In Reply to: Savings all depends posted by Holladaze on Saturday, 7. July 2007 at 14:26 Bali Time:
The best way to check out what kind of deal you are really getting is to get a detailed quote from your favourite TA and then do a wb search of your own for price comparison purposes. You will often find that accommodation prices are indeed cheaper if you do it yourself, often by a large amount, but not always. Most of the larger chains almost encourage self booking as their web sites have specific pages dedicated to the self help traveller. The savings are even greater if you join one of the loyalty programmes, for free, and take advantage of their many and frequent offers. I wouldn't be too bothered by the changing fees for maintenance, service, etc, as I think you will find that they are only changed in line with normal price rises (ie: annually). The same goes for flight prices. In Australia the REAL taxes levied on all flights are completely independant of the US Dollar. They are set by Federal and State Governments as well as the airport operators. Levies are set by the actual airlines. Overseas operators operate on similar lines and just maybe they could vary with changing cerrency rates. However, beware of what the travel agents claim are taxes. They veery often disguise their own charges into taxes so as you do not know exactly what you are paying. You can verify this by simply checking the different levels of "taxes" to the same location in any of the weekend papers.
The main thing is to enjoy yourself though so , no matter how you book. just have a great time.
Cheers
Maverick