Flight booking
Flight booking, handled by people
Trailisse books flights by telephone. You tell us the route and the dates, we search the carriers that actually serve it, and we come back with the realistic options and one total price including every tax and fee. There is no account to create and no checkout to fight.
On this page
When you should not call us
Start here, because it saves everyone time. If your trip is one adult, one route, fixed dates, hand baggage only and no complications, book it yourself. A comparison site will do it in four minutes and you will not pay a service fee. We would be adding cost and no value, and we would rather say so than take the booking.
The rest of this page is about the trips where that is not true.
What a travel agent can do that a booking site cannot
Hold seats for a group before you know the names
Almost every online booking engine stops at nine passengers. Above that the airline routes you to a group desk, which works by phone and email, prices differently from the public fare, and will usually hold seats on a deposit while you collect passenger names over the following weeks. That process cannot be self-served. See group flight booking.
Correct a name on a ticket that is already issued
Tickets are issued to a name, and the name has to match the identity document you travel on. A genuine misspelling is usually correctable; transferring a ticket to a different person almost never is. The distinction matters enormously and the clock matters too. See name corrections.
File a service request against the booking
Wheelchair assistance, a mobility aid travelling in the hold, a service animal, medical oxygen, an extra seat: these are not checkboxes at checkout, they are coded requests attached to your reservation, and they need to be confirmed rather than assumed. See special assistance bookings.
Book a child travelling alone
Age bands, escort fees, permitted connections and which airports a minor may transit differ sharply between carriers, and most airlines will not let you complete the booking online at all. See unaccompanied minors.
Price a route that is not a straight there-and-back
Multi-city trips, open-jaw itineraries where you fly into one city and out of another, and journeys that need two carriers with no interline agreement between them. Booking engines price these badly or refuse them outright, and the version they do offer is often substantially worse than the one an agent can construct.
Rebook you at two in the morning
When a flight cancels, everyone on it queues for the same rebooking at the same moment. Having somebody working your booking while you are still standing at the gate is the entire argument for a human agent. See last minute and disruption.
What it costs
We charge a service fee, and it is included in the total price we quote you before you agree to anything. We do not present a fare and then add charges at the end.
Every quote we give shows the total per passenger: the base fare, all government taxes and airport charges, any mandatory carrier-imposed surcharge, and our fee. That is the figure you would actually pay. It is also what US Department of Transportation rules require of a ticket agent that advertises a price, and it is the reason there are no prices anywhere on this website — any number we published would be wrong the moment your dates changed.
How the booking runs
- You tell us the trip. Route, approximate dates, how many travellers, and anything unusual. You do not need to have decided everything.
- We search properly. Including carriers that do not appear on the large comparison sites — Southwest is the obvious example, but it is not the only one.
- We quote one total. Per passenger, everything included, with the fare rules explained: what you can change, what it would cost, whether it is refundable.
- You decide. No obligation. If you go ahead, we take payment and issue.
- We stay reachable. Same number, any hour, for the life of the booking.
Your protections, whoever you book through
Two rules are worth knowing before you book anything, because they apply to us and to every other US ticket agent:
- The 24-hour rule. For a booking made at least seven days before departure, you may cancel within 24 hours and get the airfare back in full. That applies whether you booked with an airline or an agent.
- Refunds, not vouchers. If the airline cancels your flight or changes it significantly and you do not accept the alternative, you are entitled to your money back rather than a travel credit. See refund rights.
Who we are, and who we are not
Trailisse is an independent travel agency and ticket agent, registered in Udaipur, India, with a US line answered by our own team. We are not an airline and we are not affiliated with any airline. When we write about a carrier's baggage rules or change policy, we link to that airline's own page so you can check it and book direct if you prefer.
More on how we work is on the about page, and how we research these guides is in our editorial policy.
Common questions
Is it cheaper to book through a travel agent?
Sometimes, and not always. On a simple point-to-point trip in economy, usually not once our fee is counted. On group bookings, complex multi-city routing and travel involving carriers that price poorly online, often yes. We will tell you which situation you are in before you commit.
Can you book any airline?
We book the major US carriers and a range of international ones. Where a carrier restricts agency distribution, or where booking direct is genuinely better for you, we say so rather than route you the long way round.
Do I pay you or the airline?
You pay us, and we issue the ticket. The airline receives the fare and we retain the service fee that was shown to you in the total.
Can I change the booking later?
That depends on the fare rules of the ticket you hold, which we explain before you book. Most change fees on US domestic main-cabin fares have gone, but you still pay any difference in fare. Basic Economy is usually the exception and often cannot be changed at all.
What happens if my flight is cancelled?
Call us. We work the rebooking while you are still at the airport, and we handle the refund claim if you would rather not travel. Your entitlement comes from the airline and from US regulation; we make the claim on your behalf.
Do you handle international flights as well as US domestic?
Yes. Our focus is US domestic travel, including for customers booking from the UK and Canada, but we arrange international itineraries too.
Tell us the awkward part
The trips worth calling about are the ones with a complication in them. Describe yours and we will tell you honestly whether we can improve on what you can do alone.