Cheaptickets is a consolidator, kind of an anti-scalper: They buy from the airlines blocks of seats/tickets at discounts, but rather than selling them at jacked-up prices, they pass along the savings to individual travellers such as yourself. While they would make less on each ticket individually, profit would be made up by selling greater volumes.

I haven't used their website, but in the past have booked tickets through their telephone number. The reason I haven't used their website is that they require a credit card number to be stored in order to register. As much as I book on the web at other sites, I'm not particularly enamored with the idea of having to store a CC number just to look up a fare.

Frequent flier miles are awarded for flights booked with them. However, though I have not personally encountered this, it is conceivable they may offer fares that are not subject to mileage award.

The phenomenon of getting good EWR-YYZ fares unlike at any other place just might be the result of Cheaptickets' having identified and exploiting that route as a niche.

Concerning Cheaptickets' (telephone) customer service, it's hit or miss. Sometimes you get a decent rep; other times (more than with many other travel resources I've used), you get a testy wise-..., like the one who told me, "Look, you do your job, and I'll do mine, you know what I mean?" when I asked about throwing in an extra segment for the all-important segment/minimum miles credit.