Q – We are in our mid-forties and, being self-employed, I’ve worked things out so I can get away up to four weeks a year on various vacations. Most last a week but sometimes we do a longer trip. I don’t use an agent because all we are booking are flights and hotels and, quite frankly, sometimes we just arrive in our destination and select a place to stay or we use AirBnB to book a small home or apartment. Yes, we’ve one or two hiccups, but for the most p[art, the freedom to just do our own thing, mostly beaches, is worth it.
My question has to do with strategy. Given our profile should we be using a travel agent and how should we focus that search? I would also like to know whether you would trust Kayak or Skyscanner more in terms of finding the lowest fares?
A – We really see no reason why you should not continue to make your own travel arrangements. We think that a professional agent with expertise might get in your way. Kayak and Skyscanner are really quite different. Kayak is good at showing you routing, who flies it, and what the airlines are charging on their own sides. It is one-stop for fares and schedules. Skyscanner consolidates data from a number of firms that sell discounted tickets. It also checks them out, to a degree, as discounted international air tickets from third parties is frequently not what it appears to be. The best strategy for air is simple. Search everywhere and everything you want to until you have all of your “information”. Then go to the airline’s actual site and book it directly with them. It is foolish to do otherwise as you have little recourse if there is a change or more serious problem down the runway.
