Travel agents remain valuable in the digital age

What does it take to be a good travel agent these days?

Today's traveler has more tools at hand, with more information. Prices for travel within the U.S. are transparent--and options often are limitless. A certifiable travel junkie may subscribe to a half-dozen news feeds with instant response on cheap deals. Most have Priceline bookmarked on their desktop.

So with all the information and all the options before them, how do agents bring value to the equation?

I had a conversation with a young lady early this morning that really hit me.

"Can you help me find a cheap ticket to Arizona?" she asked.

"I've checked Travelocity, Expedia and Alaskaair.com and the best I could come up with was more than $700 roundtrip," she continued.

Here's a traveler who has done some of her own homework. But she wasn't getting the results she needed--either from online travel agents or the airline itself.

Local knowledge of the market really makes a difference in this case. A local travel agent could tell her there's a big Alaska Airlines sale coming up with the Permanent Fund Dividend payout. So she should hold tight. Online travel agents don't have that sort of insight into a market--and the airlines won't give up those secrets without a fight. But your local agent, because he or she works the travel market all day, knows this.

A week before, I got a call from a woman trying to get the most out of a trip to the Caribbean. She was anxious to get Alaska Airlines miles--and wasn't sure if she would get her bonus miles if she flew a code-share flight on American or Delta. For about 10 minutes we went over some options, including flying Alaska Airlines to Miami, spending the night and continuing the next morning. There were several other options, including itineraries through Houston or Orlando. She said she would call back.

She called back in about 10 minutes. "What's the name of your travel agent?" I told her--warning there was an additional $38 fee.

"Oh, heck. For this trip, it's worth it--and I've got other things to do," she said.

In addition to local knowledge, the convenience factor is huge when using an agent.  My agent, Kelly Jo McGee of USTravel, helped my friend solve her travel problem quickly while she took care of her other business. Her bonus mileage is intact--and she has the connections she needs. Yes--there's an additional fee to use a travel agent. But they know what they're doing. They can tell at a glance if a flight is likely to be late--or what sort of documentation you need to bring a pet along on an international flight.

There's no question that the internet has opened up a wealth of information to travelers--along with self-planning tools which can save time and money. But more often, travelers need the qualitative input of a trained professional.

Here are some of the mundane tasks I've asked my agent to do:

A. Mileage reservations. With fares so high, I often use miles to get the seats I need. Your travel agent often can track down those hard-to-find mileage seats.

B. Better rates on hotels, cars. Many travel agents belong to special groups that negotiate discounts on hotels and cars.

C. Coordinating trips for family members coming from different locations. This can be a mess--but my agent was able to line everything up! Oh--and my agent was able to split the payment between a couple of different credit cards.

D. Cruises and international travel. It's best to work with an individual agent who is skilled in these areas. While Kelly Jo takes care of most of my family travel and cruise travel, I ask Penny Lampl at the Kodiak branch for advice on international travel.

E. Local knowledge. An agent here in Alaska often can predict local trends--when fares typically go up or when there is a sale pending (like right now). They'll also know when school gets out and thus when it's tough to get a cheap seat out of town.