Why do some people not book flights directly with the airlines?

Brendan Burgess

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I have seen a few cases where people had refund issues and there was an agent involved which made everything more complicated.

This is just the latest example :

Airline canceled flight - refund issue

Hi All, We were traveling via Lufthansa (booked through MyTrip) from Dublin Airport in July 2024 and our flight was canceled by Lufthansa due to climate activists sitting on the runway of Frankfurt Airport. The Lufthansa told us to look at alternatives ourselves as they couldn't accommodate us...
www.askaboutmoney.com

I don't know who mytrip is, but why would anyone book through them and not directly with the airline?
 
In my case, the tickets booked via MyTrip was about €150 cheaper (for 3 persons) compared to the direct booking via Lufthansa.

However, for our next holiday I paid the little extra (€40 this time for all 3 persons) and booked directly via the airlines.
 
You could say this about booking holidays to Europe with travel agents. You pay per person. If you book yourself, the hotel portion is charged per room. Quite often the advertised day trips are simply trips you can take yourself from the local bus or train station.

You often hear I will never fly with Ryanair. I know someone who only flies Air France. Pays three times the price.

Maybe when people book through third parties they arrange the transfers from the airport. I think that some people are terrified to try the transfer from the airport to the hotel themselves.
 
SoylentGreen said:
You could say this about booking holidays to Europe with travel agents.
Click to expand...

I could understand if someone wants a travel agent to book a full holiday for them including hotels, transfers and tours.

But booking flight only doesn't make that much sense.

But I had not realised that they could get you discounts.

I would always try to book the hotel directly but have on occasion found that booking.com is either cheaper or gives you free cancellation.
 
It used to be that the airlines didn't get any payment from the travel agents until the flight was taken (not sure of this is still the case). If you wanted to cancel a ticket booked through an agent, the airline didn't have your money to give back to you.

Travelocity used to sell people airlines' lowest refundable fare, but didn't allow refunds.
 
As someone who regularly uses online travel agents the only reason is price. They are regularly quite a bit cheaper than booking directly with the airline.

I used to use them all the time and then got burned badly with one that went out of business, thought I wouldn’t use them again but now I do again as haven thought through the risks and benefits overall I think is worth the risk

I do try to only use it when
A - they are significantly cheaper
B- Flight is soon enough to less chance of things changing for me or the airline
C- It’s an online travel agent ai have heard of.
 
To reply to my own post - on reflection I have thought of two other reasons I have used online travel agencies to book flights. One is when tickets are just not available on the airlines website, this happens most often with difficult open jaw routes to Africa or Asia. An online travel agency will price the route but the airlines themselves done seem to be able. I also used online travel emergencies last year in Vietnam when the airlines website wouldn’t accept foreign cards, think this happened in India too,
 
  1. using a site like skyscanner searches all airlines, so it's handy for finding the most suitable airline(s)
  2. price can be cheaper
  3. the best itinerary may involve multiple airlines
  4. if you already have an account with one of the agent companies it can make the booking process quicker as you just log in and it has all your details
  5. some airlines have poor websites, that are either unreliable or clunky to use or designed for people in the airline's home country
 
It’s partially laziness. I’ve booked rental cars and flights through booking.com as it’s a lot simpler. I find a lot of airlines’ websites and apps to be slow and often bug-prone.

I had a friend recently burned by booking.com on a car rental (cancelled an hour before collection) and have stopped ever since.
 
Now could I request all to have a look at the main post?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I don't know who mytrip is, but why would anyone book through them and not directly with the airline?
Click to expand...
Mytrip is an online travel agency (OTA). They are the sort of company that Michael O'Leary goes to great lengths to try and prevent selling Ryanair tickets.

They may offer flights at lower prices than you can get from the airline itself (not Ryanair). Price is the only reason to use them They will try and sell you insurance and personal pre-departure booking modification or support at an extra cost.

They make it clear in their T&C that they offer a travel mediation service, and your contract for travel is with the airline or other third party. It's a buyer beware experience.

Personally, I would not buy flights/hotels etc. through anyone that is telling me are not creating a contract for the provisional of the relevant travel services with me.
 
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