travel agency

[louiep 7]

hi everyone,ill be purchasing tickets soon for my wife and stepdaughters,who will of course be first time immigrants! I was hoping my phil friends in here especially would know of a reputable agency in the manila area who would deal in this kind of ticketing and possably also have a website I could check myself! when the time comes I will send my wife the money to purchase the tickets! thk you in advance

[Joshua@Tinz 52]

Im always traveling, USA, china, india, Pinas and everywhere in between, never have i gotten a lower price through a travel agency. Its convienent yes, but a quick search on Kayak.com will likly get you a much cheaper price then an agency in pinas. Also consider looking at ctrips (use ctrip english to google find it) Its a chinese site BUT since their flight will likely go to usa via HK, shanghai, or beijing. It might be a good place to check. also convenient because you can pay with paypal, and out of maybe 100 flights with them, i never had a problem so far

[collnin4412 0]

Try orbitz.com, competitive fare

[Natsukiii 35]

For first time immigrants on a CR-1 Visa you can purchase discounted tickets here: http://www.santraphael.com/home.php.

Be sure to e-mail them to get availability and an up-to-date quote. I will be purchasing tickets from this company and the lowest fare they offer is $605 with taxes and fees (Cathay Pacific, MNL - HKG - LAX route). They have several options to choose from though. PAL is $655 with taxes and fees... this is the route we're going since there are no stop overs (MNL - LAX).

Good luck,

Justin

Edited July 3, 2013 by Ema ♥ Jin

[Natsukiii 35]

Just to add: Kayak and Orbitz are great but only if you are buying tickets 7+ months in advance. Prices are usually around $500-$600 one-way. Since we're in July, prices are increasing. What's nice about St. Raphael Travel Agency is that their prices are good for a set amount of months. For example, the prices I listed in the above post are their prices for September-December 2013.

Justin

Edited July 3, 2013 by Ema ♥ Jin

[Greenbaum 12,259]

I have had the best luck with Google Travel - website is http://matrix.itasoftware.com/. Found the best rates from them. They won't sell you the tickets but they will give all the codes and brake down of all fees and taxes. You can then email the codes to your (any) travel agent and he can input them in and cut the tickets for your wife. The best feature is that they will show you a calendar with the lowest prices and that way you will see which day is the cheapest to fly on and there is no multiple searching because the software does it for you. I have used it for my travels as well has our Filipino friends and relatives.

Good Luck

[Hank_ 9,174]

For a travel agent in the Phils I have heard nothing but good about http://www.santraphael.com/home.php

[Natsukiii 35]

For a travel agent in the Phils I have heard nothing but good about http://www.santraphael.com/home.php

Glad to see someone else can vouch for them too

Edited July 3, 2013 by Ema ♥ Jin

[GuidedbyGODkatval 1]

you can try m&h travel and tours.cheap and they're really nice.they arelocated near the us embassy and will assist your wife inside the airport.

[thekfc 26]

Some of the airlines do offer first time immigrant fares, however you have to show them your visa to get the 1st time immigrant fare.

St. Raphael do offer the 1st time immigrant fare but we were able to get a much lower rate by booking directly with the airline in Makati.

Also a good travel agent can get you a lower rate than any online booking site as the airlines do not make their lowest bucket rate available on the online booking sites. You can only get those rates via a good travel agent or directly through the airline.

In the past, I usually didn't go for those rates as they didn't earn me any mileage status but now I have earned Lifetime Platinum status with AA (got it after I reached the 2 million miles marker), I now go for them unless I want to earn miles with another OneWorld award program.

[Natsukiii 35]

Some of the airlines do offer first time immigrant fares, however you have to show them your visa to get the 1st time immigrant fare.

St. Raphael do offer the 1st time immigrant fare but we were able to get a much lower rate by booking directly with the airline in Makati.

Also a good travel agent can get you a lower rate than any online booking site as the airlines do not make their lowest bucket rate available on the online booking sites. You can only get those rates via a good travel agent or directly through the airline.

In the past, I usually didn't go for those rates as they didn't earn me any mileage status but now I have earned Lifetime Platinum status with AA (got it after I reached the 2 million miles marker), I now go for them unless I want to earn miles with another OneWorld award program.

And what airline would that be?

[thekfc 26]

And what airline would that be?

Cathay Pacific.

Also note that fares goes up & down according to the travel season - peak, off-peak, holidays, kids/students returning from vacation, day of week, etc,. So do not have a set day - be flexible.

[ljmp_10 105]

I got cheap airline ticket via travelocity.com

[davenjanet 22]

Glad to see someone else can vouch for them too

I have to say on the other hand that I emailed them several times and never received a reply. Finally I just booked online.