Avoid Booking Via Travel Portals

One of the more hotly debated topics in the ToP Facebook Group is whether or not one should avoid booking via travel portals. Because of that I wanted to put together the Travel on Point(s) teams thoughts on the subject. People are often surprised when we say to avoid booking via travel portals like the plague. People always wonder what difference does it make? Or, they chime in that they have never had an issue themselves. Spoiler alert, we are not dealing in anecdotal fallacy here. As a people, we tend to think that our personal experience is everyone's experience, and it is not. At ToP, we give advice based on hundreds, or thousands, of data points. We never rely on just our own personal experience. Through those multitude of data points we have noticed some of the following.

Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen

The first (and probably biggest) reason we recommend to avoid booking via travel portals is it adds another element to your booking. This increases the likelihood of errors, and adds another hoop to jump through should something go wrong. If you have an issue then you will often have to go back to the travel portal company to get it figured out instead of with the travel partner you are trying to use. The airlines, hotels and car rental companies are much less likely to help you with any issues since you didn't book directly.

Errors On The Booking

Going along with the first issue with using bank travel portals is that someone else is handling your booking. This adds another step in the process, which increases the likelihood of errors. We have heard of people showing up for their flight, hotel stay or car rental and the company having no history of the reservation. Even if you have a confirmation from the travel portal showing the booking. This happens more often than you think, and no one wants that added stress on their vacation. Especially if you are overseas and now need to call the travel portal company.

You May Miss Out On Status Perks & Points Earning

Next up on our reasons to avoid booking travel via a travel portal is that it may cost you status perks and / or points earning. That is because some brands consider these bookings as a third party booking which negates elite nights, points earning and any status perks you are entitled too. Sometimes hotels etc. will also offer perks, like free breakfast, if you book direct. This is less of an issue with flights, since most airlines still pay out on third party bookings.

Pricing Can Be Different

Another thing to be aware of with travel portals is that they can be priced higher than booking directly. This is because the banks get a kickback when their members book with the travel company. They essentially share on the commission the travel agent company earns.

To be fair, the prices can also be less expensive at times. It is important to check prices in the portal versus booking directly any time you are considering using one.

Bad Value For Your Points

While booking travel through the portal with your points can offer a higher rate versus straight cashing them out, it is worse than what you normally get via transfer partners. That is why we usually recommend going that route. The best option, value wise, is probably the 35% rebate on flights you get with the Amex Business Platinum card. That nets you 1.5 cents per point on average, which is still a little below average transfer values but the best of the bunch.

The Reps Are Not As Informed

The reps for these companies are not always the most informed. Often times they don't have the history, or training with travel bookings, that an airline or hotel employee would. I know you are probably thinking, but airline and hotel call center employees are not always the best either. That is true, but this is even worse!

Can Lead To Different Cancellation Rules

At times using a bank's travel portal can hurt you when it comes to cancellations. I know some people had to fight to get a full refund (and some didn't) during covid because the travel portal had different rules versus what the airline or hotel was offering. This is a bit more rare, but it does happen.

Cancellations Can Become Problematic

Even when a cancellation goes as planned with an airline or hotel, you don't always get the refund like you should. That is because the travel portal company books the travel on their own credit card. That means the refund goes to their card, and not automatically back to your card. Which can require another call into the bank's travel portal to process the refund. I shared my experience with just that a while back. I wonder how many people don't know this and just lose out on their refund?

Sometimes Added Fees For Changes

Sometimes there will be an additional fee for making changes to a reservation because you are doing it through the travel portal that you wouldn't have for booking directly. This is yet another reason we recommend people avoid booking via travel portals.

The Bonus Earning Juice Isn't Worth The Squeeze

Seeing those 5x or 10x earnings offered on your cards for booking via the bank's travel portal is tempting, no doubt. I am here to tell you that the juice just isn't worth the squeeze because of all of the reasons above. They offer the higher rates because the bookings are so profitable for banks.

What About For Card Perks?

The one time that we do recommend booking via a travel portal is when it is a part of a card perk. Think about the Capital One Venture X‘s $300 travel credit that requires a portal booking. The Chase Sapphire Preferred‘s $50 hotel credit is another such example.

During these times it is worthwhile to book your travel via the travel portal. What we would recommend is to be cautious on what you book when using it though. I would book flights as a last resort. The one exception might be low cost carriers, but even then you can save money buying those tickets at the airport.

I would focus on car rentals or local hotels that are not a part of a points program to use your credits. That way you aren't missing out on anything earnings wise and these types of travels have less potential hiccups with them. I would still urge you to call the hotel or car rental company directly to confirm your booking before you travel.

Avoid Booking Via Travel Portals: ToP Thoughts

Hopefully you now understand our position on why we say to avoid booking via travel portals. There are a lot of potential issues that you can run into when doing it, and it just adds more potential stress to already stressful travel. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze in our opinion, unless you have a credit to burn on one of your credit cards.

You can share your thoughts on it over in the ToP Facebook Group.