Shonky OTA vs Direct with the airline

Murphy_The_Cat

The time honoured wisdom on MSE seems to be "direct with the airline, unless there is a really good financial incentive to do otherwise" followed by "if the shonky OTA has a fare that seems to good to be true, it won't be a live fare and you'll get shafted when they come back to you with the 'real' fare".


I've just made the following booking for travelling from the US to UK. For fairness, all the quotes are for "through" tickets, with a single change.
These are the cheapest prices.

Skyscanner price £892 or £2151 with United
Kayak price £2120 Lufthansa £2125 with United
Google flights £1126 Star Alliance United £2102
United Direct £2125
Shonky OTA, for United flights £375.


Shonky OTA gave the 6 digit PNR as soon as the flights were paid for and 6 hours later the e-ticket was issued.
Booking direct with the airline would have been over 5 and a half times as expensive.
How the....
What the...
But it can't be right. But it is and I've got the e-tickets in my inbox and its confirmed with the airline.

Westin

Are those one way prices quoted by the airline sites? If so did you look at the round trip prices comparing like-for-like?

If one way, I suspect the OTA’s are providing a return ticket knowing that you won’t use the return segment but in the world of airline fare costings a return can be cheaper than a one way ticket. Booking a return and only using the first outbound segment is known as ‘throw away ticketing’. It is not strictly allowed but many get away with it.

The other thing to look at is the ticket terms and flexibility. The high airline priced tickets might be more flexible in terms of amendments and refunds. The OTA’s ones are likely to be strictly non refundable and also likely non changeable.

BTW, not all online agencies are Shonky. It’s a case of using the reputable ones and avoiding the dodgy ones, and going in eyes wide open with what you are buying.

Murphy_The_Cat

Westin wrote: »

Are those one way prices quoted by the airline sites? If so did you look at the round trip prices comparing like-for-like?


Yes, they are the one way prices quoted by the airline sites. The return ticket price on the airline site, on an economy light basis is £772


If one way, I suspect the OTA’s are providing a return ticket knowing that you won’t use the return segment but in the world of airline fare costings a return can be cheaper than a one way ticket. Booking a return and only using the first outbound segment is known as ‘throw away ticketing’. It is not strictly allowed but many get away with it.


Originally, I was looking at a return ticket and not using the return portion, until I found the price that Shonky OTA was offering - a fraction of the airlines one way fare. It's still less than half the price of the airlines return fare.


The other thing to look at is the ticket terms and flexibility. The high airline priced tickets might be more flexible in terms of amendments and refunds. The OTA’s ones are likely to be strictly non refundable and also likely non changeable.


The United ticket rules look to be written in Swahili ! But I suspect that you are correct. the Shonky OTA has sold me a Basic Economy ticket CANCEL: No money is refunded in case of cancellation.
CHANGE: Changes are not permitted at any time after ticketing. The airline will only sell me 1 type of one way ticket, that will cost £2125. The £775 return fare with the airline is Basic Economy and can't be cancelled, or changed.


BTW, not all online agencies are Shonky. It’s a case of using the reputable ones and avoiding the dodgy ones, and going in eyes wide open with what you are buying.

The one I've used has enough negative reviews to be described as shonky, possibly with a capital S !
I went into the transaction with my eyes open and when I went to bed last night, I was fairly sure that I would have an email waiting for me saying that the fare that I had booked was no longer available, but I could buy another one for only £xxx more. Instead I had a shiny new e-ticket waiting for me.

Voyager2002

Even the skonkiest of OTAs do deliver sometimes.


In your case the financial saving was large enough to make the gamble worthwhile: had things gone wrong you would have had a fair amount of bother getting a credit card chargeback but fortunately you were spared this.

Murphy_The_Cat

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Even the skonkiest of OTAs do deliver sometimes.


In your case the financial saving was large enough to make the gamble worthwhile: had things gone wrong you would have had a fair amount of bother getting a credit card chargeback but fortunately you were spared this.

Yes, a watch that has stopped, is still correct twice a day:beer:


I was planning for the worst, but hoping for the best !

bagand96

I've done it a couple of times (mainly for short haul flights that were a few weeks away) and saved a bit. Like you, etickets and PNR issued almost immediately and no problems experienced.

I think it's a case of buyer beware (I don't agree with the "never" use OTA advice you often see here). Like you correctly did, go in eyes wide open and thre are savings to be had.

The biggest problems people have seem to be when there is an airline schedule change, and getting a satisfactory resolution. Can be a case of you know what you want, the airline are happy to give you what you want, but getting the OTA to action it for you is a challenge! I guess many of them are actually very small organisations relying on a largely automated business model. When it needs human interaction they don't have the resources or expertise.

How they do it with the savings does seem to be a mystery. Can only assume that in certain cases they are able to offer a fare class that airlines won't show on their website. Sometimes I think it's do to with where the ticket is issued. An airline website knows where you are because of your IP, but perhaps the OTAs are able to find cheaper fare buckets and sell them you regardless. A few years ago I got a few really good transatlantic deals with BA booking via Expedia.ca or Expedia.com rather than .co.uk or BA's own site. Several hundred pounds on exactly the same flights....

dj1471

Come on... Which OTA? It's useful for onlookers to know which ones maybe aren't so shonky, especially as many of the reviews these sites get are from people who tried to cancel a non-refundable ticket or similar.

Murphy_The_Cat

dj1471 wrote: »

Come on... Which OTA? It's useful for onlookers to know which ones maybe aren't so shonky, especially as many of the reviews these sites get are from people who tried to cancel a non-refundable ticket or similar.

It wouldn't be Fare to say which OTA it is, as intimating that they are shonky may make them go Boom.

cubegame

This will almost certainly be down to the OTA buying tickets in another country.

As an example, when we booked with United to go to San Francisco last year there were a wider variety of fare classes available on their US site (using a VPN) than there UK site. This made our returns some £90 cheaper.

Pollycat

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

It wouldn't be Fare to say which OTA it is, as intimating that they are shonky may make them go Boom.

Wouldn't be fair?
Plenty of OTAs are named on the air Travel board of Tripadvisor - which is global.
I doubt a single thread on here would impact one little bit on the OTA that you bought your tickets from.

Murphy_The_Cat

Pollycat wrote: »

Wouldn't be fair? Plenty of OTAs are named on the air Travel board of Tripadvisor - which is global.
I doubt a single thread on here would impact one little bit on the OTA that you bought your tickets from.

Fare not fair