Travel Agents that Don't Charge Credit Card Fees?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Travel Agents that Don't Charge Credit Card Fees?

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PenultimateHop

637 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#503761 9-Aug-2011 11:36

StarBlazer: It looks like Malaysia Air will be getting my money this time around.

They do the same thing too - different prices in different markets. NZ-UK gives me a different price than UK-NZ on the same days using their website ;).

Or are you saying you're going with MH because you want a cheaper fare? That's fair (heh) enough, rather than doing it because of market pricing practices. Of course, you'd have considered the value of their service vs. any other...

StarBlazer

961 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#503766 9-Aug-2011 11:47

PenultimateHop:
StarBlazer: It looks like Malaysia Air will be getting my money this time around.

They do the same thing too - different prices in different markets. NZ-UK gives me a different price than UK-NZ on the same days using their website ;).

Or are you saying you're going with MH because you want a cheaper fare? That's fair (heh) enough, rather than doing it because of market pricing practices. Of course, you'd have considered the value of their service vs. any other...

At the end of the day I only have so much budget to spend on flights. Given the choice I would rather support the national airline of New Zealand, I fly with them a lot through work and we moved to NZ with them. If their price was closer to $2400 instead of $3400, they would be sufficiently close to Air Malaysia to make the cost benefit argument, whereas $1000 difference x 4 pax is too much out of the budget.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

darkness

59 posts

Master Geek

#503782 9-Aug-2011 12:34

graemeh: Just get yourself a credit card with travel insurance and buy the tickets with that. The 2% will make for very cheap travel insurance.

I'd be careful doing that. The policies the credit card places offer on that are not the same as insurance you can buy through travel agents. They often have limits on the amount they cover.

and travel insurance through agents is generally really cheap anyway. A 12 day trip in malaysia for 2 people cost us about $140, if I remember correctly.

allan

2043 posts

Uber Geek

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#503834 9-Aug-2011 13:32

graemeh: A good travel agent is worth their weight in gold on the more complicated bookings. If you're overseas and something goes wrong all it takes is a phone call and you know your flights are getting sorted out and you can focus on visiting your kid in hospital or rushing to the airport for an emergency flight back to NZ.

Try doing that direct with an airline, it'll drive you mad.

Couldn't agree more. Found ourselves mixed up in the Ash Cloud fiasco in late June and flying Qantas to the USA. Eventually got out of the country five days after we should have, but via Sydney on Emirates and then back on Qantas to LA. Also required extensive rebooking of US internal flights and accomodation.

Would have driven me completely nuts having to sort it all myself, but the service I got from the Fight Centre was nothing short of superb. It was a bit of a joint effort in that when we reached Sydney on a Sunday evening, we still didn't have a confirmed Qantas flight out until Wednesday, but following a tip-off from the hotel receptionist, I emailed the Flight Centre at midnight Sydney time saying I had heard some seats had become available on the 1pm flight the next day. By the time we got up the next morning, phone call to say we were on it. Slight drama in that my wife thought she'd left her passport in the hotel - but that's another story.

Also I had paid Flight Centre our initial deposit via Credit Card, but did the balance via Internet Banking, rather than Credit Card. They credited the original fees.

John2010

532 posts

Ultimate Geek

#503915 9-Aug-2011 15:10

darkness:

I'd be careful doing that. The policies the credit card places offer on that are not the same as insurance you can buy through travel agents. They often have limits on the amount they cover.

and travel insurance through agents is generally really cheap anyway. A 12 day trip in malaysia for 2 people cost us about $140, if I remember correctly.

Yes, cards may differ but some are fine.

If one has a business and no good cover under a card then it is worth trying to get travel insurance under the business. The first time I did so the broker came back with a price for all travelling in a year. I was quite taken aback because it was so low compared to the touristy rates so I gave him a call. His answer was short and to the point "There are very few fraudulent claims from business travellers".

That may also be behind why the more exclusive cards can offer good cover?

tigercorp

668 posts

Ultimate Geek

#503939 9-Aug-2011 16:04

StarBlazer: ..

Nope that was economy. If I look at flights WLG-LHR-WLG on .co.nz it costs $3356 - if I look at flights LHR-WLG-LHR on .co.uk it costs 1226GBP or $2411 in NZD. This is picking Out 7 APR 2012 and back 28 APR2012. If I change the outbound and return dates so that the LHR-WLG and the WLG-LHR legs are on the same day using the same flights - the prices is still the same.

I don't care how you dress it up - that is taking advantage of your home market!

I've done the UK-NZ-UK and NZ-UK-NZ for coming up 13 years now, and can only recall that sort of price difference when you're heading towards summer.
Admittedly I'm _always_ heading towards summer so I don't often check when its the off season, but I've always put it down to the seasonal factor.

graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

#503960 9-Aug-2011 16:44

darkness:
graemeh: Just get yourself a credit card with travel insurance and buy the tickets with that. The 2% will make for very cheap travel insurance.

I'd be careful doing that. The policies the credit card places offer on that are not the same as insurance you can buy through travel agents. They often have limits on the amount they cover.

and travel insurance through agents is generally really cheap anyway. A 12 day trip in malaysia for 2 people cost us about $140, if I remember correctly.

You are right, some like Amex basically only covered you on the plane but that may have changed. You also have to make sure you follow the rules about paying "pre paid" expenses like pre-booked hotels, they need to generally go on your card too.

If you're gettting charged 2% for using your credit card then you'd have to be paying more than $7000 in airfares for your Malaysia trip to make the credit card insurance more expensive.

When we went to Malaysia the insurance cost us what Air Asia charge for using a credit card which is only a few $$ per person. Way cheaper than buying separate insurance.

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floydbloke

3523 posts

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#503966 9-Aug-2011 16:58

graemeh:
You are right, some like Amex basically only covered you on the plane but that may have changed. You also have to make sure you follow the rules about paying "pre paid" expenses like pre-booked hotels, they need to generally go on your card too.

My BNZ GlobalPlus card insurance is reasonably comprehensive. Only gotcha is car-rentals, where you have to take all insurances offered, which can quickly be $30 a day for super damage waivers or whatever they chose to call them, unless you want to pay a multi-thousand dollar excess.

There are other travel insurance policies that cover the excess on car rentals without having to pay the extra insurance. Paying for one of these could work out more cost-effective.

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

beforenightfalls

185 posts

Master Geek

#504005 9-Aug-2011 18:27

Just got the same route quoted through flight centre, $1 cheaper than the competition and she has just confirmed she can get the airline to pay for the credit card fees. Its a shame that another agent did all the hard work to get the route but unless that company can match the zero credit card fees I'm forced to go where's cheaper.

graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

#504237 10-Aug-2011 10:39

floydbloke: My BNZ GlobalPlus card insurance is reasonably comprehensive. Only gotcha is car-rentals, where you have to take all insurances offered, which can quickly be $30 a day for super damage waivers or whatever they chose to call them, unless you want to pay a multi-thousand dollar excess.

That's good to know as I have a BNZ GlobalPlus card too. I never pay the $30 a day type charges to rental car companies, I just take the risk on the bigger excess.

You can also get the BNZ insurers to cover stuff normally excluded by the policy. My wife had them cover a pre-existing medical condition and it was only something like $100 and that was for a 30 day European Vacation.

Much cheaper than taking "travel agent" insurance and they would have wanted extra anyway. Using credit card insurance was our travel agent's idea. He said it was a much better deal that what he was able to sell.

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