Consolidators

We all know what a travel agent is; a consolidator is similar. These places, also known as bucket shops, deal in seats the airlines don’t think they can sell at normal prices. Rather than sell these seats in their own name, which would irritate customers paying full fare, airlines release blocks of them to consolidators for resale. The consolidators then sell them to travelers who are willing to take the time and effort to seek them out.

Consolidators are the people advertising those unbelievable prices, and even if they are almost never as low as advertised, they can still be very cheap. They can be cheap for a number of reasons: student discounts, lower than expected bookings, inconvenient times, off-season departures, flying on strange airlines, flying into smaller or more inconvenient airports (like London Gatwick instead of London Heathrow), long delays in changing planes, a mandatory stopover in Angola, whatever. If you are persistent, you wiU probably be able to find something where you want to go, when you want to go, at a couple of hundred dollars below the air-J’nes published fare. So get on the phone and start calling the places ir* the paper, and see what they can do for you. Do a lot of calling around, write down whatever they tell you in great detail (you’ll deunite]y forget some of what they say if you don’t), and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Some pointers for dealing with agents or consolidators: