Airfare consolidators
Why pay retail when wholesale airfares to the U.K. are available?
Airfare consolidators are pretty much wholesale ticket agents who buy blocks of seats directly from the airlines at bargain basement rates and resell them to travel agents—and, in some cases, directly to you—for more than they paid (that's their profit) but less than the retail price (that's your opportunity for savings).
Unfortunately, as wholesalers, many consolidators are travel-agent-only and do not want to hear from you, Mr. One-round-trip-ticket-to-London-please.
The consolidators listed on this site, however, are perfectly willing to sell directly to the consumer.
How consolidators work gets complicated, but what you need to know is that consolidator fares are almost always cheaper than the regularly published fare...but not necessarily cheaper than individual airlines' sale fares. (And they stick to traditional airlines, so you may find a fare on a plucky new low-cost carrier that's cheaper.)
Also, consolidator fares are locked in about six to eight weeks out, so don't come looking here for last-minute bargains.
Is an airfare consolidator the same thing as a bucket shop?
You might hear consolidators referred to as bucket shops—though never, ever call them that to their face (it's like calling a used auto parts store a "chop shop").
"Bucket Shops" more properly refers to collections of travel agencies that specialize in low fares and that cluster in certain neighborhoods of London, Athens (Greece), and Amsterdam. Still, don't call real bucket shops "bucket shops," either.
One thing to know about both consolidators and bucket shops is that sometimes they'll offer you extremely low prices on what might seem an unusual carrier choice—for example, flying Air India from Chicago to London, or Kuwait Airlines from London to Rome.
There's nothing wrong with this; those planes are merely on long-haul flights that hopscotch from one city to the next and you merely hitch a ride cheaply for one leg of the journey.
But can I trust a consolidator?
Most major airlines around the world are as safe as any other, really.
I've flown on some pretty oddball ones (that Kuwait Air London-to-Rome example came from personal experience) and I've never had a problem.
Plus, the in-flight meals and entertainment can count as their own cultural experience (note: airline food is bad no matter what cultural context is interpreting it).
Practical upshot: Check these rates, but shop around before you buy, and wait until, oh, six weeks prior to travel to see if a better fare pops up on a sale (though you always run the risk of the consolidator selling out of those seats; the honest ones will give you a fair assessment of how quickly a fare might sell out—though they can't of course, control this very well.)
The one caveat to using a consolidator is this: Since you are buying your ticket though a third party, should anything go wrong with the flights—delays, cancellations, or missed connections—the airline cannot just book you through on the next convenient flight using another airline, as they usually do. You must fly the airline on which you booked the ticket—which may mean waiting up to 24 hours until the next scheduled flight home on that carrier.
(There's little need to worry; throughout 30 years and dozens of tickets to bought from the consolidator Auto Europe, I have only run into this problem once, and in the end it simply entailed me spending one unexpected night in a Detroit airport hotel—room and dinner paid for—before flying home early the next morning.)
- Flyinternational.com - The airfares branch of car rental consolidator Auto Europe is consistently among the cheapest (and most reliable) European airfare consolidators out there. Barring some sale fare elsewhere, this is where I almost always end up buying my transatlantic tickets for the simple reason that they are almost always the cheapest.Partner
- TFITours.com - One of the biggest classic consolidators out there, boasting up to 80% off retail (though I think that kind of pricing goes to their corporate clients, not the little fish booking a single ticket). Don't let the down-and-dirty interface scare you off; it's just because they're about low fares, not a flashy Web presence.
- CheapOAir.com - Upstart consolidator and discounter using the power of the Web to weave together the best bargains and negotiated discounts with three reservations systems and fifteen travel service providers—something of a mash-up of a traditional booking service and a wholesaler. It claims 18 million exclusive flight deals, a low airfare guarantee, and 84,000 negotiated hotel rates. Good at last-minute international fares. Also offers vacation packages.Partner
- Cheaptickets.com - Decent prices, though not always the best; still, it pays to check them out. They've also a "DEALS!" section. It's actually now owned by Orbitz, which makes it part of the Expedia family.Partner
- Hasbrouck.org - Everything there is to know about consolidators on the Airline Ticket Consolidators and Bucket Shops FAQ. My esteemed colleague Edward Hasbrouck, author of the excellent "The Practical Nomad: How To Travel Around The World," regularly updates his free no-nonsense/no-bull FAQ on exactly how airlines and agencies discount tickets and how you can take advantage of it.
- Amtaglobal.com - Founded in 1946 and based in New York and Chicago, has some of the best Central and Eastern Europe fares out there (especially to Poland and Russia), though they do Western Europe, too. Just use them for airfare; their vacation packages are overpriced.
- DFWTours.com - Major player in the wholesale travel game since 1978, with consolidator contracts on 30 airlines serving 200 U.S. departure cities. It's now part of the sprawling Thomas Cook empire of travel agencies.
- Momondo.com - (Aggregator) Before I get into details, just know this: 95% of the time, I find the lowest fares on Momondo. Momondo quietly blows most of the other aggregators out of the water. It searches more than 600 airline sites, plus booking engines, search engines, travel agencies, online discounters, etc. This is two to three times as many sources as the competition—including the low-cost carriers and no-frills airlines most of the other search engines ignore—and it pays off. You can also quickly see which flight is cheapest and which quickest (and which best overall), as well as use all the usual filters on the results (length of flight, departure/arrival times, number of stops, airlines, etc.). I ran Momondo through many tests, and it almost always found the lowest available fares on domestic, Transatlantic, and inter-European flights. It found fares from carriers none of the others did, and when it did find the same flights as some of the competition, it almost invariably managed to find a lower price for it. For now, at least, I'm calling it: Momondo is the single best resource out there, bar none.Partner
- Flyinternational.com - (Consolidator) The airfares branch of AutoEurope.com consistently offers among the cheapest (and most reliable) European airfare consolidators out there. Barring some sale fare elsewhere, this is where I almost always end up buying my transatlantic tickets for the simple reason that they are almost always the cheapest. This is also why I chose to partner with them for this site.Partner
- Skyscanner.com - (Aggregator) Another excellent aggregator that, like Momondo, also includes the little low-cost carriers and no-frills airlines ignored by most other search engines. I like that you can be as vague on your departure/arrivial points as simply an entire country, rather than a specific city of airport—you never know when, say, a flght into Manchester will actually be cheaper than one to London.Partner
- Hotwire.com - (OTA) Offers regaular fare searches and Hot Rates opaque fares (cost less, but with slightly less control over departure times and other details)Partner
- VirginAtlantic.com - Given all options, I will actually pay a bit more for Virgin Atlantic flight than one on any other airline. They just treat you so much better.Partner
- Google.com/flights - (Aggregator) Google has acquired ITA, the original airfare booking engine long used by travel agents. It's now available to the general public, and niftily shows you the rough current lowest cost for flights to pretty much anywhere from your hometown via a Google map measled with red dots marking major cities around the world. It doesn't allow you to book, but will tell you where/how to book the results it finds. Not really a strong performer on internaitonal flights yet—though, oddly, does a good job with last-minute international fares, so worth checking.
- Expedia.com - (OTA) Expedia—which does a fine job on middle-of-the-road fares—is the last remaining of the Big Three online travel agencies. (Expedia bought both Travelocity and Orbitz in 2015; Travelocity's search results are now identical to those at Expsia, and we can only hope Orbitz's lackluster results follow suit.)Partner
- Hipmunk.com - (Aggregator) The aggregator that rethought how searches should be delivered—and I always like those who think outside the search box. All results are shown on a timeline, and the default sort-order for flights that match your search is "Agony"—a combination factoring in price, flight duration, and stopovers—so that the least annoying options pop up first. You can also sort more traditionally by price, duration, departure time, arrival time, non-stop only, and ask it to favor your preferred airlines (or airline alliance). One drawback: It really only serarches the airlines directly plus a few booking engines like Expedia, so you're not getting the full story (no discounters are in the mix). Still: handy.
- CheapOair.com - (OTA) Upstart consolidator and discounter using the power of the Web to weave together the best bargains and negotiated discounts with three reservations systems and fifteen travel service providers—something of a mash-up of a traditional booking service and a wholesaler. It claims 18 million exclusive flight deals, a low airfare guarantee, and 84,000 negotiated hotel rates.Partner
- Vayama.com - (Aggregator) One of the original international airfare aggregators, and still one of the better ones.Partner
Tips
All of the airfare hunting techniques mentioned on this site have merit, but, honestly, if I had to narrow it down to two crucial places to check, they would be:
1) The aggregator Momondo
2) The consolidator AutoEurope
Nine times out of ten, I end up booking my plane tickets to Europe through one of those methods.