For the first time in decades, I changed how I book a trip

May 13, 2026 — 5:00am

News of travel agents’ demise has been greatly exaggerated. According to many observers, your friendly travel agent should have perished multiple times over by now. They should be flipping burgers or peddling insurance, not upselling you on cruise packages in the Mediterranean.

And yet somehow, for some reason, they’re still around.

First came the internet, which was sure to spell disaster for travel agents. With flight deals at everyone’s fingertips, not to mention all the information you could ever need about a destination and the ways of seeing it, who would ever need to call into their local agent to ask for a quote?

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which once again was certain to decimate all travel-related businesses and jobs. And in some respects, it did. STA Travel disappeared, never to return. Plenty of travel agents from STA and other agencies left the travel industry and many have not been tempted back.

And now we have AI, which is surely the final nail in the agent coffin. Not only is all the information there at our fingertips, we now have artificial intelligence to sort through the morass and tell us where to go and how to get there and what the cheapest deals are on the cruise line of your choice.

And yet still, travel agents survive. They’re like tardigrades, the world’s most resilient creatures. They just won’t go away. On the contrary, there are plenty of reasons for those who drifted away from travel agents to now come back to the fold.

Last Wednesday was Global Travel Advisors Day, which sounds like I made it up but it’s a real thing. It’s a good time, then, to have a look at the impressive survival of travel agents, and the reasons people still use them in this age of internet and AI.

When the travel is cancelled, the service has still taken place, and should be paid for.

One of those, and perhaps the most obvious, is the safety net, the knowledge that there’s someone there on the end of the phone to help you when things go wrong. This has happened a lot in the last few months, with flight cancellations and the necessary re-routing or cascading cancellations needed for those trying to fly through the Middle East.

You can’t call up ChatGPT to get it to ensure you can still join your tour in three days’ time. You can’t call Qatar Airways and get the airline to make alternative arrangements for you with another airline.

Travel agents can do that. Most of them are very good at it. People see value there.

Admittedly, there have been complaints about travel agents’ behaviour during the Iran War and the associated fuel crisis. Traveller readers have been unhappy about agents taking a fee from flight bookings, even when those bookings had to be cancelled.

Personally, I don’t see a problem with that. When you book travel with an agent you pay for two things: the travel itself, and the service of the agent. Those two costs are essentially combined, but it’s two separate products. When the travel is cancelled, the service has still taken place, and should be paid for.

The next is trusted expertise. Not every travel agent will be able to deliver this. But those who really do know what they’re talking about, who know the best seats on the plane, the best rooms in the hotel, the best time to visit a destination, the best local agency to use for tours – those travel agents are worth something. They’re worth a commission. They deserve a cut.

How are you going to get to Europe now that you can’t go through the Middle East? Singapore Airlines and Qantas pop to mind, but what about Turkish Airlines, or the Chinese or Korean carriers, or even going through the US? Can you have a stopover with those airlines but not pay any extra? Is anyone offering a free hotel room if you do take a stopover?

I know a lot about travel, but I can’t answer that. I doubt many laymen could. But a good travel agent can.

There’s price to consider too, which isn’t always as simple as it appears. Yes, you can book your own flight online, but the dynamic pricing systems increasingly used by airlines means fares can fluctuate by the minute, depending on your search history. How do you ensure you’re getting the best deal?

I have to admit that, until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t used a travel agent in years. Probably decades. I’m a confident, knowledgeable traveller who enjoys taking the time to research different travel options on my own. I’m happy to deal with airlines direct in the rare case of an emergency.

But then the Iran situation blew up and my trip to Spain this month edged closer and closer. The UAE was still a “do not travel” zone, and Emirates was offering free cancellations in my window of travel. So I made the call and canned the flights, and needed some other way to get to Europe.

There are a lot of options. Too many to navigate in a short space of time. So, I had a travel agent do it. I’m flying to Barcelona via Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul, which isn’t ideal, but I’ll get there, and it hasn’t cost too much.

And that, right there, is how an industry survives.