creek. Also while you're at Vegas do a day trip to the Grand Canyon (we went to Grand Canyon West (Hualapai Indians, Skywalk) which is a bit closer to Vegas than the main GC entry point) & Hoover Dam.

You'll get stung a couple of hundred dollars for a one-way hire on your rental car.

frankv

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#3179563 10-Jan-2024 10:36

sir1963:

larknz:

Have you tried a different travel agent?

Nope, we are booking it ourselves now.

I certainly seemed to be better at finding (via SkyScanner, Expedia, AirNZ, etc) better/cheaper flights than a travel agent, to the tune of over $1000 on a US trip. Probably I'm more motivated to look for them.

Some tips (now that it's too late ;) )...

Book all your connecting flights on one ticket (e.g. internal NZ plus AUK-SFO) so that your luggage gets automatically routed through at the airport... no need to collect your bags and lug them to the next checkin. Arriving from an international flight you always have to collect your bags to go through Customs though.
If you're flexible about flight dates & times (which you probably aren't with 9 people), SkyScanner and the like are good for predicting when fares are minimal (usually about 6 weeks prior to the flight).

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frankv

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#3179566 10-Jan-2024 10:50

GV27:

Definitely a trend for more thing that used to be part of the service to be bundled separately;

Yup... so now you have to pay to choose your seats. So if you want to sit together, it's an extra $20 or more on each flight. And you have no chance to get better (emergency exit, front row) seats for free, because they'll be sold to someone else.

And the latest wrinkle... surcharges for credit card payments, when paying online you have no choice but to pay by credit card. :(

And beware... airlines (AirNZ on almost every international flight I've been on in the last few years) commonly change your flight time (or cancel the flight entirely) for "operational reasons", forcing you to rearrange all your hotel, rental car, connecting flight, and other arrangements :( It smells of bait-and-switch to me... sell you a ticket at a time that is convenient to you, then switch it to a time that might not be. Sometimes the change is made within hours of making the booking (and months before the flight), sometimes just hours before takeoff.

Kyanar

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#3179578 10-Jan-2024 11:53

frankv:

I guess pricing is that way because they're discounting the AUK-SFO because there's more people wanting to fly the other way. Dunno.

Wait, who would want to fly from San Francisco to Alakanuk, Alaska?

(Auckland's ICAO airport code is AKL, not AUK)

nova

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#3179606 10-Jan-2024 13:41

frankv:

Yup... so now you have to pay to choose your seats. So if you want to sit together, it's an extra $20 or more on each flight. And you have no chance to get better (emergency exit, front row) seats for free, because they'll be sold to someone else.

I think seat select is at least $35 on the North American flights (on Air NZ). Worth considering Koru membership if there are a lot of you, I think it gives you free seat select for everyone on the booking (at least it did for up to 4 people when I've used it in the past). So you only need one person with Koru linked to the booking to get the benefit. It also gives access to frequent flyer seating. You still have to pay for emergency exit seats etc, these are only free if you wait until 48 hours prior to departure, at which point they might already be gone. Airpoints credit cards discount Koru down to about $549, so you only have to do 16 seat selects for it to be worth it, plus it has other benefits.

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#3179611 10-Jan-2024 14:11

Lias:

I've never really understood why travel agencies still exist.. I mean sure i can understand why they existed pre internet, but now?

Why do you uber somewhere when you can get public transport for cheaper?

Why do you buy takeaways instead of cooking it yourself?

Because it's easy and convenient.

We went to the F1 in Melbourne recently - booked it all as a package. It included the F1 tickets and the flights, airport transfers, insurance etc.

Sure I could have booked all that myself - it would't have even been that hard. But it was worth the additional money, and saving of my time, to pay someone else who's booked it 500 times before to do it. It's also nice to have a single point of contact when things go wrong - we had a few minor travel problems while away - I had a mobile number I could call and they sorted it out pretty much on the phone. Good luck with that when you've booked everything through webjet.

Everyone does it - removes a drain on their limited time in exchange for parting with some of their money.

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