MSEs vs. OTAs: massive price differences
May 6, 2016, 11:38 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: CGN
Posts: 11
MSEs vs. OTAs: massive price differences
Hi everyone,
I recently searched for a FRA-LUN flight on Kayak. Cheapest option was ET bookable on travelgenio. Did the same search on momondo and skyscanner, was redirected to the same OTA and eventually had three tabs open, all travelgenio with the same itin and date:
travelgenio site redirected from kayak: 531,08€
travelgenio site redirected from momondo: 528,84€
travelgenio site redirected from skyscanner: 535,15€
travelgenio directly accessed: 558,95€
My assumptions were that: one should go through metasearches to fly cheaper and metasearches do not compare prices (they only pretend to).
Another test search revealed that startup OTA Skypicker does it differently. They punish you with a 50€ surcharge when being redirected from Kayak compared to accessing their site directly.
Does someone know how the related mechanism works and who has the bargaining power - OTA or metasearch engine?
I recently searched for a FRA-LUN flight on Kayak. Cheapest option was ET bookable on travelgenio. Did the same search on momondo and skyscanner, was redirected to the same OTA and eventually had three tabs open, all travelgenio with the same itin and date:
travelgenio site redirected from kayak: 531,08€
travelgenio site redirected from momondo: 528,84€
travelgenio site redirected from skyscanner: 535,15€
travelgenio directly accessed: 558,95€
My assumptions were that: one should go through metasearches to fly cheaper and metasearches do not compare prices (they only pretend to).
Another test search revealed that startup OTA Skypicker does it differently. They punish you with a 50€ surcharge when being redirected from Kayak compared to accessing their site directly.
Does someone know how the related mechanism works and who has the bargaining power - OTA or metasearch engine?
