Booking directly with Airlines vs Booking with OTA
Jun 28, 2015, 7:10 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Sao Paulo
Programs: AA Exec Platinum, IHG Platinum Elite, HHonors Gold
Posts: 21
Booking directly with Airlines vs Booking with OTA
Hello Everyone,
So I have been researching on which credit card for maximizing my miles accumulation and obviously one of the best miles accumulation strategy is to book an airline ticket on a airline's website using a co branded card. However, while checking for fares I found that there is a huge difference between the fares in the airline's website and the fare's mentioned by various OTAs for the same flights and same dates. The difference sometimes is as much as 6-7K INR per person. The difference I found both in Jet and AI. So my question is how does some one justify paying 6-7K INR per person (about 24-28K for 4 people) more just for some extra miles accumulation? Am I looking it incorrectly or is that how it is?
So I have been researching on which credit card for maximizing my miles accumulation and obviously one of the best miles accumulation strategy is to book an airline ticket on a airline's website using a co branded card. However, while checking for fares I found that there is a huge difference between the fares in the airline's website and the fare's mentioned by various OTAs for the same flights and same dates. The difference sometimes is as much as 6-7K INR per person. The difference I found both in Jet and AI. So my question is how does some one justify paying 6-7K INR per person (about 24-28K for 4 people) more just for some extra miles accumulation? Am I looking it incorrectly or is that how it is?
Jun 28, 2015, 9:00 pm
#2
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Kuala Lumpur
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Posts: 83
I would be surprised if this is the norm. There might be a few cases here n there where OTA has bought inventory but otherwise it would be similar or website might be a few hundred bucks cheaper.
Jun 28, 2015, 10:11 pm
#3
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: India
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Jun 29, 2015, 12:46 am
#4
Join Date: Dec 2010
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what may hold true for 1 ticket may not hold true for 4. if the airline has 1 ticket available or 2 in a lower farebucket v/s 4 in a higher one, you will almost always get ticketed in the higher one with the airline. so, my question to you is:
is your statement for 4 pax basis the exact same routing on both, the airline as well as the OTA?
is your statement for 4 pax basis the exact same routing on both, the airline as well as the OTA?
Jun 29, 2015, 2:20 am
#5
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Location: India
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its very rare that i will find an ota ticket that is significantly cheaper than the airline's own website....but even in those instances i prefer to book directly with the airline....in case something goes wrong then its much easier to deal directly with the airline than it is with an ota....
Jun 29, 2015, 7:51 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Sao Paulo
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So I checked this again with some random routes and dates. Here´s what I found -
1st BLR to DEL (4pax) - 6th Aug Outbound and 10th Aug Inbound :
Flight no - AI505 and AI502
Makemytrip - INR 42400
AI Website - INR 51284
Flight no - 9W-818 and 9W-834
Makemytrip - INR 27608
Jet Website - INR 40288
2nd - BLR to LHR (4pax) - 17th Aug Outbound and 25th Aug Inbound :
Flight No - AI804/AI111 and AI112/AI502
Makemytrip - INR 281,228
AI Website - INR 286,500
Flight No - 9W412/9W118 and 9W121/9W815
Makemytrip - INR 280,940
Jet Website - INR 283,980
3rd - BLR to CDG (4pax) - 5th Sep Outbound and 17th Sep Inbound :
Flight No - AI804/AI111 and AI112/AI502
Makemytrip - INR 205,696
AI Website - INR 209,196
Flight No - 9W478/9W124 and 9W123/9W2056
Makemytrip - INR 203,520
Jet Website - INR 213,408
So, this proves that airline websites are always expensive for some reason even with 4pax loading.
1st BLR to DEL (4pax) - 6th Aug Outbound and 10th Aug Inbound :
Flight no - AI505 and AI502
Makemytrip - INR 42400
AI Website - INR 51284
Flight no - 9W-818 and 9W-834
Makemytrip - INR 27608
Jet Website - INR 40288
2nd - BLR to LHR (4pax) - 17th Aug Outbound and 25th Aug Inbound :
Flight No - AI804/AI111 and AI112/AI502
Makemytrip - INR 281,228
AI Website - INR 286,500
Flight No - 9W412/9W118 and 9W121/9W815
Makemytrip - INR 280,940
Jet Website - INR 283,980
3rd - BLR to CDG (4pax) - 5th Sep Outbound and 17th Sep Inbound :
Flight No - AI804/AI111 and AI112/AI502
Makemytrip - INR 205,696
AI Website - INR 209,196
Flight No - 9W478/9W124 and 9W123/9W2056
Makemytrip - INR 203,520
Jet Website - INR 213,408
So, this proves that airline websites are always expensive for some reason even with 4pax loading.
Jun 29, 2015, 9:41 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Sao Paulo
Programs: AA Exec Platinum, IHG Platinum Elite, HHonors Gold
Posts: 21
what may hold true for 1 ticket may not hold true for 4. if the airline has 1 ticket available or 2 in a lower farebucket v/s 4 in a higher one, you will almost always get ticketed in the higher one with the airline. so, my question to you is:
is your statement for 4 pax basis the exact same routing on both, the airline as well as the OTA?
is your statement for 4 pax basis the exact same routing on both, the airline as well as the OTA?
The statement is based on 4pax loading for the exact same route, date and flights.
Jun 29, 2015, 10:24 am
#8
Join Date: Dec 2010
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have you tried to proceed to the ticketing page with MMT. very often, with some OTA's they bait and then later tell you price went up. let us know how it worked for you
Jun 29, 2015, 10:52 am
#9
Original Poster
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The price differences are based on the final payment page in MMT. If you check my other post above, it is also based on the final price (at the payment page) of MMT. Normally MMT shows 1person fare and than multiplies it with no. of pax in the final page. So I doubt there will be any change in the prices than what is being shown in the payment page.
Jun 29, 2015, 7:48 pm
#10
Join Date: Apr 2010
Programs: AI Gold, TK Gold, QR Silver, 9W BluePlus
Posts: 394
The price differences are based on the final payment page in MMT. If you check my other post above, it is also based on the final price (at the payment page) of MMT. Normally MMT shows 1person fare and than multiplies it with no. of pax in the final page. So I doubt there will be any change in the prices than what is being shown in the payment page.
Jun 29, 2015, 9:15 pm
#11
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: www.livefromalounge.com
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The price differences are based on the final payment page in MMT. If you check my other post above, it is also based on the final price (at the payment page) of MMT. Normally MMT shows 1person fare and than multiplies it with no. of pax in the final page. So I doubt there will be any change in the prices than what is being shown in the payment page.
Jun 30, 2015, 1:24 am
#12
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 558
I agree with OP on this. In my opinion OTAs tend to be cheaper or same than the official booking engines, especially in case of full service carriers. AI is notorious on this.
Once I was in a similar situation where I was consistently finding cheaper fares in OTA sites then AI's own site. I called up their call center and got to speak with a knowledgeble CSE. He bluntly told me that AI often releases cheaper fare buckets to OTAs and do not sell them in its own website. Afterall they have to keep their TA eco-system in good business... something of that was the rationale behind the argument.
Always double check with OTAs. Atleast for me, there is no point spending in thousands for a mere handful credit card points.
Once I was in a similar situation where I was consistently finding cheaper fares in OTA sites then AI's own site. I called up their call center and got to speak with a knowledgeble CSE. He bluntly told me that AI often releases cheaper fare buckets to OTAs and do not sell them in its own website. Afterall they have to keep their TA eco-system in good business... something of that was the rationale behind the argument.
Always double check with OTAs. Atleast for me, there is no point spending in thousands for a mere handful credit card points.