Topaz: Agencies Still Beat Airline, Travel Retail Web Site Prices

Airfares booked last year through corporate travel agencies cost on average $56 less than identical itineraries directly booked through airline Web sites or through online travel retailers like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, according to Topaz International research released last week.

Topaz said travel agency fares were less costly on nearly 95 percent of itineraries compared with the same itinerary available online to the public. However, Topaz said its research shows the savings gap has closed steadily since it initiated the research in 2001, when the chasm between online public fares and agency fares averaged $171. Though the $56 differential recorded in 2007 matches the lowest gap in 2005, corporate travel agencies have grown slightly in lower-fare reliability: Topaz said agency fares in 2001 were cheaper just over 93 percent of the time, a figure that since grew steadily to last year's 94.85 percent.

"These studies continue to show that while the differences are less than in the past, they still exist and it should be the goal of all leaders to have processes in place to locate and book the lowest alternatives and validate that their service providers are giving the levels of contracted offerings that have been agreed to," Topaz International president and CEO Bradley Seitz said in a statement.