How To Find Cheap International Flights Online
If you've been shopping for cheap flights online,
you have encountered hundreds if not thousands of sites selling
airfares. These sites are made of Mega Online agencies,
Airlines, Online Airfares Specialists, Traditional Brick and
Mortar (B&M) Travel agencies. Not only does this present a huge
pool of resource to wad through it is compounded by the fact
that there are international versions of each of these sources
to find cheap international flights.
What is the best way to find a cheap international flight? First
it is helpful to understand how the market for international
fares works. Official "published" international airfares are
largely governed by IATA (www.iata.org), a body of all major
international air carriers belong to. IATA regulations forbid
the direct discounting of tickets directly to passengers. IATA
prices are set at high levels and results in all airlines
selling at this exact same high price for international flights.
IATA prices are the most common and readily available airfare
prices to all online and B&M Travel Agencies. This is the reason
why you sometimes see many online travel agencies that have not
only the same price for an airline, but also different airlines
all having the same price for the selected flight itinerary.
If every company has the same price for flights because of IATA,
how do I find a cheap international flight? International
airlines have a way to get around the IATA rule against
discounting airfares. IATA allows its members to offer companies
known as Consolidators, airfares at a significant discount and
then it looks the other way when the resellers pass some of the
savings on to passengers. By selling excess capacity at reduced
prices to consolidators, an airline can sell tickets that
otherwise might not be sold. Consolidators then resell these
tickets to some online and B&M Travel Agencies. This results in
savings that can be passed on to you for cheap international
flights.
Why Don't Airlines Provide These Cheap Fares to All Travel
Agencies Instead of Only to Consolidators? Consolidators are
companies that buy large quantities of tickets from the major
airlines at bulk prices and resell them at attractive discounts.
The airlines deal with a very few number of consolidators
compared to the number of online and B&M Travel Agencies.
Particularly on international flights, consolidator fares are
generally the best discounted airfares available.
Now that I understand how the market for consolidator fares for
cheap international flights work how do I find them? Many online
sites for cheap flights do not offer consolidator airfares. The
main reason it is extremely complex technology to include
consolidator airfares in their online booking engines. Also,
many B&M Travel Agencies do not even search for consolidator
fares when you contact them about looking for international
airfare. In 2004 only 4% of online booking engines contained
consolidator airfares. Therefore you must find these sites by
searching for key words which describe consolidator airfares
such as "consolidator, bulk, net and negotiated" fares.
I have found an online site that sells consolidator airfares for
cheap flights, I done my search now? The simple answer is No.
Firstly, like any business online or B&M Travel agencies need to
make a profit. They first purchase the ticket from the wholesale
consolidator and then mark up the price to you for their profit.
Different agencies charge different mark ups which can vary by
hundreds of dollars. Therefore, you should shop around for the
best fares because once you find consolidator fares, different
companies will have different mark ups for the exact same
flight.
Consolidator fares will save you between 10 to 70% on
international flights and therefore it is one of the best ways
to save money when you travel.