Cheap Airfare Blog

Steven Liew asked:


Most smart air travellers know the one main single reason of buying cheap consolidator tickets over the regular published airfare tickets is huge savings of around 30%-50%.

Most of the time, you are almost likely to find that consolidator airfare tickets beat the regular airfares hands-down.

Of course, there are the rare exceptions when airlines do their own special promotions like a new route or do a marketing promotion for a certain event at a destination.

In these cases, airlines could easily price their airfares cheaper but you still have to book these cheap airfares direct with the airlines either online at their website or offline through their travel agents. In these rare cases, consolidator airfares are likely to be pricier but not much.

Still, pricing is not the only reason why you should buy consolidator airfares for your travel.

Here are at least four other reasons why you are apt to find consolidator airfare tickets useful:

1) Short notice or last-minute travel
Consolidator airfare tickets are almost invariably cheaper and you could get it at a short notice sometimes without breaking the roof for the regular published airfares.

Airlines that find they cannot unload unsold inventories closer to the departure date may opt to discount these airfare tickets heavily to consolidators who advertise them as their own cheap discounted last minute airfare deals.

To the airlines, it is better to fly full at cheaper airfares rather than fly half-empty at the full air ticket fares.

Further, by dealing with air travel consolidators, they don’t risk antagonising those passengers who may have paid full airfares earlier or in advance.

2) Round the world (RTW) multi-stop itinerary
If you plan to travel around the world, your best choice of finding the cheapest airfares for your trip is likely to be those specialist consolidators who are expert at arranging such multi-stop trip tickets.

If you do it yourself, you may find it bewildering to deal with so many permutations of different airlines, routes, flight schedule or airfare levels (though it is not impossible).

These round-the-world (RTW) consolidators could even string you a global trip if you plan to travel to faraway destinations like Australia, Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe and you will be surprised that you may only need to top up a little bit on these consolidator airfares to just one of the location for the price of all.

Most airlines don’t have routing all over the world and thus the RTW air travel consolidators not only are able to tailor make the flights to your schedule but at the same time, make it the cheapest schedule for you.

3) Exotic or long trip travels
If you plan to travel on a long holiday or to travel to off-beaten destinations like Peru or Bulgaria, air travel consolidators may have the edge up their sleeves to get you the best airfare ticket or schedule.

This is because such places or itineraries are likely to be serviced only by few experienced or regular travel agents.

4) Bulk airfare tickets purchase
If you are planning to purchase airfare tickets in large numbers, like for a group or organisation or even for your once-a-year family and relatives gathering, consolidators are likely to be your best bet to get the most airfare savings.

Airlines are not likely to give one-off discounts for such airfare ticket purchases by the normal travellers.

Still, despite all its advantages, one still need to bear in mind the shortfalls of buying and holding a consolidator airfare ticket. Here are four main things to watch out for:

1) More restrictions than regular airfares
Well, it is a trade-off if you want to get the large airfare savings of the consolidators. Consolidator airfares are almost always non-refundable and there could be restrictions like not being able to change seating, to get a free upgrade or change airlines.

Some consolidator tickets from certain airlines may not also entitle you to frequent flyer mileage so be sure to check this point as well before paying.

2) Lack of financial backing
A lot of air travel consolidators operate on thin margins and as such, some have gone bust in the past leaving their customers who bought their airfares in the lurch. Some of them also do not believe in customer service and you may find it hard to lodge any airfare complaints with them.

Still, these problems could be avoided by sticking to the larger and trustworthier air travel consolidators rather than aiming for the cheapest airfare consolidators.

In addition, look only for air travel consolidators that accept credit cards only as you are typically entitled to a refund from the card providers should the consolidator go bust or unwilling to honour its part of the air ticket bargain.

3) Choice of airlines or tickets
Note that you may not get your choice of airlines on consolidator tickets, which may aim for the airline that could offer the cheapest contract airfares to the consolidators.

This could be a problem for travellers who worry about security and customer service of different airline companies especially the foreign ones although note that consolidator airfares nowadays could be obtained on a lot of reasonably good quality foreign airlines.

At the end of the day, you just have to decide whether the issues are worth the consolidator airfare savings.

4) Access to air travel consolidators
Some of the best air travel consolidators may be based in their home countries and do not have a representative in your country.

While you can still pay and ask the consolidator to mail the airfare tickets to you, invariably these may provide timing and commitment risk.

Again, this could be mitigated by always sticking to the larger and longer established air travel consolidators in the market.

Ultimately, the advantageous of consolidator air tickets and their savings do overwhelm that of the drawbacks.

Again, to cut the risk, always stick to the larger-based air travel consolidators to buy your tickets from rather then finding the cheapest consolidator airfares among them all.

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Steven Liew asked:


It is a problem that most air travellers face - how and where to buy those cheap airfares online and what are the benefits in savings and drawbacks compared to buying the cheap airfares from the travel agent down the road.

If you travel by air, you would already know that airfares cost typically forms the dominant chunk of your travel bill be it leisure or holiday. And the savings can add up a lot i.e. if you know where to really get those cheap airfares.

But in the current world where there are a proliferation of travel agencies, sites and even airlines themselves advertising all sort of cheap airfares, if you buy those airfares online yourself and cut out the middlemen, the travel agents, then things could get confusing fast.

Without some guidance and understanding of how one of the world’s largest industry works (air travel), travellers are likely to find themselves short-changed for the more expensive airfares tickets or buying something they may not need that had already been built into the airfare prices.

Of course, every traveller would love it if they could just get those cheapest airfares or at least bragged to their relatives or friends how they managed to get those cheap airfares at 30%-50% cheaper than the next guy sitting on the plane. Is this possible actually?

Yes, you can do all these online yourselves but here are 7 important tips you have to know before buying those airfares online or searching for the best cheap airfare deal:

1) Know your priority first.
If cheap airfare price is everything and you can settle for some minor restrictions, then you are always better to go for the cheap consolidators’ airfares rather than that of the airlines’ own published airfares themselves.

On domestic US routes, some of the big online air travel consolidators you could check out are Onetravel.com, Hotwire.com, Priceline.com, etc.

On the other hand, if airfare price is not your top consideration (for example, you have this worry about foreign airlines reliability or security), you should then monitor your favourite airline’s own cheap airfare sales, which they have periodically every two to three months.

Or try to look for a complete package tour (which is likely cheaper in airfare ticket prices than just buying the airfare ticket alone) from the big published Internet travel agencies like Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, etc.

2) Do not waste time checking sites which have the same sources of cheap airfares.
For example, these sites may rely on the same computerised reservation system (CSR) that gives you options from the same set of published air fares.

There are less than 8 major CSR systems in the industry (you can check the sites on which CSRs are they using or ask their customer help desk) and it is better if you get your options from most or all of them to get the cheapest airfares.

Note that some sites may just be a portal or gateways to other main sites so it will be a waste of time to check your options on these sites together for your cheap airfare search.

3) Get the full itineraries available
Remember that airfare pricing are determined by a variety of factors such as dates, seating, routes (direct flights, stopovers or connecting flights for example), and their rules for cancellations, refunds or changes to the tickets.

You may find that the cheapest airfare tickets tend to have a lot of restrictions that may not be suitable to you.

For example, if you are on a rushed vacation where there are too many stopovers or connecting flights, these are likely to eat into your vacation time. Always check the fine prints before paying for any cheap airfares as there are tradeoffs to be made.

4) Always book and pay quickly on a good deal
Do not waste your time searching endlessly for the best cheap airfares deal. They don’t likely exist as airfare pricing are determined by many things as noted from above and the cheapest airfare tickets may not be suitable after all for your requirements.

If you do see a good cheap airfare deal, book and pay for it quickly.

Airlines typically may offer a few crash-down cheap airfare deals to pull in demands on limited seat availability and what you see in the advertisements may not be available to you in a few days or even the next hour unless you book and pay for those cheap seats quickly.

Keeping an eye open and putting yourself on the e-mail list of notifications by the airlines or travel agencies are a good way of spotting these cheap airfare deals.

5) There is no magical place or site to look, just the best comparison
Despite what some may claim, there are no one airline or travel site that will offer you the best available cheap airfare deal as it all depends on your requirements and travel preferences.

There are actually thousands of permutations of flights routes, prices, type of flights, seatings, timing, etc for any possible trip especially for those long-distance, lengthy, round-the-world (RTW)trips.

Hence, it is always wise to do comparison between airlines or travel agencies at all time for their cheap airfare claims or offers. Of course, just do not be a cheap airfare fanatic until you miss the forest for the trees.

6) Never assume anything on cheap airfares
The best advice is never to assume anything on the airfares that you have to pay as what is cheap could be obscured by hidden charges.

Make sure that the net cheap airfare price you have to pay have factored in other charges like airport taxes, surcharges, agencies charges, etc. before you pay or make a like-for-like comparison with other sites.

Also never assume that online airfare prices will be cheaper. Always check offline for example with the consolidators’ cheap airfares.

Also never assume that those cheapest airfares flight search function on any travel websites will actually get you the ever lowest discount fares.

They won’t as search robots are actually not exactly built that way and are quite rigid. For example, they may not disclose another cheaper airfare alternative say if you vary your destination or stopover a little bit, which brings us to a last point.

7) You need to invest some patience and efforts
Ultimately, to find those bargain cheap airfares, you still need to invest the time and effort to find them.

There are always different sites, tactics and sources to find the best possible cheap airfares (note not necessarily the cheapest) for any trips.

If you are unable to do so yourself, you could still find a trustworthy and reliable travel agent to search out those cheap airfare options for you for a small fee.

Just be sure that you ask all the relevant questions in this case as some agents may not likely be as helpful as you want them to be, to search for the lowest airfares or best itineraries for you.

In the end still, nothing beats a little time and effort to plan your trip yourself and get the best out of it at the least cost.

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