better prices on orbitz/experida than airline sites for multicity

I was just wondering how consolidators can offer better prices than airline sites.

Consolidators buy tickets from the airlines in bulk and resell them at a markup that is how they make money

Buying tickets for next May if you are looking after the 2nd week is too early to get a good deal. I would wait until Fall 2019 to see of there is a sale. I have not seen a sales campaign for Spring 2020. I get email alerts when there is a sale from the airlines I like to fly or have flown

Are you looking at the same airline for both flights? Sometimes you can do better with orbitz etc., because they are offering tickets with two different airlines--airline is cheaper outbound and another cheaper inbound/

Ck itamatrix website as a guide.

If your flight itinerary is canceled, delayed or you miss a connection, good luck reaching a third-party consolidator especially overseas 24/7 because the airline will not help you since you didn’t buy the ticket from them.

Sometimes the price that you get shown isn't what it ends up being as you complete the transaction. Sometimes the third party sites will cobble together multi-airline itineraries that cost you time, or have unreasonable connection times. Sometimes cheapest is not always best.

I am looking for third week in May so can wait.

I looked on Itamaxtrix and it also referred me to third party consolidators. How is it different?

I had stopped buying tickets from third party consolidators when I missed a flight to Europe after I tried to avoid a trip to Miami midweek and bought a ticket from Ft Lauderdale to Boston to London to Amsterdam. First ticket was on Jet Blue and I couldn't check into British Airways and had to go out of domestic part of airport and enter in international. I missed my connection to London. But British Airways did put me on a later flight that still allowed me to get my connection in London.

I didn't try to contact Orbitz but just dealt with airline.

What I concluded is that buying flights on different airlines going the same direction through a consolidator might have some risks.

But is the risk the same if I were to buy a flight to Rome with one connection through a consolidator that is the same flight sold on an airline's site? For example TAP Portugal, Air Italy, British Airways all have flights to Rome that have one connection. If I miss the connecting flight, am I at a disadvantage in rebooking if I have purchased through a consolidator? Buying direct flights for both ends of my itinerary seems to be prohibitively expensive (itamatrix had $7700!!!).

I usually buy from third party sites and get earlier notification when a flight is delayed or cancelled, which has happened. I then get a jump on rebooking the flight directly with the airline. I have never had the airline tell me they can't help me because I booked through Orbitz.

Do look on TripAdvisor air travel forum for reviews on specific companies before you buy through a 3rd party. There are some companies that are somewhat notorious.....

I was just wondering how consolidators can offer better prices than airline sites

1. Inept airline websites. Some airline websites are unable to book normal connection times on their own flights. For example, Aerlingus cannot book US>>continental Europe connections @ Dublin on Aer Lingus if the connection time is under 6 hours. Orbitz will book 2-4 hour connections easily for you.

2. Airline websites can screen out long connection times that save money, times that you may be OK with. There’s a way to force airline websites to show these, eg make the connection city a multi city segment but on the same day.

3. Ticket may be cross alliance, say Delta to British Airways, not bookable on an airline website. Maybe you want the Delta nonstop to London and not have to deal with a connection in Chicago or Philadelphia to stay in the One World Alliance.

If I miss the connecting flight, am I at a disadvantage in rebooking
if I have purchased through a consolidator?

Just curious why you think you may miss the connecting flight a second time. Why not just build in ample time so that doesn't happen? I've had no issues booking uncomplicated itineraries with third party sites. Third party sites wouldn't exist, though, if all they did was replicate the airline's own search results. It's probably fair to say that their algorithms cobble up some fares that are less comfortable or risky that you may find when booking directly (although that's probably less true now that airlines sometimes don't give you adequate connection times even booking directly). Also, third party sites can actually manage tickets in cases when one airline doesn't have the underlying infrastructure to sell another airline's tickets on its own site (as in the case of codeshared flights). Anyway, the more straightforward your itinerary, the less chance you will have any issues either booking directly OR with a third party site. I wouldn't write off a third party site (a legitimate one like Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, etc.) if you can get a substantially better fare, but just know what the tradeoffs are (if any). IMHO, if someone is willing to pay $600 more for 100% certainty/comfort, that's just too much of a price to pay. I can live with risk if I save a lot of money in return.

I have no reason to think I will miss a connecting flight. I was just trying to think of things that could go wrong.

And yes, I have noticed that consolidators often find flights even on a single airline don’t don’t come up automatically when trying to book through that airline.

I also do realize that some consolidators are much more reputable than others.

That $7700 fare is so crazy-high that I suspect you may have priced two one-way tickets. You should instead choose "multi-city" rather than "one-way" or "round-trip".

I think you may be finding crazy airfare prices because you're looking out too far in advance, and those ITA Matrix numbers are sort of like arbitrary "placeholders" until future demand is better known. The other issue is, if you do buy through a third party and the itinerary times change, it's more of a pain to deal with the third party than the airline (I didn't even get an alert of a change with a codeshare once that made the flight impossible, and that was booking direct. It was an American Airlines/ West Jet flight to Mexico - neither airline's system talked to the other, it was a mess). Unfortunately, there are risks with itinerary changes when booking far ahead. Good luck with your search!

My experience with consolidators is limited. I’ve worked through several consolidator bookings only to find fees showing up just before the purchase screen that pretty much negated any savings. I had one very terrible experience with Cheapo Air and would strongly recommend not using them. On a few occasions I’ve found combinations of flights on a consolidator site I could not on the airlines website. I call the airlines customer service (during normal business hours) and most times they were able to book it, albeit or a $25 or so charge. Booking this far in advance the likelihood of a flight change is high, and it may not be one you can accept. I would rather deal with an airline than a consolidator in that case.

So what would be a reasonable timeframe to to book for late May trip? Perhaps October? I booked a flight to Greece two years ago and waited until December (hoping internship for our son would be settled). Prices were higher than had been in fall. But I have to admit when we finally booked his flight in March prices were lower than in December.

How far ahead do you find optimal for booking airline tickets?

I am just trying to get good prices this time!

How far ahead do you find optimal for booking airline tickets?

There isn't any set time. Some discount airlines do sell the lower tickets first, then the prices rise (with exceptions).

For legacy carriers, you never know. You have to track a set price over time to know what a good price is and then jump when it shows up. Normally the last 2 months is too late, but there are exceptions for that. Right now there are good prices for just weeks away for a lot of Europe, that's not normal.

How far ahead do you find optimal for booking airline tickets?

There is no single answer to this because "optimal" depends on too many internal factors that are unique to a specific flight. There are also external factors you can't control that can affect certain carriers more narrowly or the entire industry broadly - e.g., fuel price swings, Max planes being sidelined, etc. Due to dynamic pricing, which is unpredictable, It's like Goldilocks. You have to hedge and find the sweet spot between "not too early" and "not too late" with no concrete guidance, but only your level of risk and prior experience to guide you. My rule of thumb is that if I'm in an airline market that is competitive (several airlines competing head-to-head on a particular flight), then I can afford to take my time and will likely get a good price (can even afford to wait until there's a seasonal sale, for example). If not in a competitive market, then I need to be more aggressive and have more room/time to track more closely over several months and jump on it if the price is within your budget. I have a good feel for what a good price is now to some places I want to go to because I've tracked the prices for months. Be sure to also check out non-legacy carriers like Turkish Air, if they're an option from your airport.

Third party consolidators? This is confusing.

itasoftware.com shows various airline prices. It is a service for airlines, owned by Google, but the customer has to make his/her own links to buy anything.

Expedia, Cheapoair, and the like, sell tickets for the airlines. Regular tickets, not some grey-market points-driven tickets. The only "consolidation" they do is for itineraries that require transfers from one airline to another that don't sell each other's tickets.The old bucket-shop days are over. Airlines rarely dump last-minute tickets on a discounter as happened three or four decades ago. Which means the on-line agencies cannot sell cheaper than the airlines themselves. They are not in business to lose money.

On the proposed route for next May, I see tickets on Expedia (my sample) for a few dollars more than listed on American's own site. The American/BA combo, requiring a stop on one trans-Atlantic crossing but not the other, is about $550 US, remarkably cheap in my view. Delta is about $100 more. The only non-stop both ways is on Italia and costs double what American is offering. Expedia's site, in my experience, is awkward. Buying direct from the airline is always safer and more efficient, especially if there is a schedule change, which could be possible if you buy far in advance.

Just be sure to use a genuine multi-search function to put the itinerary together.

Which means the on-line agencies cannot sell cheaper than the airlines themselves.

Not quite true. Several times I have found one-way tickets available on Expedia for half the price of the round-trip, whereas such reasonable one-way prices were not available on the regular airlines' websites.