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SINGAPORE-LONDON-PRAGUE-BUDAPEST-SINGAPORE
BEST ONLINE DEAL: $2,907. My own search beat any offerings from both online and traditional travel agents. Heres what I came up with: Flights from Singapore to London and Budapest to Singapore cost $1,503 on Lufthansas website. The London-to-Prague flight on Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Airs website costs $113, and Prague to Budapest on Czech Airlines is $646 from CheapTickets. Total airfare a person: $2,262. Hotel stay in Mayflower Hotel & Apartments in Londons Kensington area costs $708 for three nights ($236 a night) from Booking.com. Hotels.com gave me Ibis Praha Old Town in Pragues Old Town for $395 for three nights ($132 a night) and Best Western Hotel Orion in Budapests Castle Hill for $186 for three nights ($62 a night). Total accommodation price a person (based on twin-sharing basis): $645. The online agents popular with travellers could not match me. Of the lot, CheapTickets and Misa were the best on flights, at $2,548. Zuji was next with $2,861 and Expedia was a pricey $2,974. CheapTickets shone because it offered a wide variety of budget carriers such as Britain-based EasyJet and Wizz Air for the London to Prague leg. Its Wizz Air flight was $124, about half the price of Zujis and Misas $260-plus fare on British Airways. But Expedia gave a competitive price of $212 for the same flight on British Airways. And yet, in a one-hour search, I got deals $286 cheaper than the best of them. For example, fare comparison site Skyscanner brought me to Wizz Air direct for the $113 London to Prague fare, and CheapTickets for the lowest Czech Airlines flight from Prague to Budapest at $646. As for accommodation, the online travel agents offered few hotels in Londons Kensington area in the $200 price range (most were in the $300 to $500 range), but I could find a good variety of $200-plus hotels on price comparison site Wego. Wego led me to the fairly decent Mayflower Hotel & Apartments on Booking. com for $236 a night. When Google Maps pointed out it was only a three-minute walk to Earls Court tube station, I was sold. For Prague, I found the modern-looking Ibis Praha Old Town, a five-minute walk to Old Town Square, from Hotels.com for $132 a night. Zuji offered the same price for Ibis, while CheapTickets and Misa gave Best Western Hotel Pav, a longer 10-minute walk from Old Town Square, in the cheaper $110 range. Expedia offered the dated-looking Betlem Club Hotel for $161. In Budapest, I found the Best Western Hotel Orion located within 1km from attractions such as the Buda Castle for $62 a night on Hotels.com, the cheapest compared to the online agents, which were $74 to $123. BEST TRAVEL AGENT DEAL: $3,302. Chan Brothers offered flights from Singapore to London, London to Prague, Prague to Budapest, Budapest to Singapore on British Airways for $2,677. Hotel stays in Brompton Hotel in London cost $799 ($266 a night), Pension Easy Journey in Prague for $206 ($69 a night) and a

thesundaytimes June 17, 2012

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June 17, 2012 thesundaytimes
four-star Mercure Budapest Buda Hotel for $245 ($82 a night). Total accommodation a person (twin-share): $625. The consultant from Chan Brothers mispronounced Prague as something that sounded like Paraguay. But he did give me the best deal of all the travel agents British Airways all the way, including the Prague to Budapest leg. The others did not offer regional flights because they said prices for such flights, especially on the European budget carriers, change so quickly that travellers have to book on the spot themselves. But the Chan Brothers deal had a major disadvantage: To go from Prague to Budapest, I had to fly back to London to catch a flight to Budapest. The flight from Prague to Budapest is just one hour and 20 minutes, so the doubling back is a hassle. Still, it gave me the best hotel deal, especially in London, where I got an almost 50 per cent lower rate than what the other travel agents offered, and in Budapest, where I got a four-star hotel in the same price range as three-star hotels recommended by other agents.

Bottom line: Go online. The $395 difference between the total online price and Chan Brothers is too significant to be ignored. Plus the doubling back to London for the flight to Budapest is time-consuming.

PHOTOS: ST FILE, ISTOCK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Wat Arun is an old Bangkok landmark which is lit up at night and seems to float like an apparition across the river.

First-time visitors to Tokyo can start at Asakusa, where time seems to have stopped still.

FIVE DAYS SINGAPORE-BANGKOK

BEST ONLINE DEAL: $289 that I found myself. Return flights on Tiger Airways website are a mere $164. Four-night stay on a twin-share basis in three-star Imm Fusion Sukhumvit in the business and entertainment district of Sukhumvit costs $250 ($63 a night). As this was a single-city itinerary, I could use the online agents bundle packaging option, which promises to save about 10 to 20 per cent if I book a flight and hotel together. This is not available for itineraries spanning multiple cities. To keep things simple, I searched for the same hotel the three-star Imm Fusion Sukhumvit which is a two-minute walk to the BTS SkyTrain On Nut station across all online agents, but was open to any airlines offering the cheapest airfare that the websites could find. I found Imm Fusion while searching through Zujis website for a three-star hotel in Sukhumvit and was won over by pictures of its Thai-style interior and SkyTrain proximity. Plus, it was only $63 a night in my preferred location. Expedia and CheapTickets gave flight and hotel packages at about $300 on Thai AirAsia and Tiger respectively, which were closest to what I got through my own search. Zuji had the most pricey combination, at $358 on board Jetstar. Misa did not provide a budget airline option, yet its offering came to just $335 with flights on full-fledged carrier Thai Airways. While the online agents had the convenience of booking both flights and hotels at a competitive price, I did not mind the extra work clicking through sites as the itinerary was simple. Skyscanner brought me to Tigers website for the cheapest airfare to Bangkok, while Imm Fusion Sukhumvits website offered a similar rate of $63 a night. The combined flight and hotel rates came to $289 a person, which was about $11 cheaper than the lowest rate offered by Expedia and CheapTickets. The savings may seem insignificant given that it took me double the time to search for these rates. But hey, this is Bangkok and $11 can actually buy me a dress from the Pratunam wholesale market. So whos complaining? BEST TRAVEL AGENT DEAL: $460 from Asa Holidays. The deal was for return flights on Thai Airways, two-way airport transfer, half-day city tour, four-night stay in three-star Nantra de Comfort in Sukhumvit and daily breakfast. Regional travel may not be travel agents strength because they do not offer budget airlines unless you really insist. For that, you have to book on the spot at the agents office. Ms Iris Kok, Dynasty Travels assistant manager of marketing and communications, says this is because budget airlines require an instant confirmation as prices change constantly. So it makes more sense for consumers to book the budget flights themselves, say travel agents. Ms Kok adds that travel agents, however, do tie up with full-fledged carriers for promotions and the deal may be better than what budget airlines offer. However, total flight and hotel prices quoted for this trip by agents ranged from $430 to $568 for flights on Thai Airways or Cathay Pacific, and stays in three-star hotels in Sukhumvit. That works out to be about at least $140 more than what I found in my online search using budget airlines. But if I were time-strapped and a first-time visitor to Bangkok, Asas airport transfer and city tour would appeal.

The skyline of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, at sunrise.

CLICKS OR BRICKS?
Is it easier and cheaper to book travel deals online or with a traditional travel agent? SundayLife! finds out
Huang Huifen

Bottom line: Go online. Bangkok is not far so why splurge on the airfare? Taxis from the airport to the city are fairly cheap, at about $12 a trip, so you do not need an airport transfer, and city tours take up precious shopping time.

t is a hot time for travel at the moment and not just in sizzling destinations. Bricks-and-mortar travel agents are feeling the heat as booking the online way takes off. Hardly a conversation about holidays with friends or family goes by without someone boasting how he scored a steal of a deal with the click of a mouse. And yet, those so-called dinosaur travel agents are alive and kicking with their own regular travel fairs heaving with brochure-wielding Singaporeans seeking shopping mall heaven or a holiday haven. So, have online travel agents really sent the traditional agents packing? Are the best deals really online? SundayLife! devised a test to find out. We checked with four online agents and four bricks-and-mortar agents to see who could give the best deal for free-and-easy itineraries ranging from a five-day trip to Bangkok to a complicated Europe trip involving multiple cities. The websites were four popular ones Zuji, Misa Travel, CheapTickets and Expedia. The latter two are newbies compared to the rest, having been launched here only last year but which are already

proving a hit. We also used fare compari- went beyond prices too, because I could son websites Skyscanner and Wego. search a wider variety of flight and hotel The traditional travel agents we consult- options. ed are household names to many happy But it was not all cyber satisfaction. Singaporean travellers over the years CTC Searching online has its downside. It is Travel, Chan Brothers Travel, Dynasty time-consuming, not to mention overTravel and Asa Holidays. whelming, to go through multiple websites We called their free-and-easy hotlines to compare prices and read travellers anonymously and rated the agents based reviews on the hotels. Searches for this test on price, service and quality of recommen- sometimes took up to two hours. dations. It can be easier and more cost-effective The test involved four itineraries to four to just pick up the phone and call a tradidestinations Bangkok, tional agent. Japan, United States And there is nothand Europe for travel Home-grown retail agents ing like the human in August, and hotel like us provide after-sales touch, when it works. r o o m s o n a t w i n - support, pre-trip, on-trip For example, Dynasty sharing basis. For conTravel was helpful in sistency, we asked only and post-trip assistance as offering three options for three-star standard well as 24-hour emergency for hotels for my trip hotels and fixed the assistance. to Japan. neighbourhood we MS EILEEN OH, head of marketing and Another perk of want to stay in. using a travel agent communications at Asa Holidays Flights were selected instead of an online based on the best flight booking website is timings and price, while hotels were cho- that there is always someone to call in sen based on what we thought sounded times of emergency. like the best value in price, facilities and Ms Eileen Oh, head of marketing and proximity to tourist attractions and ameni- communications at Asa Holidays, cites an ties such as train stations. example of how her company helped Hand-in-hand with the online explo- evacuate travellers whose plans were dission, consumer feedback sites such as rupted by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. TripAdvisor have sprung up, and so we also It arranged for the earliest flights back to judged hotels by reviews and photos post- Singapore once the airport reopened. ed online by travellers. Still, she acknowledges that based on Prices were rounded up to the nearest her observations, one out of four phone dollar and when they were given in anoth- inquiries Asas travel consultants receive er currency, were converted to Singapore often fall through because customers dollar. simply take their suggestions and find a The result: I could always find a better cheaper deal online. deal online for flights and hotels, with Indeed, the travel agents surveyed say it price differences ranging from $53 to $395 is difficult competing with online agencies from what the agents offered. because these websites are able to source The perks of booking my trips online better prices through their larger global

inventory of hotels and airlines. son when many consultants are leading For instance, CTCs hotel portal has tours overseas and the company is shortabout 50,000 hotels worldwide, compared handed. For example, she notes that the to Expedias 145,000. free-and-easy department has only half the Asas Ms Oh says: Some of our hotel usual staff strength of 10. rates may not be as competitive as those of Some agents were not travel-savvy one online travel agents, as many of the latter from Chan Brothers did not seem to know are multinational entiwhere Prague is ties which may have prefand others were imerential contract rates I go to the travel agency, patient when I asked with their combined as I feel it is tedious to do too many questions. international volume. Chan Brothers She also points out bookings online. Also, if spokesman Jane that travel agents busi- there is anything you want Chang says I could ness model is different to know, you can just ask have been served by from that of online an intern or trainee them straight away. agents. who could not field The online agents Online, there is no one to the queries thoroughoffer primarily flights talk to you. ly, while others such and hotel bookings only, as Asa and CTC say LAW, who whereas home-grown RETIREE C.M.times a yeartravels at least they are already steptwo to three retail agents like us proping up efforts to vide tours, sightseeing train staff in customand, most importantly, after-sales support, er service and product knowledge. The bricks-and-mortar crew certainly pre-trip, on-trip and post-trip assistance as seem upbeat against the online upstarts. well as 24-hour emergency assistance. Instead, agents say their strength lies in CTCs Ms Seah declares: The young people in their 20s will want to book their trips on arranging group packages. Says Ms Oh: We are confident that our their own now, but when they reach a pricing for group tours will be better than stage in life when they have a family or are those of free-and-easy tours, based on an retired, they will find it more convenient to actual comparison of all the inclusions. have an agent handle the bookings. Says C.M. Law, 59, a retiree who travels With a group tour, one may at times get to experience certain activities or embark on at least two to three times a year to places some sightseeing routes that a free-and-easy such as Moscow, Scandinavia and Turkey: My friends and I normally go to the travel traveller may not have access to. On the other hand, perhaps the travel agency in person, as I feel it is quite tedious agents could rise to the challenge better. to do our bookings online. Also, at the travCTCs hotline was always busy and it took el agency, if there is anything you want to numerous attempts to speak to a consult- know, you can just ask them straight away... its more interactive. Online, there ant. Its senior vice-president of marketing is no one to talk to you. and public relations, Ms Alicia Seah, says hfhuang@sph.com.sg this was because this month is the peak sea-

SINGAPORE-TOKYO-HOKKAIDO-SINGAPORE
BEST ONLINE DEAL: $1,852 a person. Once again, I beat online and bricksand-mortar agents with a trip I put together on my own. Here is what I got: International and domestic flights on All Nippon Airways website (ANA) cost $1,338. Hotel stay on a twin-share basis for three nights in Tokyos Shinjuku Washington Hotel is $509 ($170 a night) and a five-night stay in Hotel Sunroute New Sapporo in Hokkaido is $518. Booking directly on ANAs website got me flights at $1,338, which was lower than the cheapest airfare the online agencies could offer at $1,369 (Expedia). For rooms in Tokyo, I turned to Hotels.com. A search for a three-star hotel in Shinjuku gave Shinjuku Washington Hotel, with yippee! a 30 per cent promotion for a three-night stay at $170 a night. A review by a Singaporean said the hotel was conveniently linked by an underpass to Shinjuku station. The online agents gave similar hotels in the area, but these were
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is a 2.7km-long steel suspension bridge which celebrated its 75th anniversary last month. One of the modern wonders of the world, it was opened to traffic on May 27, 1937.

about 20 per cent more expensive. The exception was CheapTickets, with Kadoya Hotel for $176. For Hokkaido, Wego led me to Expedia to book the Hotel Sunroute New Sapporo for $104 a night, which was cheaper than all the other hotels in the price range of $111 to $147 offered by the online travel agents. BEST TRAVEL AGENT DEAL: $1,996. Dynasty Travel was the star. It had the ANA airfares, though at $1,465, it was dearer than my own search. Hotel stay in Hotel Sunlite Shinjuku in Tokyo was $471 ($157 a night) and $590 ($118 a night) in Toyoko Inn Sapporo Susukino Minami. This was the only time the test threw up a bricks-and-mortar winner over online agents. Expedia offered $2,054, Zuji was $2,078, CheapTickets was $2,237 and Misa had $2,125. I called Dynastys free and easy (Asia) line and gave my trip details with an e-mail

address for the consultant to send the itinerary. I received it within a day, and liked how the consultant provided up to three hotel options for each city. In the end, Dynasty also quoted me a significantly lower price for flight and hotels than other travel agents, who gave me prices in the $2,300 to $2,500 range. On the whole, the travel consultants seemed more knowledgable on Japan compared to lesser-known destinations such as Prague in Europe and dealt with my queries confidently.

Bottom line: Dynasty Travel. Sure, it did not match my own search. But for $144 more, I can save all that time scrolling and doing the hunt-and-peck. The travel consultant definitely helped narrow my search with her recommendations.

SINGAPORE-LOS ANGELES-SAN FRANCISCO-SINGAPORE

BEST ONLINE DEAL: $3,417 a person on Zuji. While online deals came out tops overall in our survey, this time it was a direct search with online travel agency Zuji, rather than my own cyber sleuthing, that proved cheapest. Zuji delivered me international and domestic flights on Delta Air Lines for a total of $2,465 a person, and with the best flight timings. As for other online agencies, flight results were CheapTickets with $2,515, Expedia with $2,607 and Misa with $2,712. Zuji certainly beat my own search on Deltas website, where I found flights costing $2,568, with a tedious 40-hour return flight from San Francisco to Singapore, including a 16-hour stopover in Minneapolis. As for hotels, Zuji threw up this: Best Western Plus Carlyle Inn in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, at $852 for three nights ($284 a night) and King George Hotel in San Franciscos Union Square at $1,051 for four nights ($263 a night). Researching hotels in Los Angeles, I found Zujis ability to display them in order of distance from a landmark helpful. Using the famous Rodeo Drive as the landmark, Zuji gave six three-star hotels within a 6km radius. Its Best Western Plus Carlyle Inn was only 2km from Rodeo Drive and a plus was that TripAdvisor users gave it the thumbsup for its location and modern facilities. Misa and Expedia actually offered a cheaper one in the vicinity, the Hotel Beverly Terrace at $260 a night, but I opted for Carlyle Inn because of its more modern-looking rooms. CheapTickets suggested the chic and well-located Maison 140 Beverly Hills Hotel but I could not opt for it as the site did not display the full price with tax before you book. (I had to e-mail the hotel the full nightly rate was $281). As for San Francisco, Zuji brought me to King George Hotel at $263 a night, but Expedia, CheapTickets and Misa found a cheaper Hotel Fusion in the vicinity for $224 and $246 a night. Reviews by travellers on TripAdvisor for the two hotels were similar they were value-for-money hotels in good locations. Overall, Zujis hotel rates were actually higher than other online agents, but this was offset by its cheaper airfares. Expedias overall total was $3,489 and Misas, $3,595. CheapTickets gave $3,385, but I would not know for sure how much I would have to pay till I was billed. My search through airline and hotel websites and on fare comparison sites such as Wego was $3,436. BEST TRAVEL AGENT DEAL: $3,470 a person from Chan Brothers Travel. It offered flights with Delta Air Lines at $2,582 a person. Hotel stays at Beverly Laurel Hotel in Los Angeles came up to $723 for three nights, and $1,052 for four nights at King George Hotel in San Francisco. After several frustrating calls to other travel agents, dealing with Chan Brothers travel consultant Renee Kan was a breeze. Within a few hours, she e-mailed me the proposed itinerary. When I asked to change the three-star JJ Grand Hotel in Wilshire in Los Angeles to one closer to Beverly Hills, she responded quickly, but with the two-star Beverly Laurel Hotel within eight minutes drive from Beverly Hills. Other travel agents CTC Travel and Asa suggested the two-star Dunes Inn Wilshire, but Chan Brothers hotel looked less dingy than those, judging by travellers pictures on TripAdvisor. Dynasty could offer only the four-star Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, which was way off my budget at $380 a night. In San Francisco, Chan Brothers like Zuji offered the King George Hotel, and at almost the same price. CTC and Asa offered Holiday Inn San Francisco-Civic Center but review website Oyster.com said it was in a seedy location far from tourist attractions. Travellers on TripAdvisor echoed this. When I asked CTCs senior vicepresident of marketing and public relations, Ms Alicia Seah, why its travel consultant recommended this hotel, especially for a female traveller such as myself, she says it was its commonly recommended hotel and a colleague who stayed there recently had no complaints and that it was a good location for shopping. Chan Brothers also had the best airfare compared to Dynastys $2,601 on Delta and American airlines, and Asas $2,695 on China Airlines and American Airlines. Booking through CTC was a hassle as it offered only international flights on Delta for $2,445, and not domestic flights. So I had to search for the Los Angeles-San Francisco fare myself. Fare comparison site Skyscanner took me to Virgin America which offered $128, making the total airfare combined with CTCs $2,573, just $9 cheaper than Chan Brothers. In the end, Chan Brothers gave the lowest combined price for flights and hotels at $3,470, compared to CTCS $3,646, Asas $3,735 and Dynastys $3,812.

Useful websites
Oyster.com For sceptics of TripAdvisor, hotel-review site Oyster.com gives you detailed and objective reviews of hotels done by its full-time reviewers who stay at hotels anonymously. The tell-it-as-it-is write-ups make the reviews believable. We especially like its Photo Fakeouts section (above), where reviewers take hotel photos similar to the ones that the hotels use to market themselves, and point out the discrepancies. Wego.com.sg This meta-search website searches through more than 150 websites, 350,000 hotels and 500 airlines to find you the source of the cheapest airfare and hotels according to your budget, hotel type and neighbourhood. Hotels.com The hotel booking website, with an inventory of over 150,000 properties worldwide, is very PHOTO: OYSTER.COM user-friendly. It allowed me to filter my hotel search according to star ratings, neighbourhood and distance to famous tourist landmarks. What made it stand out from the rest of the hotel websites is its uncluttered layout for its search results, which makes the mind-boggling online search a whole lot easier. Skyscanner.com.sg Not sure where to go for the best airfare? Head to Skyscanner to find out which website provides you the cheapest fare for your date of travel.

Bottom line: If the $53 price difference means a great deal, go with Zuji. But for convenience and to save time, go with Chan Brothers.