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Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to goalieskates

Premium Member

to goalieskates

Re: Fees undermine fliers' ability to compare fares

Travel agencies? Those don't exist anymore. You buy your ticket online or don't get one. If you don't buy online, the price is far higher so can't you just lie on the airlines website (except for your name, address, etc)? Of course, if you are a member of the airlines mileage program they already know quite a bit about you. About the only thing they might want to know that they don't know is why you are traveling.

goalieskates
Premium Member
join:2004-09-12
land of big

goalieskates

Premium Member

said by Mele20:

Travel agencies? Those don't exist anymore.

Sure they do. Business travelers use them because they don't have time to go online and pick through the various fees, and there's a constant mantra to keep costs down.

chrisretusn
Retired
Premium Member
join:2007-08-13
Philippines

chrisretusn to Mele20

Premium Member

to Mele20
said by Mele20:

Travel agencies? Those don't exist anymore.

That's odd, I wonder how I got my last trip abroad arranged. A travel agency that how.

Got me the same price I could have gotten on-line. I haven't bought a ticket on-line in years.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to goalieskates

Premium Member

to goalieskates
I don't know of any here. The last one closed just before Christmas. Travel agencies don't get the commissions like they used to and as soon as that happened they started gradually going out of business. We have TOURIST TOUR LAS VEGAS CHARTER ones but not regular travel agencies. Business folks here all fly Hawaiian within the state and generally also to the West Coast and to Japan, etc. Hwaiian now flies to New York City also so generally there is not much need now for any other airline unless for pleasure and then you still usually have no choice. I can fly American to my home town and that is it. Anything other way would be 16 hours as opposed to 8 and would involve a lot of plane changes. So, its Hawaiian or American for me and Hawaiian if possible because they have excellent INCLUDED gourmet meals outside Hawaii travel even for economy seats.

A main reason I got another computer was because it is a necessity for travel. I would pay TWICE as much if I had to buy an inter island ticket from a travel agency (if they existed) as I would online. Same for hotel, car reservations. All is MUCH cheaper when purchased online.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Seems like there are some travel agencies in Hawaii....

»www.regaltravel.com/contact/

»www.hnltravel.com/about_us.html

Just a few of the ones that I saw....

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW to Mele20

Premium Member

to Mele20
said by Mele20:

A main reason I got another computer was because it is a necessity for travel.

The last time I used a Travel Agent for personal use was in 1994.

My previous large employer had a policy that all travel was to be booked through their agent. That said I, and many others, just booked everything online and got better rates. If they'd rejected my expense reports (never did) I guess I'd have used the agent.

Fortunately I no longer need to travel and unless I need to leave the US I'll go by car. The TSA can grope others.

Blackbird
Built for Speed
Premium Member
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN

Blackbird

Premium Member

said by StuartMW:

... unless I need to leave the US I'll go by car. The TSA can grope others.

Hmm. That's a fine attitude! Where's your citizenly sense of "sharing the load"? What about doing it for the children? If the TSA can't grope you, that means somebody else will have to be groped...

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW

Premium Member

Are you saying that groping needs to be redistributed?

Blackbird
Built for Speed
Premium Member
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN

Blackbird

Premium Member

said by StuartMW:

Are you saying that groping needs to be redistributed?

Precisely. It's the fair, equable, responsible, "American" thing to do.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

StuartMW

Premium Member

Ah ok. Well if I'm gonna be groped I at least want dinner and a movie first

I know... I'm not a "team player". I have no intention of "taking one" for the team.

EGeezer
Premium Member
join:2002-08-04
Midwest

EGeezer

Premium Member

Congress is adamantly opposing any expiration of the exemption from TSA groping of members of congress.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

to PX Eliezer704
Hmm...I thought Regal closed. They had been in the Hilo Shopping Center ever since I can remember and then after that law where travel agents no longer get commissions like they did before they first moved to a much smaller office in the same shopping center and then eventually closed and I don't remember any sign about them moving to another location and I don't think they are in the phone book anymore. (But then about 50% of businesses and physicians, etc are no longer listed in the phone book). I sure can't think where they are on the street that is listed. I drive down that street frequently and I have never noticed a travel agency there.

The other one is in Honolulu.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

said by Mele20:

I sure can't think where they are on the street that is listed. I drive down that street frequently and I have never noticed a travel agency there.

I was able to see a photo of the building on Google Maps street view. It is a large beige office building, 2 stories, with several businesses. There is a banner hanging on the building that says Regal Travel, and it looks like an electric Regal sign in a 2nd floor window.

Anyway, just wanted to say that in my experience a travel agent can be of help when an airline or cruise company screws up and/or simply does not want to make good on something....
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20

Premium Member

I did Google maps but I didn't click on the location. I did just now and it had this little photo and would not enlarge it because I had to disable the Flash plugin on Fx as the Proxomitron was not giving me a toggle switch on some sites and stuff would just start playing. I have to go by there tomorrow and look. I think that's the building that used to have a physical therapy place that I went to twice several years ago but they are not there now and I didn't even realize that building had two floors. I have never been in it except for the two physical therapy appointments.

Here's a link on Google that is showing the old address:

Places for regal travel hilo near
Regal Travel
www.regaltravel.com/ - Cached - Similar
Since 1974 our travel agency has been providing exceptional vacation travel planning to help you explore the world. We're travelers also and have been ...
1251 Kilauea Avenue, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 935-5796
insiderpages.com

Regal was big...big office and operated its own mileage rewards program for many years. Then they downsized drastically and said it was due to that new law about commissions and then they finally disappeared I thought. I would not have thought to look for them on a second floor of some building when since 1974 (about a year and one-half after I arrived) they had been on ground level on the shopping center sidewalk with huge windows and lots of enticing ads and photos of places to travel to and even when they moved it was still big windows and on the sidewalk just smaller space. Moving from the oldest (and very well maintained) shopping center here with high visibility to a building in the downtown general vicinity but second floor and I think part of the main floor is unoccupied for years now...well, that says that commission policy change did hurt them ((and so many getting computers and using online to book travel).

That's a good point about a travel agent being useful to have if the vacation, cruise, etc was messed up. I can readily see the value if the trip involves more than one location, a variety of hotels, rental cars, paid excursions, etc.
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO to EGeezer

Premium Member

to EGeezer
said by EGeezer:

Congress is adamantly opposing any expiration of the exemption from TSA groping of members of congress.

They should be in first lines to be groped (and learn in the process, what they have done for the rest of us)... As they say, we all are equal. But those are making themselves more equal then others...
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

1 recommendation

Kearnstd to StuartMW

Premium Member

to StuartMW
said by StuartMW:

Ah ok. Well if I'm gonna be groped I at least want dinner and a movie first

I know... I'm not a "team player". I have no intention of "taking one" for the team.

I bet there is a fee for that.

Seating and candle lighting fee
seat cushion fee
Saying hello fee
menu fee
cost of meal
carrying the meal to your table fee
etc

The movie...
Line Fee
ticket printing fee
popping the popcorn fee

After all its the airport, There is likely a fee for everything the airlines can dream of!