It used to be you could go online to a travel industry disrupter, an online ticket agency or OTA, to find the best offers for flights. The new players broke the rules and scraped sites, did deals across borders, and generally brought value to the community... at the expense of brick and mortar travel agencies who were subject to border pricing issues; and likewise to airlines who like to maximise profit in any market willing/able to pay more for an airline ticket.
The earlier entrants to the meta data flight offerings included Skyscanner, Kayak, Orbitz, Travelocity, and even Google itself in the form of ITA software, all of which can still be found online. There have been some downgrades in service to the consumer to increase profits, but the companies are doing very well!
The good old days are gone... Skyscanner has been bought by CTrip the Chinese "eat anything in its way" travel company. Orbitz was purchased by Expedia, the same company that owns Travelocity and 20 other 'unique' travel sites that sell tickets... The side effect is true competition is disappearing and the main players are manipulating what you the consumer see offered for pricing. You may not be seeing the lowest fare possible when you use the meta flight shopping engines as your shopping source for the 'best deal'.
We at Future.Travel noticed that not all our flights were being offered via the meta sites in some countries. Missing were the cheaper fares ... for the same airline that was being offered online via the meta... the same meta that had shopped us for a price and did not show our prices for the airline. The issue... the airline had 'bought' the rights to exclude all competition against them on the meta platform. The meta flight sites do not care about this 'exclusion of lower priced flights' from public view, as they get a direct payment from the airlines for the exclusion and a commission when someone buys via a referral from their website at a higher price. Good for the meta provider and the airline. This is bad for the consumer who can buy, in some cases, through an independent online travel agent like Future.Travel at a lower consolidator's price. Bad for OTA's who are being charged for the searches (even when the best airline price from the OTA is not being offered to the public), and bad for whole countries as the exclusion practice inflates the cost of flying for their citizens. Google Flights now points their buying suggestions to ... guess who...their best advertisers who have already manipulated the market. Some market places (like Australia) were ‘secured’ by the big players, effectively eliminating entry by any competitor that could be offering lower prices.
The solution is to shop and buy from independent airline ticket agents and hotel suppliers. We of course suggest Future.Travel! The big players are playing the consumer and offering 3-4 comparison sites from their own consortium to check against their offered prices. Hmmm… what could possibly be wrong with that plan?
How to get best price when buying airfares online? Here are 5 hints to help you get the best price for airfares online.
Hint 1: Shop in the local country currency for the website... this can save you $5-10 on an average ticket.
Hint 2: If you only see 1 offering from a meta website (Skyscanner, Wego, Orbitz, Kayak, etc) for an airline (e.g no multiple offers for anyone other than the airline) then you know the site is manipulating the market for their benefit not yours. Shop around until you find a meta-site that offers all airlines - with multiple purchase options from various independent OTA's.
Hint 3: Talk to a travel agent as they can still beat the price of some online fares.
Hint 4: Use the live chat window for an online travel agent to do your comparison shopping and discussions. The good ones will help you to confirm if you are getting the best deal for low cost business class and economy airline tickets.
Hint 5: ALWAYS test to see if 2 one way tickets are cheaper than a discounted roundtrip ticket AND check to see if business class is cheaper than economy! In many cases a promotional business class or discounted premium economy airfare is cheaper than one of the few economy seats available on a heavily booked flight.
