Airfare Consolidators have been saving Travelers hundreds of dollars on airline tickets for years. The big question for most consumers is: “Where do you find these Consolidated Airfares?”

You guessed it, your Travel Agent. More and more travel agencies are developing a relationship with Consolidators. It is up to you to locate a trusting Agency that will purchase these tickets for you without adding a huge markup. These fares are called “unpublished airfares” and not all travel agencies provide these types of tickets to their clients.

The Consolidated airfares change from minute to minute and are based upon demand. It’s like an “Airfare Stock Market“

Very few companies take the time to up date the Consolidated Airfares online through out the day. It’s just too time consuming. So when clients need a ticket, the Travel Agency calls the Consolidators, gets the rate directly from the wholesaler (in many cases they are the wholesaler) and relay the information to the Travel Agent. The Travel Agent then relays the information to the consumer. Any delay in the purchase results in a lost of the airfare at the quoted price.
This process can take a half a day to complete. Most consumers want their Tickets NOW. When dealing with Consolidated Airfares, patients is a virtue.

Of course you want to locate a Travel Agent that you can trust. The credentials that you would look for when searching for a reputable Travel Agent are:

1) Does the Agent have an ARC Number? ARC stands for the Airlines Reporting Corporation - This is an airline-owned company offering travel products and services, ticket distribution and settlement through a variety of channels in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

2) Or, Is your Agent a member of THE INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES TRAVEL AGENT NETWORK? IATAN’s mission is to promote professionalism, administer meaningful and impartial business standards, and to provide cost-effective products, services and educational programs that benefit the travel industry

3) Or, does your Agent have a “TRUE” Identification? TRUE (Travel Retailer Universal Enumeration) System’s sole purpose is to help provide sellers of travel with the assignment of travel industry numeric codes that are recognized by the travel supplier community, including cruise lines, tour operators, hoteliers, and car rental companies.

4) As of the date of this article, if you live in California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia or Washington, your Agent would need to be registered with the State’s Attorney General’s office as a Seller of Travel.

5) And/Or is a member of OSSN, (Outside Sales Support Network) The International Association for Independent contractors and Home Based Travel Agents

The highest standards in the Industry for consolidators are set by the United States Air Consolidators Association. (USACA) However, many of the Consolidators only sale to Certified Travel Agents with any of the qualifications listed above.

This article is written by Cassandra Ingraham, webmaster for travel360degrees.com “Travel is Education at Its Best” A travel site with “choices” for discount travelers. The site provides e-Travel Alerts, Airport Codes, and access to the “See What the Travel Agents See” an e-Catalog of Vacations. No cost to you, so go to: http://www.travel360degrees.com and sign up today.

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Finding Low Airfare is NOT That Complicated…as some may want you to believe. With more than 20 years in the Travel/Tour Industry, and senior editor for Luxury Romantic Vacations&

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Are you planning to travel by air at some time in the near future? Great airline deals are out there waiting for you. But, there are also some things you can do to help bring the prices down. Here are some tips for finding cheap airfare.

We live in a wonderful age for budget-minded travelers. The internet has made finding airfare deals as easy as pointing and clicking. In the days before the information superhighway, you had to call up the airlines and ask about their prices. Now, there is an enormous variety of websites that allow you to shop around and compare prices for airfare deals

Before you lay down your cash, look at some of these sites and try to find a few that offer the best deals. If you can find one site that you like, you can get a membership and be eligible for more discounts and deals. One way to find a good site is to ask around. If you have a friend, relative or co-worker who flies a lot, see which websites they use to book their flights.

Once you have identified a web site you like, there are some things you can do to save money on airfare.

Certain days of the week are less expensive than others. Generally, the cheapest days to travel are Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. It is a basic case of supply and demand. These are the days when fewer people are traveling and the airlines want to sell those empty seats.

Certain times of the year are also cheaper. This depends on the destination, but usually August and December are the most expensive months for airline travel. Just remember that at times during which crowds of people are traveling, such as around major holidays, it will be more expensive.

Choose your trip around a Saturday night stay. This has always saved people money on plane tickets. If you need to, extend your trip by a day so you get this Saturday night stay.

Select a non-direct flight. This may be a pain in the neck, but if saving money is important, it will pay you to wait around in an airport for an extra hour or so.

Fly at night or early in the morning. These are often called “red-eye” flights. Most people choose to fly in the afternoons and evenings, so you can often find deals on red-eye flights. It helps if you are one of those people who do not have much trouble sleeping on board the airplane.

Make your reservation ahead of time. As a general rule, the earlier you book your ticket, the more you save. You also have more time to shop around for a good deal.

On the other hand, you can frequently save with last minute flights. When there are empty seats left on a particular flight, the airline will be desperate to fill them. Selling those seats cheaply is better than not selling them at all. The only problem is that it can be difficult to plan your vacation this way. What if you wait and there are no seats available? Take advantage of this option if your plans are flexible.

The most important bit of advice is this: Do not give up. Keep digging for those deals. Maintain the positive attitude that you can find the lowest airfare prices out there somewhere.

Robert
Scheer is a travel writer and consultant for
Cheap Airfare Brokers

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