Lowest first class airfares cheap first class airfare strategies

Part 2 – The different type of consolidators to get those cheap fares cheapest fares

In previous articles, you would have noted that to find those discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare, it’s best that you look for consolidator fares instead of doing those discount flight search cheap airfares or first class cheap flights finder research at the airlines sites or their respective agents who are just selling published fares.

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Consolidators used to have a sort of a not so nice industry.

Historically, consolidators are quite secretive in their dealings with the airlines – who do not want the general public to know too much about their price discounting system to the consolidators (lest those consolidators’ discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare deals to the public cannibalise their own market too much.

It’s a method of keeping check also of the whole consolidator system of offering those local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel tickets).

There were unfortunately a number of bankruptcies and shutdowns in the late 1990s that affected the industry, which gave a stigma to the term consolidators then.

However, times have changed and they have changed fast. As such, if you want to do a discount flight search for cheap airfares or first class cheap flights finder research, always look for the consolidators site or talk to them.

While it is true that you there will still be the weak and probably disreputable operators in the business, there are also a number of solid major consolidators around who will offer you those cheap travel cheapest airfares deals.

In the strictest sense, consolidators is not to be confused with bucket shops and so-called “ethnic” travel agencies as where consolidators in most cases sell only to retail agencies, bucket shops sell directly to the public for those discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare tickets, in addition to also wholesaling their business to other agencies.

Often they buy tickets from other consolidators in their country and/or from other countries.

Well, the true definition of a consolidator then is probably an independent company that has a contractual relationship for discounted air ticket inventory with an airline company – whether in U.S. or foreign airlines.

Note that consolidators must sell from these contracted inventories to offer those local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel tickets.

The airlines then monitor a consolidator’s sales of those cheap travel cheapest airfares tickets to the public and can modify the inventory based on the consolidator’s booking activity.

In fact, the airlines will sometimes modify the terms if the consolidator’s (unpublished) fares are too hot in demand in which case the airlines may try to restrict the sale inventory or raised the prices to the consolidators.

Given so, once you have found those consolidators best deals when doing your discount flight search for cheap airfares or first class cheap flights finder research, it pays to quickly snap those tickets if you see a good deal – even from the consolidators.

While there are distinctions as mentioned above, to the general public, consolidator, wholesaler, discounter and bucket shop are normally interchangeable terms used for travel agents who sell unpublished discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare tickets at discounted low fares in the air travel industry – some domestically in the US although most of these players are found for international travels.

As you may well know by now, consolidators are one of the best places to look for cheap travel cheapest airfares tickets and there are many of them who sells direct to the public on the Internet (you can do a search for consolidators in your discount flight search for cheap airfares or first class cheap flights finder research although many players do not exactly identified themselves as consolidators and some sell a mixture of both published and unpublished fares).

To recap, in a nutshell, consolidators are the wholesalers of the airline industry sell those cheap travel cheapest airfares tickets.

These are the typically large travel agents who purchase tickets in large blocks from the airlines at an agreed-upon discount price and sell those resultant local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel tickets to the public.

By guaranteeing large volume purchase, this situation is a win-win also for the airlines, which gets a certain cash flow (at the expense of the discount) and also the chance to sell its tickets to fill seats at lower discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare prices, and also promote the airlines and its destinations to the public.

Particularly on international flights, consolidator fares are generally the best discounted airfares available.

They are usually cheaper even than the lowest published airfares available from the airline companies (check it out from your consolidator discount flight search for cheap airfares or first class cheap flights finder research).

In most cases, especially in the USA and also in the international scene, consolidators are wholesalers who sell only through retail agencies, not directly to the public.

Wholesale consolidators generally do not offer retail service and hence you can buy those local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel tickets directly from them.

In other words, these guys normally service only travel agents for their cheap travel cheapest airfares deals and not the public themselves.

To make it complicated, the business is constantly evolving, and there are also nowadays also wholesale consolidators who also sell directly to the public and may or may not offer retail service on those discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare tickets. 

The typical consolidator who sells and offer retail services to the public in the past and still present are typically known as bucket shop operators.

These are the type of consolidators which a typical traveller would probably have to look for to buy those discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare tickets or to ask help to arrange a complex itinerary like a round the world (RTW) ticket.

Still, as noted above, there are also wholesale consolidators nowadays who also sell directly to the public for cheap travel cheapest airfares tickets and may or may not offer retail service. 

Tony Morrison in his fantastic travel savings book called “Airfare Secrets” has listed out the best consolidator sources in different countries in his view that sell those local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel tickets, saving you the need to do those laborious discount flight search for cheap airfares or first class cheap flights finder research on the consolidators.

Note that retail customers are typically charged more than wholesale customers (say travel agencies) by some consolidators, so its probably better, for the same price or service, to go through a retail agency, even if the wholesaler is willing to deal with you directly.

Consolidators have certainly taken on more importance since the mid-1990s, when major U.S. carriers first capped travel agency base commissions. These commission cuts went deeper since then until they were completely eliminated altogether in 2002.

In the mean time, the consolidators have continued to flourish (mostly behind the scene) and as such, deprived of their commissions, travel agents nowadays are also buying from consolidators to get the best local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel tickets deals for their clients.

Some of the big players in the industry, who hitherto has only offered published fares, are also trying to offer those cheap consolidator fares of discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare (although these are much more limited and masked through “special promotions” given that these players are mainly owned by the airlines and thus can’t be open about it due to reasons mentioned earlier.

In a way, they really are selling those cheap travel cheapest airfares tickets if they have the consolidators fares in their ticket inventory.

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Generally, consolidators are grouped into three categories:

a) Strictly wholesale consolidators

These consolidators generally do not have retail sales (or only minimally), do not advertise to the public but normally pitch their business to travel agencies by advertising in trade publications. They are well known among the travel agents fraternity but do not want to be known to the general public.

These consolidators deal typically in round trips originating in the country where they are based, offering those local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel tickets and are common in the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia and other main continents.

They often restrict retail agents who buy tickets from them from giving out their direct contact information, and most don’t even have a website.

These are strictly consolidators who do not deal with the public or have retail customer service and hence you can’t buy those discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare tickets from them.

Of course, if you could pretend you are a travel agent, you could still buy those cheap travel cheapest airfares tickets from them.

B) Destination specialists

These are mainly negotiated fares consolidators, who specialise in a particular destination or region and because of their bulk volume purchase, they often have negotiated discounts on tickets to that region, effectively offering the best cheap travel cheapest airfares deals to those regions.

These cheaper discounted airfares/cheapest airfares or lowest first class airfares or cheap first class airfare tickets are then sold to both their own retail customers and also to other wholesale consolidators.

Because of the bulk purchase discounts and other bonuses they could get from the airlines, they often offer the best local cheap fares/cheapest airfares or those cheap international travel/ international cheap travel discounted tickets to the particular region or country that they specialise in.

For example, if you want the cheapest possible round-trip ticket from the USA say to India, Thailand, or even Japan, no prices are likely to beat these specialist agencies that sells nothing else but a massive volume of round-trip tickets to a single destination.

These consolidators normally target their business at the immigrants of the country that you want to go to. For example, in UK, you will find consolidators serving just the London Chinese community or the Japan specialist in the country.

These consolidators normally advertise in foreign-language ethnic publications although some also advertise in the mainstream Sunday newspapers.

In any case, you could easily get your travel agent to liaise and buy your tickets with these ethnic-based consolidators, although he may charges you a small commission for doing it, which is often worth many times the small fee. 

c) Bucket shops 

These are discount retail agencies that deals directly with the public and they often specialise in trips more complicated than simple round trips, often to a wider range of destinations or to multiple destinations.

These trips are also known as round the world (RTW) and RTW tickets are sought after by both leisure travellers wishing for multiple destination holidays at cheap prices, and also by frequent-travel business travellers. 

Bucket shops are also known to retail customers as ticket discounters. Note that some operators here do not like the term bucket shop, which is semi-derogatory.

But whichever term it is, bucket shops often offer great deals on discounted tickets – on non-frequent travelled routes or complicated itineraries, they often negotiate directly with the airlines. Bucket shops normally sell to retail customers and also to other bucket shops.

Selected other fare saving articles/tips of interest:

1.How to get those cheap international business & first class airfares? 
2.Where to find those cheap international air travel international cheap travel?
3.Looking for cheap air flights lowest fare airline ticket?
4.Where to look for those airline cheap discount flight ticket cheap airline flights?

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