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:


Looking for those cheap and rock-bottom international consolidator airfares?

Well, in the diverse world of air travel ticketing, there is no one way to guarantee that you will get the cheapest fares out there but your odds to get discount airfares are certainly many times better if you seek the consolidators tickets rather than the airlines official published airfares.

Remember that discounted consolidator tickets are very much just like a normal published airline fare ticket with the major difference being just that the price is not typically printed on the consolidator tickets.

Airlines basically do not admit they sell discounted tickets to consolidators, which are against the rules anyway and hence explains the no-pricing printout above.

Apart from the cheaper airfares, consolidator tickets have other advantages, usually requiring no advance purchase and no Saturday-night stay (typically for the US market).

In addition, you can normally still get cheap consolidator tickets at short notice unlike the inflated last-minute published air fares that could cost you a fortune.

Even then, you have to make sure you get those reliable consolidators that will offer the best airfare prices, and remember that not all consolidators sell to the general public.

Still, if you want to pay at least 40%-60% cheaper airfares than the guy sitting next to you on the plane, here are 7 sure-fire tips to be able to do just that.

1. Get a reliable travel agent who deals with a range of consolidators if you do not want the hassle of looking and doing the arrangements with the consolidators them.

A trustworthy travel agent is worth his weight in gold to you especially an experienced and knowledgeable one, much more than the small commission they charged nowadays for getting you a really cheap consolidator airfare.

Note that not all licensed travel agent do business with a whole range of wholesale consolidators, so try the specialised ones in the field to ensure you get all the cheap fare options on the table.

For more country-type trips or special itineraries, consider to look for the so-called “ethnic agency” consolidators that deals with only one country or region, since many have contracts with carriers based in the home country, such as Air India or EgyptAir.

2. Check airfares quoted by the travel agent with online discounters or consolidators, especially since these are the ones that you can check as they deal with the general retail public.

Obviously, you have to check the credentials of these companies as there could be many fly by night consolidators which may not have a strong financial background. Some of the strongest online consolidators include names like Onetravel.com, Flights.com, Faremax.com, Airlineconsolidator.com and Airgorilla.com.

3. For reliability, make sure the agents or consolidators are registered with national or international travel authorities such as the American Society of Travel Agents (http://www.travelsense.org) or accreditation with the International Air Transport Association (http://www.iata.org) or the Airline Reporting Corp http://www.arccorp.com).

Note that some unreliable consolidators have known to go bust big time at one point in the past, hence do not go for the cheapest consolidators without checking.

4. You can then check the best consolidators airfares against those specialised online sites that offer cheap airfares on their own. Most of these sites basically aggregate deals from the consolidators themselves like Hotwire.com and Priceline.com but some are the consolidator companies themselves that have evolved to serve the general public.

5. Check out also the aggregators. These are companies that typically scout for low airfares and then direct you to where to buy them. Some of these aggregators include Cheapflights.com and Kayak.com.

6. Try to be flexible and explore all the options. For example, some wholesale consolidators are also retail tour operators, and their tour package will thus tend be cheaper as they book in bulk for the tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals.

7. Finally, check the consolidators cheapest pricing against that of the airlines themselves. Most of the time, you will find that the consolidators offer you the cheapest airfares available.

However, on some occasions, the airline published airfares could actually be cheaper especially where there are intense price wars in a particular market or there are new promotions to attract demand for a new route or market.

These could cause the airlines to break their pact with the consolidators and charge even lower fares than the latter.

Consolidator airfares are now part and parcel of the airline ticketing industry and like it or not, consolidators are probably the best option you need to explore to get cheaper airfares.

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