Actually I agree with much of what "undo" writes (and surprisingly well for a techno nerd! Paragraphs and general syntax fine. Get an irish passport.).
I've said it before - bad/lazy travel agents should disappear. Clever ones can make a living without ripping off people -as long as the government stops adding taxes, fees,compulsary audits and high bonding and, soon VAT, to our business.
A level-playing field with internet providers would be fairer.
Anyway, why would people pay us for just booking a flight ?
Well, in comes a family or a couple wanting to get to ABC for a funeral, wedding, college interview (a lot recently) or (a hell of a lot recently) job interviews.
They don't have creidt cards -along with half the population. Or maybe,increasingly nowadays, they owe too much on their cards.
Assuming they have computers and know how to use the internet they may have seen a flight to ABC for ,say,70 or 180 or whatever euros each return.
Can we book it for them please ?
Well,a few points:-
1) when it's two or more pax we may not book all of them together. Oten when we split the booking at least one person is at a cheaper fare. Sometimes three out of four of the group are at the cheaper fare and the last one at the dearer fare.
You already know how to do that . Most people don't.
It means a lot of seperate bookings which is a drag but it saves money.
2)In many cases people don't know about alternative airports. They'll ask to go to XYZ and the fare is crazy.But fifty miles is another airport where they can fly for much less and get the connecting train which we provide details of.
3)They may need one or a few nights in a local hotel. Nothing posh-often a B&B. We book a local cheapy that we know is O.K. They often ask for bus and train details to get to their particular destinations. Besides all the usual questions that I often see on travel blogs aboyt luggage, pasports etc.
4)We also do the online check-in for Ryanair and will do for any other airline.
I charge 30 euros for one person and a decreasing scale for two or more,like 15 euros per person if there's four of them.
(Remember I may have saved them a lot by a couple of tricks like splitting the booking. Also I split the outbounds and returns to non-Euro destinations because of currency savings. That is, its sometimes cheaper to book the outbound in euro and the inbound in sterling,dollars etc.)
For those who get pleasure seeking deals on the intenet and like spending time saving money the the internet is great.Especially when they travel a lot,know the nasty "traps" on airline websites.
For the many people this is not the case. Many people only go abroad once every year -or less.
Incredibly -to you - many people come in and like chatting , not only about their travel plans but about their kids, houses, the state of the economy or the price of beer.
We get to know them and what they like. And we know that if we rip them off in this area we wouldn't last long.
However, as I said, with increasing govnt charges,fees and approaching VAT I know that i won't be around for ever.
P.S. On a small connected point....
This is what many travel agents find typical of some customers....
... a local businesman, big flash car, will order a fifty euro wine in restaurants.
Asks for a holiday to XYZ with various specifications. We find it and spend time getting the info. We charge him 1.500 and give him all details.
Comes back and says his secretary (Mrs Undo ?) has looked up all the details and can get it 80 euros cheaper. Can we knock off 80 and he'll book with us.
It's not the 80 euro -especially for him. It's the fact someone else is making money,forgetting the fact he or his scretary has spent time and effort finding the details (or in this cAse we spent time and he expects us to do it for nowt).
Anyway, I've gained some more insight into anti-travel agent sentiment much of which is understandable -and rather than rail at the Gods I should attempt to keep this business open longer by providing better value and service.
Now, off to pretend to work this week.......