UK Flight Consolidators

[Guest]

There appears to be some confusion in some Boardies' minds as to what a Flight Consolidator is and how they operate in the UK.

 

The first thing to understand is the history behind consolidators and how they evolved.  In the days before PCs and online booking systems the airlines had to get rid of their unsold seats somehow since it was impossible to sell the seats once the aircraft had departed.  Therefore the potential aircraft operating revenue was lost.  It was technically illegal for airlines to sell fares below the IATA published fares therefore the consolidator was employed to dispose of the unsold seats.  Deeply discounted seats were usually put together as a package with 3-6 nights accommodation so that a holiday, rather than an airline seat, was being sold thereby circumventing the IATA rules.  You should be aware of this distinction as it can make a big difference if things go wrong.  Consolidators were normally linked to one, or a handful of airlines and specialised in one region e.g USA or Far East.

 

The advancement of IT within the industry has changed how the product is sold but the product remains the same - cheap airline seats.  Some of the major agents advertising on the web and in the quality Sunday press are themselves consolidators and some merely have access to consolidators' fares.  A decent guide to obtaining discounted seats (and a whole host of other flight related info) is at:

 

http://www.uk-air.net/tickets.htm

 

There is also a Group, shown at the link below, related to uk-air.net which has many travel professionals within its membership who will be happy to assist you in finding that perfect deal.  Do be aware of so-called consolidators that are no more than the vertical integration of some travel agents (Travel House/THG is the same company and is a part of the Thomson/Lunn Poly/Britannia Group of companies, Flights4Less is wholly owned by Lastminute.com and Opodo.com is wholly owned by a collection of 9 European airlines.

 

http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_...t.travel.uk.air

 

I hope this is of some use.

 

Tom

[Woody 0]

Nice one Tom, thanks for the good information.

 

These cheap tickets, do they still qualify for air miles?

 

Regards,

[Guest]

Woody,

 

In principle it depends on the airlines own rules.  In practice I have found that, from UK, only group tickets (sports teams, schools etc), i.e. where the benefits are built into the price already, do not credit the miles.  If you book a package through an agent (e.g. Kuoni) I do know that Thai and EVA credit the mileage at 100% in economy class.

 

I will see you in November - perhaps Stevoh can introduce us to some of the gems he has discovered during his extended stays!  

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[stevemcm 1]

Tom,

I regret that I will not be in Pattaya for my Nov & Dec visit but will be in Cha Am at first then I am going down to visit friends in Malaya and Singapore. I will be at my usual condo in Pattaya from 3rd Jan 2003 until 1st April 2003 apart from a trip to Cambodia probably in Feb.

stevoh.