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lour, sugar, eggs, chocolate morsels -everyone knows what goes into a great chocolate-chip cookie. So what are the ingredients for a perfect trip? A sturdy suitcase, travel-size toiletries, lots of travelers checks and your favorite magazines?

Maybe, but here are some words for the worldly wise: Your trip actually begins before you leave your desk or home-with a call to your travel agent.

Days, weeks, even months before you pack your bags, your upcoming journey is in the works as your travel agent firms up fares and reservations. Still, even with all that time, sometimes getting the travel arrangements you want can be as convoluted as a ride down San Francisco's famously crooked Lombard Street.

Travel-like most everything in life-is an inexact science. Wires can get crossed when making your arrangements, your first-choice flight may already be overbooked, your preferred hotel's rate may be over the per diem or a last-minute training session may push up your trip unexpectedly.

While a travel quandary isn't necessarily in the cards, you can help make your next trip go more smoothly. Know how to get the most efficient service when you call your travel agent, have the pertinent travel information at hand and ask the right questions.

Put Time on Your Side

Knowing when and how to place that first call can substantially influence the remainder of your travel arrangements.

When are your most productive hours-right before lunch, or maybe after hours when the office is empty? Travel offices have peak times and lulls, too. Although your agent strives to give you his or her undivided attention every time you call, it's much easier to conduct transactions or give information when phones aren't ringing, lines aren't forming at the agent's desk or only one agent is covering the office while the rest are out. Most agencies can tell you when their quieter hours are and when agents will be able to take extra time with your request.

Timing is everything when it comes to planning a trip. Official travel often occurs on short notice, but even a little lead time can hasten a manageable itinerary. "Call your agent as far in advance as possible," advises Lori Brooks, customer manager for SatoTravel's Transportation Department and Housing and Urban Development Department travel offices, who has spent years as a front-line agent for government travelers.

If you're particular about flying early in the day or know you need an aisle seat for your long legs, your requests are more likely to be honored if you voice them well ahead of time. The same goes for preferred hotel amenities, such as king-size beds and nonsmoking rooms. Remember, though, that most hotel amenities are granted based on availability at the time of request and almost never guaranteed

Shortcuts to Success

That first contact with your agent is only half your travel-planning mission. Here are a few more tips that agents say will get you out the door and on the road faster.

• Do your own dirty work. It's common for assistants and secretaries to make travel arrangements for their managers, but the few minutes that the traveler works with an agent can save countless callbacks and rescheduling headaches.

  "Lots of times, the secretaries making arrangements for their bosses will have to put us on hold repeatedly while they relay and verify information, asking about this date or that time," says Brooks. "I suggest that the boss either write down every detail of the trip for the secretary, or just ask the boss to make the first call so we can nail down basic information."

  Another solution: Use the speakerphone, and ask the boss in for the first part of the call. Once the preliminary details are settled, the assistant can handle the other details.

• How about a date? Keep your calendar in front of you when you call or visit your agent. If you have two calendars-one for work and one for home-use both. Travel plans can just as easily be foiled by a daughter's soccer championship game as by a board meeting.
• Have your schedule at hand. "Knowing just the days your convention or meeting begins or ends usually isn't enough to go on," advises Susan DiStefano, branch manager with SatoTravel's GSA Philadelphia office. If you have to be in another city by 10 a.m., a 2:30 p.m. flight isn't going to do you much good.
• City-pair program. Getting from City A to City B sometimes means going through City C even if direct flights to City B are available.

  The weary traveler may find confusion and consternation when it comes to the government city-pair program. "A common concern among customers is why they have to fly through certain cities, when they know of other connections or direct flights that would save them time," says Dee Mutter, customer manager for SatoTravel's GSA Nationwide account. The government negotiates special air fares with scheduled airlines that coincide with government-traveler traffic patterns to come up with practical and cost-efficient connections.

• What's in a name? Plenty when there are frequent-flyer miles or hotel perks in the picture. Make life easier for everyone by keeping your name consistent, advises Lauri Reishus, SatoTravel's manager of customer service. If you're Jane Doe with one airline, Janie Doe with another and Jane L. Doe with a third, recording accurate data becomes more time-consuming, and rewards may be delayed.

Don't Be Afraid to Ask

Your travel agent has specific skills in planning trips, and, not surprisingly, a love of traveling. "We're here to help our customers," Brooks says. And Mutter notes that it can be very time consuming for a customer to call 20 hotels in an effort to find the best rate. "Why not let us do the work for you?" she asks.

Reishus adds, "Agents simply key in codes that quickly narrow down the field, so when a customer asks for a hotel downtown with a pool and a restaurant on site, we can give customers a good selection."

Finally, you should know that a travel agent may be able to do more than you realize.

"Many agencies lose a lot of hotel and car business because customers aren't aware that we provide this service," says Brooks. "Travel agents are armed with the best knowledge and most current information, and it's all just a few keystrokes away."

Nancy Gast Romps is a writer based in Falls Church, Va. She is senior editor/writer for SatoTravel, a $1.2 billion travel-management firm based in Arlington, Va.

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