Have you ever had friends keep telling you how they get great deals on international travel but you can never seem to find those same deals and wonder where they find them? It is more than likely that they have a list of travel consolidators at hand. So what is a travel consolidator?
They are agents or agencies who buy tickets in bulk from airlines, either when sales are announced or within the parameters of contracts with the airlines. These consolidators can then sell the tickets at whatever prices they choose, although they obviously could not go much higher than what the airlines sell the same tickets for or else no one would buy them from the consolidator. However, when the airline announces a fare sale but you must buy by a certain date, the consolidators may have bought some of the tickets and can extend to you the sale fare even after the ‘purchase by’ date has passed.
The beauty of buying tickets through a consolidator is that they may discount the fare even below what the original fare sale is because the ticket may expire. So you can get a great last minute price on an international flight or cruise because the consolidator does not want to eat the ticket (have it expire).
The trick is in understanding who the consolidators are and then finding the best prices you can for where and when you desire to travel. Different consolidators have different tickets available so it pays to check around, even if you find one that has the ticket you need. As a general rule. the tickets are going to be for the most popular routes: such as N.Y. – London or Paris, L.A. – Tokyo, S.F. – Beijing, etc. It is not likely you will find a consolidator holding tickets for Minneapolis-Brussels or similar less desirable routes so if your needs are so specific (smaller cities or airports) you may not be able to find what you need. But if you are flexible enough to fly domestically to the bigger departure cities, you can perhaps still catch a domestic flight on a regional carrier for a reasonable cost and still save hundreds of dollars anyway.
The consolidators can help you find the best solutions also and book you a seat as well if you need additional flights.
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