Harmoncove

I'm going to book an international flight. The price is less on sites like Expedia, Travelocity, etc compared to the airlines website. If I need to make a last minute change I have to deal with the OTA, right? If the airline makes the last minute change then I have to deal with them. Is this correct?

Dadaluma83

Not exactly, general rule is before travel you deal with the ticketing agent, during travel you deal with the airline.

So if you get a schedule change before your trip and you don't like it, you contact who you bought the ticket through to try to reschedule if you don't like it. If you are in the middle of travel with a cancelled flight and need to be rebooked, then you contact the airline.

Harmoncove

So all the way up to take-off I deal with the ticketing agent. If the airlines make changes or cancels before take off I still deal with the ticketing agent? Is this correct?

Harmoncove

Also, what are the disadvantages of dealing with an OTA/ticketing agent?

Big4Flyer

The disadvantage is that its one more person to go through. If you read through these forums you'll find dozens of examples where airline changes flight time, person is never notified and therefore misses flight. Person is angry and contacts airline. Airline points finger at OTA saying they told them about the schedule change, OTA points finger at Airline saying they never told us. End result: Passenger is out for cost of flight.

As soon as you bring in another party both parties can blame each other for anything that goes wrong, and they will.

Often1

Absent extraordinary, and I stress extraordinary, savings, adding yet another link to a complicated process is asking for it.

When you book with a carrier, there is nobody but the carrier. When you deal with a third-party vendor and things go wrong, the finger-pointing starts.

Some carriers will take over a ticket on the day of initial departure but many won't until at least the first segment is flown.

If you need to make a change, you will pay whatever the carrier charges and whatever the third-party charges in addition.

MSPeconomist

Some OLTAs try to impose policies of no (voluntary) changes at all even when the fare rules permit changes, possibly with a fee.

M60_to_LGA

In general, no reason to deal with the OTA at all after you buy the ticket.

Buy the ticket from Expedia or whomever, get the lower price, and then just deal with the airline directly for anything else.

ETA: But, yeah, it's always a good idea to double-check your reservation the day before you fly, regardless of where you buy the ticket. Sometimes reservations get changed or weird things happen, and even if you buy directly from the airline's website it's not like they're good about communication either.

Often1

Most carriers won't touch a ticket issued by anybody else, whether a TA or a third-party vendor. Some will do so for a fee and others will do so without a fee if pushed.

But, it's a significant overstatement to suggest that anybody ought to buy presuming that their carrier will touch the ticket. That is especially true if the ticket is on a non-published fare (generally the case when a third-party vendor sells bulk/aggregated tickets at well below "market").

Other things to watch out for are "itineraries" which contain multiple tickets. Those are not connections and the fight which ensues when you noshow for what you thought was a connection but wasn't, is one of the messes people come to FT to rant about with some frequency. And that's with the reputable places.

Sabasi

This thread is tailor-made for those with axes to grind about online travel agents. It's like delivering a 70 km serve to Novak Djokovic.

There are often good reasons to use them, such as lower cost and comparative ease of contact when in places around the world where it is difficult to contact an airline directly.

endet

May I just reactivate this thread and ask one or more questions here in regards to OTAs and specifically multiple tickets itineraries?

Having myself booked a flight with Expedia I wonder how on the booking page one could recognize that what is selected consist of multiple tickets?

Also for those who have already booked a flight: can this be at a later staged checked via eticket or such?

For example:
I have one trip coming up with MH. Booked via Tripsta. Tripsta is displayed in checkmytrip.

The second trip and different booking I have is with QR (different dates as well). This one was made via Expedia. But Expedia is not noted anywhere in checkmytrip.

Happy for any helpful discussion and comments in understanding this subject,

regards.

bprsofteng

CheckMyTrip is a GDS product, so only bookings on that particular GDS (in this case Amadeus) would show up. For your QR trip is likely booked on a different GDS either Sabre (www.virtuallythere.com) or Travelport (www.viewtrip.com). You should also be able to check with QR and Expedia direct.

HTH
B

endet

Many thanks for your answer. But I am more looking for a general answer. How can can one distinguish between multi trip itineraries and a normal "ticket".

Every other post, especially when it is about Expedia, I read this warning.

But so far I could not find an answer to the question above.

Do not get me wrong on this. I do not work for Expedia or have any kind of affiliation with them (except for booking one ticket). Nor do I try to defend them.

I just want to know the warning signs that customer should be on the watch for. Before he books, and how to check after booking.

bprsofteng

This is quite a complex area as the meanings can easily get mixed up depending on what you're referring to.

A multi-city, or multi-leg itinerary can be under a single "ticket" and even a return trip can be under two tickets. In fact in some cases you're now seeing some sites offer so called "hacker" fares that create a one-way journey that is actually booked via two tickets (however in this case you as the traveller wear the risk of something going wrong in terms of delays and missed connections).

There's nothing wrong with multiple tickets being used to fulfil an itinerary, but if you need flexibility along the way you may want to opt for a more expensive ticket type (and there are many options here including round-the-world, airpasses, and more).

In terms of being able to distinguish what type of tickets make up your booking this should be something the OTA provides to you. If they don't one way you can tell is if you receive multiple e-tickets for your itinerary.

As it's complex I have simplified somewhat, but hopefully that explanation clears things up for you.

Sabasi

The OP needs to know in advance of ticketing.