Travel Agency annoyances

[tvordlj]

Am a little annoyed at the moment. I know travel agencies don't make anything off airlines now so they charge a fee if you ask them to book a ticket. However, when i first spoke to the woman at the agency a month ago, i was under the impression that they would not charge the fee if i also booked a car, hotel and cancellation insurance through them. The agent emailed me yesterday, and by the time i got it, she was gone from the office. It was just to confirm the flight details and the price, quoted *with* the fee was over a $100 more than i can get from the Air Canada website. If they're charging 100 dollars in fees, that's a lot not to mention that i didn't think i'd get charged at all. She's not in until this afternoon so i can't contact her until then. The other person working at the agency said they only waive fees for flights if i was booking a tour or cruise. I *might* continue on with this if they don't charge additional fees for the car and hotel, depending on the price of those as probably the 100 doesn't seem so bad when you spread it over the total cost of everything. It's a shame really, because they do a good job but so many people can get just as good deal or better on the net that i'm sure they're finding it difficult to stay afloat. I can get a hotel in London for 55 pounds a night for a double en suite, i can get the ticket at a very good price, the only thing that would cost me more is the car and i've seen ok prices on Autoeurope.ca. Destina.ca and Expedia.ca show up good prices but they are the price *before* taxes, not the total price which is a nuisance. I also think there's a little bit extra security booking with a travel agent who you can call and will sort out everything if something goes wrong. We'll see when i talk to her later today.

Edited: She says there's always a fee when booking an Air Canada flight (except i suppose, if i were booking a tour or cruise, i didn't ask) and she said the fee was 69 so there is still some discrepancy somewhere. She's going to look into it. I guess if you take that fee across the cost of everything it won't seem like as much. I'll see what she comes up with for a hotel too.