Travelex International has been a mark of excellence in corporate travel management since 1992. Our experience provides the capability of giving you the best value at the lowest cost for your travel dollar.

We thought the following list of questions and answers would be useful in managing your travel:

• Why should I use a travel agent when I can do it myself, either directly through the airlines/travel vendor, or through other third-party travel sites?

Despite an increasing number of online alternatives, travel agents continue to be the leading distributor of travel products and services.  Agents book 70% of all air travel, 30% of all hotel reservations, and 90% of all cruise reservations.  Professional travel agents are the only unbiased source of travel-related information who can sort through tens-of-thousands of daily air fare changes and various degrees of quality standards found with travel product vendors.

A variety of studies conducted over the years by Consumer Reports magazine show that millions of passengers who book direct are getting a bad deal for their travel dollar. Up to 40% of the flying public pays too much for their travel than they should to fly the exact same route, same seat, same plane, and same class of service.

As reported in the 2006 study by Topaz International, an independent auditing firm, travel agents save their clients an average of $75 per airline ticket over various online sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity.  Their studies over the past four years showed similar or greater savings.
No reasonable person would attempt to buy legal, medical, or financial advice over the internet.  There are too many complex variables and personal choices that need to be made. So it is with travel as well.  When you or your organization invests hundreds, or even thousands of dollars in travel, it makes sense to seek out the help of a professional who can help you wade through the myriad of changes and choices you have in travel products. In addition, we are a one-stop shopping service for all of your travel needs, whether it is for an airline ticket, car rental, hotel reservation, cruise booking, or a package tour.

Best of all, you can depend on us to provide professional advice and courteous service.  We will customize a program to fit your needs and travel budget, and we will back it up with customer technology and support when you need it.  Travelex International has helped corporations and individuals a like in saving time and money.

• What are some benefits of using Travelex International versus the internet or the airlines directly?

• What are some cost reduction strategies my organization can employ to reduce our travel costs?

Several strategies are outlined as follows-

• Review your corporate travel policy to ensure your travelers are in compliance.

• Use non-refundable tickets and purchase at least 7-14 days in advance.

• Combine trips for more than one destination and eliminate non-revenue producing travel.

• Use connecting versus non-stop flights.

• Consider alternative airports for destinations having multiple airports in the region.

• If travel plans change, cancel travel before the scheduled departure date to ensure use in the future.

• Consider all carriers, including low fare carriers such as Southwest, Jet Blue, and Air Tran.

• Use fly/drive packages, meeting or zone fares (groups) or consolidator tickets whenever possible.

• Discuss alternative booking methods with your agent when traveling to multiple stops on one trip.

• Consolidate all travel with your authorized travel management company to capture all travel information.

• Why do travel management companies and full-service travel agencies charge service fees?

Since 1931, travel agencies were compensated for their services by travel suppliers via a commission based on the sales that were generated for a particular supplier. Typically, the commission was in the 5% - 10% range.

Beginning in 1995, the compensation structure for travel agencies began to change dramatically as the airlines started to reduce the commissions they paid. In 2002, airline commissions to travel agencies were eliminated, and many other travel suppliers such as cars and hotels began to reduce their commissions as well.

Professional travel companies have always represented the traveling public but they depended on the travel supplier for their income based on the commissions paid. It was truly a conflict-of-interest- represent the public and their interest but get paid by the suppliers based on the volume of business created. There was no relationship between revenue and costs as the industry unbundled its services.

Ultimately, service fees were created to compensate the travel professional for the services they provided. For the first time in many decades, travel companies analyzed and identified their cost of doing business and began charging for their services accordingly. As a percentage of the total trip cost, fees are a nominal charge and represent on average less than 7% of the cost.

Service fees are now part of the travel landscape, and we know we must continue to show the value we bring to our customer relationship. We desire to show our clients the value-added savings in time and money. In other words, let us focus on the 93% of the total trip cost that we can control and effect, not on the 7% which covers the cost of service.

Travelex International pledges to demonstrate that we will more than offset any service fees by additional enhancements and savings we provide on the total trip cost.

• Does Travelex International have access to all fares, including web fares and unpublished fares?

Yes! Travelex International is proud of its track record of technology enhancements which include its ability to search and display all fares for our clients.

As a SABRE-connected agency (the largest computer reservation system), Travelex International has access to the web content for all the major airlines including American, United, Southwest, US Airways, Continental, and Northwest, Jet Blue, and Air Tran. In addition, we have access to all international airline fares and consolidator fares that provide a price savings over regularly scheduled fares.