Pitfalls of booking my own flights

I too am thinking of travelling to BC as I have friends in BC, Victoria and a Godmother (aged 96, bless her!) in West Van. We've done a package trip (Canadian Rockies and Vancouver) a couple of times with Newmarket, but as I want to travel independently now I'll definitely try trailblazers. Good advice, thanks to everyone on this page.

I use Travel counsellors: www.travelcounsellors.co.uk/gb/leisure

This is because I used to travel with my mother who lived to be 100 and the agent/counsellor comes to the house, uses his computer, and calls up options. This meant that my mother could participate in the planning and I knew that everything we had done was covered by their insurance.

Also at the time there was the ash cloud problem and I wanted to have someone in the UK who's job it was to get us back home.

Now my mother has died I still use the same counsellor but if his hotel prices are too expensive I get those on line myself.

They do charge more for credit cards and there is an implicit service charge if you look at a simple trip to Dublin say on Ryan Air, there is about £30 added. However he always prints out my boarding cards for going and coming on a 2 week holiday. And in Marrkesh this year I was happy to be sitting in my group waiting for the the transport to the airport and not to be the couple who found they had not got their boarding cards and were then off to an internet cafe to download and print them!!!!

Oops, Trailfinders!

Don't forget the travel insurance! We had to cancel our first planned trip Down Under because of a family bereavement. We had booked by phone through an agent (now defunct I think) and it took a long time to get our money back - we were insured so at least we got it in the end.

Anything complicated, I use Trailfinders. They're pretty good.

I'm sorry if this request is in the wrong place - I couldn't find where a new post should be entered!

Does anyone know if West Jet is a safe (ie money protected if it goes bust) airline for a flight to Canada?