this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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Yeah, when's the last time anyone used a travel agent (though in fairness Google wasn't the only reason that job fell into obscurity, as sites like Expedia also contributed).
Travel agents are still widely used by small and medium sized businesses. It's much faster to say "Get these two people to London for these days" in an email instead of manually looking for flight tickets and hotels.
But I haven't heard of anyone using them for private trips in a long time.
In 20 years of business travel across many countries and industries, I have been happy with the agent's choices maybe four times. These days I skip the corp agent and just book tickets myself, then expense them. Fewer layovers, better seat choices, and having my own name on travel plans is a ton better than I get from someone who is just trying to close a ticket and get someone from A to B.
A nice side effect is that my trips are usually cheaper than colleagues who use the agent, so I never have to justify why I did it myself.
Well, TIL. I've never worked at a small/mid sized business, my jobs have always had dedicated travel coordinators for that type of stuff. Interesting to know, though!
You've had "in-house" travel agents and you didn't realize it! ;)
Why would a small business, but not a big business, use a travel agent?
(It's true that at least the big business I worked at didn't, although it did have its own internal search engine for finding flights and hotels with approved companies.)
travel agents are still around, I know one
and honestly, from what I can tell, you would be a fool not to use one if you are planning to go somewhere you have never been and want it all mapped out for you. They have access to things that you cant find in a google search
How do you think Expedia, et al, function? 😅