Travel agent for yourself

[albatross710]

I'm wondering (only slightly referred to in the above posts) how the "bucket shops" OTA's often offer much cheaper fares than the airline directly - we've all seen examples of this. They also offer some mixed carrier (cheaper) fares that you cannot find any the/any airline site.
(Personally I never book flights via OTA's - always use airline directly; sometimes I use some of the larger (/reputable) OTA's for hotels if there is a significant price difference).

My thoughts are that the booking is more a “request” which some OTA fronts wil assess and not honour but tell you the price has increased. They may do that during the process. There would be a demographic of people that would continue the booking as they have already got the flights they want, entered all their details and be a long way down the booking path.

 

[Cynicor]

My thoughts are that the booking is more a “request” which some OTA fronts wil assess and not honour but tell you the price has increased. They may do that during the process. There would be a demographic of people that would continue the booking as they have already got the flights they want, entered all their details and be a long way down the booking path.

Most just, as before, are getting volume rebates/discounts are fares you can't see.