Any travel agents on here? High flight prices

[Colinorpercy]

We are trying to book a cruise with flights/hotel. But the flight prices the agent is quoting are way more than what we can get when we look online. I always thought TAs should be able to get better prices, but it seems this is no longer the case. And it’s a lot more…like 4 figures! We don’t really want to risk not booking it all as a package but the flight prices are just making the holiday unaffordable. Are any TAs on here experiencing the same thing or do we need to look elsewhere?!

Show the agent what you are finding and ask them to book that way?

I did but they said they can’t get those prices on their system 😩. I always thought agents could get preferential rates!

Book the flights with one nights hotel?

I just get nervous not having a package when it involves a cruise. If there’s war/ash clouds/extreme weather etc it’s going to be a ballache if we can’t get there but the cruise is still sailing….i am perhaps very risk averse though!

Last time I searched for long haul flights I got loads of headline prices that turned out to be clickbait when I followed the links to book.
Maybe they’re telling you the confirmed prices.
where are you going and when?

We went all the way through as if we were booking and the TA said they can’t always get the same prices as the public now which I think seems odd as it always used to be the other way around! We are flying from Scotland in April next year to Orlando so options are a bit more limited than if we were flying direct from london

Try other travel agencies, specialist cruise agents, the cruise line themselves often can book flights too

I’ve got a few enquiries in with other places so will see what they say. They are all specialist cruise agencies but haven’t looked at flight options specifically with cruise like themself so will have a look at that.

Opposite of OP, I always find I can get better prices than TAgents can get.

Worth getting quotes from the cruise line. There is less flexibility on dates though, if you were wanted a longer stay before or after.

Travel agent here. Flights are hard for us to get cheaper than you as up to around 50 percent of it is tax. We sometimes can access different categories which will mean cheaper. And/or we get a small percentage off retail prices. Often the savings we can make for you are around knowledge of alternative flight routes and dates. Sounds like OP doesn't have much flexibility here so this is potentially why the travel agent can't help save money in this instance.

If booking yourself please only ever book via the airline itself. Not Kayak and other similar supermarkets. If somewhere is saying that the are cheaper than the airline itself then be very wary (and make sure you are comparing like for like and have gone all the way through to checkout as a PP said). Flight supermarkets often are not giving you live prices and so will ask for more money a few days/weeks after you have booked.

Flight prices very much depend on when you book them. Once the cheapest category sells out the next cheapest category is on sale and so on until all sold.

Some travel agents will add commission on the flights so will always be more expensive than buying direct. But as you say they then give you financial protection if you book as a package plus can help you out with lost luggage, sourcing and rebooking delayed flights and so on.

After transfers I'd say that flights give travel agents the most hassle.

Some travel agents have no say in what they charge, ie they have to add X percentage onto everything no matter what. But some independent travel agents have full flexibility (not all though).

I do have flexibility and don't charge anything for flights but do charge commission on hotels and cruises as I can get them much cheaper than the public so still end up saving the client money and making me money.

OP - if you do end up sorting yourself then make sure that you leave at least 48 hours between arriving at your destination and your cruise departing. That gives you the best chance to get your cruise in case flights are delayed.

Hope that helps. Happy to answer any other travel agent related questions if that's of help to anyone.

Sometimes when you look at flights online, the price you initially see doesn’t include any hold luggage and are sometimes at rubbish times of day.

I was a TA a very long time ago. The costs are cheaper booking independently. I’ve booked flights to Vietnam with a stopover in KL with Malaysian airline in economy for £3600 total inc tax and bags for 4 of us in August. I called both travel bag and trailfinders and they were both coming in over £1k more for exactly the same flights. Needless to say I booked online direct with the airline.

This is what has put me off booking cruises that don't include flights and need them to be priced up separately (like MSC, RC etc). I am far too risk averse! We use P&O cruises which means they hold the ship if any flights are delayed. Plus you see the total price upfront straight away, so no nasty surprises afterwards.

Aren’t flights from Scotland always more expensive? I got chatting to some Scottish people at Manchester airport recently. They said they always drive down to fly as savings are worth it.

I take a couple of cruises a year and have done so for the last 15 years. I have never booked a package. Cruise, flights, hotel all separate. I make sure I have insurance with cruise cover in case of unforeseen circumstances. In said 15 years I've never needed to use it... although came close in 2023 when I chanced booking the last flight of the day which was at risk of being cancelled, and my post cruise flight home was cancelled earlier this year but I was rebooked quickly by the airline who also covered my costs.

Not a TA but have done many cruises and a mix of agent booked and self booked flights. I also used to work for Thomas cook to you can imagine how long ago that was!

agent booked is cheaper if it’s a pre made package that they sell as a package. If it’s a tailor made package they are more expensive so we book independantly. We have never missed a cruise yet! We normally do one night pre cruise and we buy most of our flight on Avios from LHR or long haul via schipol. We got a tailor made quote for Japan fly cruise and stay and it was eye watering.

if it’s a short hop with plenty of flights get an early morning flight as this means there is scope for delays.

the big cruise travel agents like Iglu and cruise nation will have pre built packages they sell and somewhere like Florida will be popular with brits so imagine a package will come up soon.

we also had one via our local independent TA that had sold a package from Main Street tour operator.

next year we will be going to Orlando for a week and the a cruise so I can’t wait for that!

Book things separately. Give yourself plenty of time to get from flight to cruise e.g flight the previous day and stay close to your departure spot. Get insurance so if the flight is cancelled or delayed that’s covered. You may need to check that a missed departure/cruise is covered and remember they will only cover it if you have given yourself enough time so day before will be more than adequate.

My partner and I quite avid travellers and we always book our own flights independently and book private accommodation through such as Airbnb and it makes it vastly because no middle person is trying to get profit for the travel agency plus their commission! Also if there's an issue with flights you can get it resolved becatyiu haven't got airlines agents trying to pass the book to each other.

Thanks very much for your reply, I read it and completely forgot to reply! It’s intetesting, I always just assumed that agents got better deals on flights. We were looking at flying in a few days before to be on safe side! But did shop around a bit and managed to get a better price with another agent. Not that much more than doing it ourselves and gives us the peace of mind.

If it’s long haul then they are generally yes because you are having to add in a connection and there’s not as many direct long haul options. But if it’s english school holidays then sometimes Scotland is cheaper/similar. We sometimes fly from Manchester if it’s Scottish school holidays, can save a lot even when you factor in fuel/train/hotel. The drive home is a drag though 😩