International air travel international cheap travel guide
Part 3 – Where to find the Right Consolidators to get the cheapest airfares and lowest airfare 

To recap from the previous articles, you now know that to find those cheapest coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares, its best that you look for consolidator fares instead of doing those local or international travel deals cheap airline flights finder research at the airlines sites or their respective agents who are just selling published fares.

We also like the first class travel website known as First Class Au to look for those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals and holidays.

Sponsored Sites:

As you may well know by now, consolidators are one of the best places to look for those cheapest economy or chepaest business class travel/cheapest business class ticket or first class cheapest airfares tickets and there are many of them who sells direct to the public on the Internet.

But who are they?

To recap again, in a nutshell, consolidators are the wholesalers of the airline industry. These are the typically large travel agents who purchase tickets in large blocks from the airlines at an agreed-upon discount price and offer them back as those cheapest coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares 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 and promote the airlines and its destinations to the public.

The public also in a way benefits from these low local or international air travel or international cheap travel tickets and even those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals.

Particularly on international flights, consolidator fares are generally the best discounted airfares available. They are usually cheaper than the lowest published airfares available from the airline companies.

Search for these consolidators when you are doing those local or international travel deals cheap airline flights finder research or just use the highly recommended sites above.

But how does the consolidator make money selling such low local or international air travel or international cheap travel tickets and even those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals?

Its simple, they mark up the ticket price from the “wholesale” price they got from the airlines (which are very low and sells them back at a still lower that those published coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares tickets to the public.

Even when selling at such cheapest economy or chepaest business class travel/cheapest business class ticket or first class cheapest airfares tickets, they will still make more from the traditional travel agent selling the published fares from the mechanism above.

Note that the airlines have even scrapped the commissions given to agents since 2002. As such, the consolidator earnings model allows them to make a profit especially if the demand is strong for a particular season.

Small travel agents certainly don’t have the volume power or marketing power to offer those low local or international air travel or international cheap travel tickets and those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals as a consolidator.

A number of consolidators operate their own websites, so if an agent knows or learns how or which consolidators specialise in which destinations and/or airlines, the agent could go to these websites and order those cheapest coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares tickets to their clients.

Still, note that consolidators are quite stringent in their dealings – and as such, these websites are password-protected, and some require the agent to submit an application and be vetted.

Note that while the majority of consolidators sell exclusively to the traditional travel agents, luckily, a large number also sells those cheapest coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares tickets direct to the general public especially through the Internet.

A number of the consolidators are actually travel agents themselves, which apart from just selling those cheapest economy or chepaest business class travel/cheapest business class ticket or first class cheapest airfares tickets above, also arranges package tours (like air tickets, land tours, hotels, car rentals, etc) to get additional income.

In addition, the packaged tours (which are often cheaper and comes together also with cheap airline tickets to offer a complete low local or international air travel or international cheap travel tickets and even those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals) also help the consolidators to clear their wholesale ticket inventory they bought from the airlines.

How does this benefit you?

Well, the smart travellers know that they can invariably find cheaper airfares through the consolidators (who wants to quickly clear off their ticket inventories) especially if the traveller has to buy last minute or cannot spend the weekend Saturday night.

Even then, even if you can buy way in advance from the airlines, you will still find that consolidators can sometimes offer you a cheaper coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares tickets ticket fares because of their bulk purchase discount from the airlines (which they normally pass to the purchasing travellers).

For international air travel or international cheap travel tickets and even those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals, consolidators’ fares are also cheaper in particular to countries where there is less airline competition or they are serviced by a lesser-known national airline company. 

Domestically, some airlines have increasingly been selling those last-minute seats via the Internet, and also even to consolidators. As such, consolidators remain one of the best places to compare and get those cheapest economy or chepaest business class travel/cheapest business class ticket or first class cheapest airfares air tickets, both domestically and internationally.

Note that some international consolidators specialise in complex itineraries and round the world (RTW) tickets, using various different entry and exit points and various airlines, thus beating even the retail RWT ticket prices of airline alliances such as One World and Star Alliance.

Your local travel agents likely do not have the expertise of arranging such RTW itineraries – which are complex but could yield substantial savings in the hands of the right consolidator expertise.

Depending on your itinerary, try either an agency specialising in that destination and/ or a bucket shop to get those international air travel or international cheap travel tickets and even those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals.

It is not surprising that local agents, when they have a customer for a weird destination or routing (especially around the world), may simply choose to buy the tickets from a bucket shop and mark them up to the customer.

In this way only could they offer those cheapest economy or chepaest business class travel/cheapest business class ticket or first class cheapest airfares RTW air tickets.

For most cases, most travel agents could never construct the sorts of routings the better bucket shops specialise in (especially customized around-the-world itineraries) at that  kind of cheap coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares tickets that the bucket shops provide.

You should do those international travel deals cheap airline flights finder research for these RTW consolidators especially if you are travelling to multi-destinations around the world. The best consolidator for RTW itineraries is Airtreks in our view.

Internationally, bucket shops could be found in a number of places in Europe (especially in London) and in Asia (Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia and in Bangkok in Thailand).

Retail airline consolidators and discount agents who specialize in consolidator fares generally do not mark up their ticket prices as much as typical travel agencies do. Because consolidated tickets are bought in bulk, they can generally be discounted deeper than regular travel agent discounts.

Consolidator fares will save you between 10% to 70%, depending on carrier, the consolidator, the time of year, and your destination and is likely to offer you the cheapest coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares tickets.

Savings are highest on international airfares during tourist season, when ticket prices are high.

Where can you find them?

Sponsored Sites:

Well, there are a number of sources where you can seek out these consolidators:

1) Consolidators often advertised their services, tour packages and of course those cheapest economy or chepaest business class travel/cheapest business class ticket or first class cheapest airfares destination tickets through the newspaper travel sections.

In the US, most of the consolidators are based in the major cities so be sure to check out the travel sections of major newspapers like The New York Times (New York), San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco) and Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles).

2) The Internet is probably the best places to do those international travel deals cheap airline flights finder research to look for consolidators.

Meanwhile, also note that consolidators serving a particular local community wishing to visit their homeland may offer some outstanding prices so it’s a good strategy to seek out such country-oriented consolidators for the best coach or cheapest business class airfares/cheapest business class or first class cheapest airfares tickets.

3) A backdoor way to find consolidators who offer those international air travel or international cheap travel tickets and even those premium first class lowest airfare or lowest first class airfares/first class airfare travel deals is through publications or magazines which are specifically catered to the travel agents.

Even if these consolidators sell only to travel agents, there is nothing stopping you from asking your preferred travel agent to contact the consolidators you want. Obviously you have to pay your travel agent a fee being the middleman but you can obviously negotiate or cut the commission fees given that you are the one who did all the homework.

Editor’s notes: The above strategies are just the tip of the iceberg in searching for cheap tickets to your local or overseas destinations. To get ahead on those other industry “secret” discounts that the average travellers or 90% of them do not really know, and sometimes may be just too sensitive to be publicised, invest in a copy of this fantastic book by Mellissa Obrien called “Travel Industry Secrets” Melissa has even given out together free with the book the best consolidator sources in different countries in her view. And it’s just a drop in the bucket of what you could really learn about the hidden savings and perks of the travel industry. “Travel Industry Secrets.” is an absolute guide that will leapfrog you into the “real hidden” world of travel perks and discounts – and leaves you planning for a FREE second and third vacations (from the savings you make on the first one). Forget about the small cost - the returns and savings are 100-folds more, even if you only travel a few times a year. It’s a gem of a book and I absolutely recommend that you get it and read it from page to page.

Selected other fare saving articles/tips of interest:

1.How to get those cheap international business & first class airfares?
2.Understanding those lowest first class airfares cheap first class airfare
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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Copyright 2006 - Where to find those cheap international air travel international cheap travel? article.