Advice - Flights from London to Mexico via 3rd Party Travel Operators

eyeamthu1

Hi,

I am wanting to book a flight from London to Mexico City in January - my flight of choice is with AeroMexico.

I would normally always book directly through the airline - but the cost with AeroMexico direct is £2048.

The same flight (with hold baggage included) is available through a whole host of third party travel operators for a MUCH cheaper price - around the £500-550 mark!! - so about a quarter of the price!! These providers include Kiwi, BudgetAir, Crystal Travel, World Airlines, Trip.com, Netflights, etc.

This is such a significant price difference that I have to go with one of these other travel operators - but I am slightly anxious.

Can I trust these other providers? And why is their price so much cheaper?

(On the other hand, it's not just one or two offering the much-cheaper price, it's a whole host of them.) 

Are there any particular ones to avoid? Or generally any other tips?

Just looking for some advice really - what would you do in my position?

Thanks in advance!

Caz3121

what dates are you looking at? 
Many third parties don't have live pricing and they don't have their own tickets - they still need to purchase them from the airline so whilst a small saving can often be had (as they will likely make up the difference in additional fees from you) a difference like you are seeing is unlikely to be live (you make a booking request and they could advise you 2 days later that the fare is 'sold out' and you need to pay £x more

Westin

Are you looking to book just one-way only? That Aeromexico fare would suggest so.

I suspect if OTA’s are quoting less then they are selling as a round trip ticket, knowing that the return segment will not be used.

From your list of OTA’s, only UK based Netflight are ones I would use.

Try looking at a return fare on the AeroMexico website.

bagand96

The general advice on these forums is usually "book direct with the airline" and not to touch OTA's with a barge pole etc.

That said sometimes you can make savings that can be pretty significant as you say. As pointed out above they still need to book the ticket with the airline so I'm not sure how they can offer the ticket at such a discount - I suspect it may be something to do with where the ticket is issued or some other quirk in the complex ticketing systems airlines use (@Westin's suggestion of a return ticket is probably the case here) 

Things to be aware of:

- when you book with an agent you have to use the agent to make any changes/ammendments, or for refunds/rebookong if the airline cancel or change the schedule. The airline won't deal direct with you.

- the agent will charge their own fees for handling changes/refunds on top of what the airline may charge.

- if the airline make any changes they will contact the agent, who must then inform you. Some agents are better at others at this! 


When you've booked and your tickets are issued you should be able to log in to the airline website to check your booking. Do this often to check everything looks fine and there's no changes the airline have missed.

Out of the agents you list I'd also say Netflights seem the best. They used to have a very good reputation, used them myself before, although I think they have undergone some ownership changes over the years. 

I have an upcoming trip where I used an OTA and saved around 25% over the airline price. I decided to go ahead, knowing the potential issues but happy with that. Transaction went through fine, tickets were issued within an hour and the reservation is live on the airline website. I used Trip.com

DullGreyGuy

What dates are you travelling on and is there flex? Is it a one way or return ticket? Happy to transit via US or prefer direct flights?

skycatcher

We booked flights to Australia with Travel Trolly (Cathay Pacific was the carrier). As others have said they airline communicates via the ota so you need to keep track of any flight changes via the airline app and liaise with the ota as we found them less than proactive! It worked out ok thought and for £578 probably worth the additional hassle!

Alan_Bowen

• Netflights is owned by Dnata, part of the Emirates Group and about as reliable as they come. I wouldn't touch the others with a barge pole. Having said that, I can find multiple flights on the airline's own website in January for at least half the price you have quoted, do I am not sure how you found the price of £2K plus.

eyeamthu1

Thanks for all the responses --

Thanks @Westin for the hint - I am only looking to book one-way, as my route back is different.

If you select 'one-way' on the AeroMexico website, the price is £2048.
If I select a Return fare (I won't need to use the second flight), the cheapest total I can get when booking directly is ~£760  (£460ish for the outbound, and then £300 ish for the inbound I don't need). Much better cost, but still seems ridiculous when all I need is the single flight - which is being offered for ~£500 by OTAs.

Any suggestions to how I get round this?

bagand96

eyeamthu1 said:

Thanks for all the responses --

Thanks @Westin for the hint - I am only looking to book one-way, as my route back is different.

Before you go down the route of booking one-ways, have you looked into Multi City tickets?  You can have all your flights on one booking that way, and it may work out cheaper as most airlines will price them much nearer to return prices.