Airline consolidators
Many travelers have found they can get great deals on air travel by purchasing their tickets from an airline consolidator as the tickets are purchased by airline consolidators at a wholesale price and then resold to the public or to travel agencies.

Before you by tickets from airline consolidators it is important to know that many of the tickets sold as consolidator airfares are unchangeable. Once the ticket is purchased, your travel dates are locked in and they are usually non-refundable, even under extreme circumstances. In order to the cheap airfares airline consolidators offer, you must be willing to take the risk that your travel plans will not change or you will risk losing the money you spent. Most are also not transferable so you will not be able to sell them or give them to someone else.

When considering using airline consolidators you should look into the company’s reputation ahead of time. If you are not shy, you can ask a known travel agent which airline consolidators are the most reputable because many of the travel agents use them to book their tickets as well. But it is known that for most flights bought through a consolidator air fares are considerably lower.

Many times a consolidator will over buy the number of tickets that predict to use for a specified destination and a few days before the flight they may get a little nervous about being left holding a bunch of unsold tickets. This is when airline consolidators may put the tickets up for sale at an online auction or offer a great deal to travel agents, who often pass that deal onto their customers. Since air consolidators hope to make a profit when they sell the tickets, there may be some room to get an even better price closer to the travel date.

When buying early from a consolidator air fares are not going to go down, but you will be assured a seat on that flight. On the other you can take the chance of buying closer to your chosen date of travel and hope a consolidator has tickets left over that they are looking to get rid of cheaper.