ehud

Hi

I constantly find better prices on Kayak than on BA.com
I hesitate to book through KAYAK as I'm not sure I'll be eligible for the BA 24h CXL policy..
Is KAYAK a regular OTA (like expedia), or tickets bought through KAYAK are same as BA?

Thanks

LondonCapeTownAnyday

Kayak sell consolidated airfares. These are airfares which they have obtained from another agent and not directly from BA. They are often leftover seats from cruise operators or other bulk-buy operators.

The fare rules (changes/cancellations) on the ticket will almost always be less flexible than the fare you see on ba.com. Typically their airfares will be non-changeable and non-refundable as you are purchasing in a chain rather than from the airline directly. Sometimes the consolidated fare they have will not allow you to accrue tier points and Avios. Sometimes you can.

I always recommend booking with the airline directly, you know what you're buying and you have better control over your travel plans.

The 24 hour cooling off period you refer to is exclusive to purchases made on BA.com or through the BA call centre.

As an aside, Expedia don't sell consolidated airfares - they sell BA's direct fares, meaning the fare rules will be the same as BA.com. But you still won't get a cooling off period unless you buy on ba.com or through the BA call centre.

corporate-wage-slave

Just to add a bit more on that, Kayak is an intermediary here, so it is reporting back from its partner travel bookers in return for a slice of the eventual pie. Some of their agents are fairly respectable, Expedia is one of them, some I'd be somewhat careful about, or at least book with a credit card backed by legislative consumer protection.

Some of the most intractable problems we see in this forum are from those who have booked with OTA and find themselves either with a changed booking (e.g. the airline has shuffled their flight times) or changed circumstances or a spelling mistake on their name. No one books a flight thinking "this could change", but the real world can creep in at the last moment. Very few of these OTA employ sufficient, or in some cases any, people who can fix problems expediently.

Proceed with knowledge and caution!

orbitmic

They actually do both! Kayak did start as a comparator, but they now have their own sale channel too (they started with hotel rooms and have added plane tickets on a number of national kayak websites for a number of trips). So you will now often find the, say, 10 merchant quotes but also potentially kayak's own. As it's consolidator it won't be offered on all routes and flights.