Kaven Travel Service has been founded in 1937 by Paul Kaven, being among the oldest ethnic travel agencies in Los Angeles.
Over the years Kaven Travel has catered mainly to the ethnic German, Romanian and Hungarian communities in California.
Due to a successful web page design, our client base has increased significantly including customers from all over the continental United States.
Domestic and international airfares, have nothing in common. Since deregulation (1978), domestic U.S. fares are available directly from the airline as well as from all the travel agencies and online agencies.
So getting the best domestic USA fare meant learning how to search whatever computerized reservation system (CRS) the travel agent or Web site uses.
You assume that by going directly to the airline and “cutting out the middle man” you would pay less than if you went through a travel agent or an independent Web site.
But an airline has no reason, and no obligation, to offer you the lowest price plus you will have to check all airlines. If you buy tickets from a web-based ticket sales robot, look closely at whether it is owned by an airline or by an airline-owned reservation system.
In an effort to deprive the public of the independent advice of travel agents who might recommend their competitors, US airlines have so reduced the commissions they pay travel agents for issuing USA and Canada tickets that most agencies have found it necessary to charge fees for this service.
Surveys by journalists and consumer organizations have consistently found that good travel agents can use their expertise in finding the best fares to save most travelers enough money to cover the agents’ fees.
International airfares remain regulated by IATA (the International Air Transportation Association), and the official fares published by the airlines give little indication of the actual prices at which agents sell tickets on those airlines.
It’s as much a waste of time to consult any Web site for international airfares (especially for multi-stop itineraries).
To solve the cash flow & efficiency problem (how to get some money for seats that can’t be filled at official fares), the airlines had created a consolidator system.
Consolidators are agencies that have discount agreements with the airlines. In most cases, consolidators are wholesalers who sell low airfares only through retail agencies, not directly to the public.
It is sometimes possible to get a cheap ticket on very short notice (last-minute discounts) but you rarely get a cheaper ticket than if you had planned ahead, and it may be impossible to get a reasonable price, or even to find any available space at all, at the last minute.
Kaven Travel reliability: we’ve been around, since 1937, and under present ownership since 1992. We are ARC /IATAN /California Seller of Travel appointed (#1016679-40 registration as a seller of travel does not constitute approval by the State of California).
Check us out, with the Better Business Bureau. Visit our office in 13710 Whittier Blvd, # 203 Whittier, CA 90605, USA.
If you have any doubt, you should try to check directly with the airlines, immediately before paying for your tickets, to make sure that you are holding confirmed reservations. Review your flight itinerary with Virtual Sabre http://www.virtuallythere.com/cgi-bin/nph-TripReview.
Don’t try to request seat assignments or other special services, or enter frequent flyer numbers, until after you have your tickets in hand. Just verify that you have reservations on the flights you want.
Some special prices forbid or restrict things like advance seat assignments or frequent flyer mileage credit, and by requesting such things prior to ticketing you could cause your reservations to be canceled or render your reservations ineligible for the special fare.
You should check for the best prices, but you should not make reservations directly with the airline and then try to shop around for the best price at which to have them ticketed. Nor should you make reservations with more than one travel agency.
Doing this reduces your chances of getting the best price, or of getting confirmed on the flights you want, and may result in all your reservations being entirely canceled without prior warning. More and more airlines have implemented auto-cancellation software for duplicate bookings.
Waitlist clearance requests are more likely to be acted on if they come from the travel agent than the passenger, especially as different airlines have different procedures and the travel agent knows best from whom at the airline to request prioritization.