America to Taiwan: How Best to Book?

I’ve got two teenage sons coming from the US to visit us this summer, and I need to book their air tickets. Should I do this here, or from the USA? My local travel agent says it would be better to book from the USA. If so, what do you recommend? Online booking or finding a travel agency? How would you do it?

Cheers!

Tomas

[quote=“Tomas”]I’ve got two teenage sons coming from the US to visit us this summer, and I need to book their air tickets. Should I do this here, or from the USA? My local travel agent says it would be better to book from the USA. If so, what do you recommend? Online booking or finding a travel agency? How would you do it?

Cheers!

Tomas[/quote]

You have two teenage sons? USe online services and compare between then. They often give you great rates. Also last time i used japan airlines online site to get great fares too. I like travelocity.com

If you fly with JAL they use haneda and fly into SungShan !! Hows that for convenience !

tahts what i plan to do next time.

Heres a write up of my trip in 2009 Now JAL flies SFO to Haneda and onwards to SungShan !!

flyertalk.com/forum/trip-rep … st11941556

Thank you Tommster. Anyone else have a thought or two here?

The best deals on international tickets are published for sale only in the country where the trip originates, so yes, you will likely find the best deal for them in the US. You could use some of the usual web sites to compare rates, like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc, as well as some airline sites.

Something you won’t find on these sites, though, are contract fares offered through consolidators which can sometimes be less than fares published by the airlines. Some travel agencies will use consolidators and some won’t.

I can recommend an agent in SF who is pretty good at getting the best available fare on international itineraries: Hans at KNC Travel. His e-mail address is knc@knctravel.com, local phone is 415-771-2000. They have an 800 number, but I forgot what it was.

Just remember that summer is peak season and with rising oil costs, airline consolidation and reduced flight schedules, ticket prices are high.

Craig, you’re a gem. Thank you. I’ll contact your friend soon. That’s exactly what I needed–someone to work out the gory details for me. I don’t have time to price compare.