any thoughts on better pricing if you use a travel agent?

You'd be hard pressed to find a travel agent that sells plane tickets these days and most charge extra, not less. The exception might be flights to exotic places, but certainly not to SXM.

The AAA in our area still sells tickets but I think it is between $25 and $40 for their service. They have no access to any better prices than one of us going to the airline website.

The only time that you're likely to get better pricing through an agency is if that agency has access to bulk tickets, and passes that savings on to you.

I use a travel agent from time to time, and pay a small extra fee when I do. There are multiple reasons for doing so, including the expertise of the agent, lack of time on my part, complicated itineraries, and having a resource to fall back on if things go wrong. A good travel agent can be worth their weight in gold.

I agree with Bahston. I do not travel out of the country that often so I go with AAA. Normally I have already decided where I want to stay, but they may can help you with that if you have not. Usually, they think of and include something I have not thought about. Prices do not seem to be any different than what I see online, but I am satisfied that the trip will go more smoothly and I have someone to call if it doesn't. If you travel a lot and you know all the potential glitches you are probably ok to do it on your own. In my case if something goes wrong I can always tell wife blame it on the TA, even if not their fault either.

Our sister works at travel agency and we always get our tix through her for flights, etc. If we see something online, she will come within 10 bucks and this way we have someone to rely on should anything go wrong,,,can't beat that with a stick!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

For someplace exotic, then booking through a TA (and usually paying EXTRA, which the OP was asking about saving money), can be helpful, if you're not familiar with the area. For SXM, it's really not that hard, to know what your options are for flights, etc. And for flights, travel agents have zero pull with anyone any more, like they used to have, years and years ago. For hotels, yeah, maybe. Flights, no.

The best two things that you can do to hopefully ensure less problems is to a) book a nonstop flight, if available and b) ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS book directly with the airline, not through a booking agent like Expedia, Travelocity, etc. If there does happen to be a problem, the airline and the booking agent will chase each other around, each blaming the other for the problem, and leaving the passenger hanging..

The one problem with relying on a travel agent IF something goes wrong is getting in touch with them and what created the problem to begin with. You have a unique situation that not everyone else will have.

A few years ago my mother-in-law booked a family vacation to Punta Cana over the Christmas/New Years time period. We all know what usually happens to air travel over Thanksgiving and the year end major holidays....DELAYS, CANCELLED FLIGHTS and WEATHER. Bad weather moved in, delayed several departures by 3 days and the travel agent couldn't do a thing about it and was not available over the weekend when things started to look bad.

I am not knocking travel agents but it is still up to the person that has their name on the ticket to take action and do so quickly when a problem arises. The airlines nor travel agents control the weather and one little hiccup in the system and chaos breaks out.

As Carol stated, perhaps with a hotel, a resort or a package vacation a travel agent can possibly be of assistance and pull some strings. With air travel, not so much other than booking or rebooking a flight and they will not have any better access or prices than the airline itself will. I am pretty sure they use the same reservation system.

You guys are right,,,I do have a unique situation, so that is why I use a travel agent everytime,,,now if I could get a doctor or nurse in the family......????? lol