How do travel sites get cheaper air fares?
I was searching for a few flights for my parents, specifically from JFK to visit India (bucket list trip). Emirates was their airline of choice. On directly checking on Emirates.com, the shown fare was around $1000 per person; however, on searching on Expedia, the fare for the same flights came up to $750 per person. I ended up buying the tickets on Expedia and I was able to confirm on Emirates.com that the tickets were generated and indeed valid.
So how does this work? Does the airline allocate x tickets to their booking partners/travel agents and did the number of available tickets for that fare on Emirates run out while it was still available on Expedia?
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Is it cheaper to book flights on the airline website?
More often than not, booking directly through the airline's website will give you the best price, or will at least be the same as the OTAs. Some airlines, like Southwest, won't even show up on sites like Expedia or Orbitz, so you have to book direct.Do flight prices change based on web browser?
Surprisingly, there is very little evidence that online travel sites are raising prices the more that you search for a specific trip. In fact, they tend to show lower prices to logged-in users.Why are flights more expensive on airline websites?
Airlines. Although travel websites can charge less for the same round-trip ticket because they have access to greater volumes of price listings, they sometimes charge a booking fee that can increase ticket prices.How do I get the lowest airfare?
HOW TO FIND CHEAP FLIGHTS - My Best Tips After Booking 500+ Flights
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Massimo Pertile, Francesco Ungaro, Pixabay, Taryn Elliott