exco

What are the disadvantages and risks when we purchase our tickets from a travel agency web site (Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz, Priceline, CheapOair,...etc.) vs from the airline directly? When the flights are canceled or delayed, does the airline give the customers who purchased directly from them higher priority to reroute them ?

If unfortunately, we have to cancel the trip, is it very difficult to get a refund (after penalty fee) from Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz, Priceline, CheapOair,...etc.)?

Thanks in advance!

Doc Savage

It is much easier to deal with any changes to flights if you buy directly from the airline. If something goes wrong with a ticket bought from an OTA, you will often have the airline saying they can't fix it and sending you to the OTA, and the OTA placing blame on the airline.

That said, I've purchased many tickets from OTAs and had very few problems. In general, though, unless you're sàving a significant amount of money, I'd buy from the airline. If the price difference is >$50-100, though, it may well make sense to buy the cheaper ticket, assuming you don't think you'll need to change the ticket.

Aliquot

All things being equal it is better to buy from the airline, but often all things are not equal. If you need to change your ticket you will have to pay the airline and agency fee and wait
​​​​​​on hold for hours. If you won't need to change the well known OTAs are fine. Stay away from ones you have never heard of. You will be treated the same in the event of delays or cancelation that are out of your control.

TravelwhileyouEat

I would book with the Airline directly especially if the savings is only 10-20% of what the ticket is worth, ex. on the airline site it's $200 and the OTA it's $160. They usually get to price the lower fare by selling a more restrictive fare sub-bucket which means that changes or cancellations would mean extravagant fees. Also, some OTAs have 'admin fees' on top of cancellation or change fees that the airline imposes.

Another thing to note with the comment of Aliquot about delays. If you are booking a connecting flight, example MSY - ATL - LHR, some OTAs will book you on 2 separate tickets (sometimes on 2 separate airlines) in order to get you the cheaper fare. This will mean that your 2 segment is not protected.

Example: You bought your ticket on OTA.com and the first flight from MSY - ATL is on AA and your next flight from ATL to LHR is on British Airways (BA) with a 4 hour connection. This may seem like enough time, but what happens if your AA flight is delayed and arrives 4 hours late? BA will state that it's not their problem since they only hold your booking as ATL-LHR and you missed your flight. AA will also state that it got you to ATL and you're only booked with them up to ATL. You will need to contact the OTA to fix this but most likely you'll get the runaround and it will just ruin your trip and cost you extra.

On the other hand, I have booked connecting flights on OTAs but that's because it was discounted by as much as 50% from what was available on the airline's website. This was all on 1 ticket on 1 airline so I was protected by delays same as if I was booking with the airline directly.

Kevin AA

I used to use Expedia.com to book tickets on Delta because I could get more segments in one trip than on delta.com. But since then Delta has tightened the routing rules so now it makes no difference.

Mungz Carl

I always book directly with the airline. I don't want the headache of the "it's not us, it's them" game that could arise from any complications with my flight.

TravelwhileyouEat

Some airlines will allow you to let the 'takeover' the ticket, which makes it appear as if it was booked directly with the airline instead of through an agent. This not always the case, and there may be a fee. Though unless you are trying to re-book a flexible ticket, I don't see any upside to doing this.

stevendorechester

I use online agencies for hotels but you're asking for trouble using any online agency. You might be offered a ticket with an illegal routing, sold separate tickets made to look like one itinerary or other scams. Good luck making any changes even on full F tickets. I had all these situations happen to me and in my case was routed to a call center in Africa only to have them tell me they can' t help me and in many cases they won't have a clue what the problem is to begin with.

flamemaker

I would book direct since BA do a price match service. Otherwise you can run into unforseen problmes. For example, I have just booked a longhaul flight I found on skyscanner and the discount was £160 per person. Since I was booking a number of seats, it was a no brainer. Confirmation email all looked ok mentioned BA etc. However, when the etickets arrived, I discovered that the agent had booked a codeshare through a oneworld partner and hidden this. The downside of this is that BA won't let me upgrade the return leg using avios (not that there were any available so no loss). We live and learn

Aliquot

Again, the reputable OTA will only sell a one ticket trip . If you stick with Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and probably others you will get one ticket and be protected in the same way as if you bought on the airline (they may split the outbound and inbound portions of a roundtrip). The same contract of carriage applies.

If you can get the same fare for the same flights with the airline directly it is always the best way to go. But if there is a better flight combination there is no reason to avoid the OTAS. Stay away from the ones that you have never heard of.

jacqinmystyle

Purchases from some OTA's come with a generous refund window on the purchase of a non-refundable ticket that would be an advantage to using them vs booking directly. Expedia's is 24 hours and Priceline's is until 11p of the following day (please confirm).

AA offers to hold tix for some period (24 hours?), which is a comparable alternative, but most other airlines don't. Also worth noting that I purchased last minute tix for a funeral. They were non-refundable, direct from three airlines because I used skiplagged. I was unexpectedly unable to use them due to a family member's medical emergency, so I'd written off the tix (no trip insurance), but my travel companion wrote the airlines explaining what happened (Delta, AA, and West Jet) and the former refunded the ticket, while the latter two gave full credit, valid for 1 year.

Bottom-line, there are pros and cons to both, so the type of issue causing concern would seem determinative of which makes most sense. If it's after the initial refund of non-refundable ticket window, buying direct seems to be your best bet.

dinanm3atl

Direct. Not worth the hassle to deal with OTA if something should arise.

dand99

This discussion takes place about once a day on various forums.

I always advise booking directly with the airlines, never with OTAs. This is because I prefer the airlines to be able to price discriminate between market segments, with a steady stream if higher revenue direct booking pax, leaving lower prices for people like me who book "risky" flights via OTAs.

On a less serious note....

Buying tickets on 3rd party OTAs (as long as they are reputable) has several distinct advantages:

1. The price is often lower, sometimes significantly so (for the same fare class, i.e. "apples to apples")

2. Multi-carrier (cheaper or more convenient) itineraries are offered which would be difficult or impossible to find on an airline website

3. For non-US flights you have the benefit of a 24+ hour (sometimes up to 48, depending on when you buy the ticket) cancellation window, this can be quite significant if you have other flights/hotels/etc to book and need the option of cancelling if something falls through

4. There is a (small) cashback in the form of points/orbucks and the like

The disadvantages are that the airline may be less flexible when it comes to changes - however the likelihood is that booking via an OTA you will be booking inflexible nonrefundable tickets in any case, so even if booked direct via the airline flexibility is close to zero.

I fly roughly 100 legs a year, with roughly 2/3 of my flights booked via OTAs. While it is true that airlines (and car rental agencies, and hotels) are less flexible when it comes to itineraries not booked directly with them, I have not found the difference to be huge. In some cases I felt I got better service from the OTA.

As to "when things go wrong" I have been through cancellations, weather delays, reroutings and so on - was treated the same as any other pax (got good service form good airlines, poor service from poor airlines....).

Having said that, with US domestic travel, though, OTAs seem to usually offer the same price as booking direct. And airlines are obliged to offer 24 hour refunds - which negates the two main benefits of OTAs.

seawolf

OTA (Expedia consortium/Priceline) offers refund 24+ hours after booking for US flights as well and even if booked with less than 7 days prior to departure which exceeds what airlines offer and DOT requirements. If puchased on a Friday, the refund period potentially runs all the way to end of day on Monday.

danielonn

If all you care about is booking the cheaper price getting little to no.miles or MQMs are 150 percent sure you will use the ticket and can predict that no IRROPS will happen is thatv$200 savings worth it? To me no if its $600 less on a 3rd party then maybe but other than that paying the $200 plus having a good Travel Insurance policy is more important to me.

By the time you add in the savings and lost time during IRROPs where you will hear call your third party service to make changes etc. If God forbid they.fold or did not pay the airline your SOL. Too many times we read here on FT about a ilegitimate company and the complaints that you bought paperweight. Do you want to be that person?