OTA and non-live pricing
Jul 29, 2025 | 7:34 pm
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OTA and non-live pricing
Reposting from TripAdvisor as it will hopefully serve as a warning to those considering less-than-reputable ones.. A wary user by the name of Asif details approaching an OTA looking at flight pricing.
After reading another thread on this forum where someone was asking why OTAs offer cheaper [url=https://www.tripadvisor.ca/CheapFlightsHome]flights than the airline themselves, I thought I'd have a go again as I've got nothing else to do this afternoon.
So here is a flight I actually intend to book at some point:
London to Izmir Return
Out 23rd May 2026
In 30th May 2026
Google Flights shows SunExpress non-stop flights for 157
Selected this and the results are mostly around 560 - 580 or so, with various OTAs.
The option to book via the airline itself is missing.
However, there are a couple of OTAs charging under 160, including JustFly at 158.
Before proceeding, I went to the airline site and got a price of 562 (HBO - no checked bags).
Clicked through to JustFly.
Confirmed the price on-screen was 157.38
Looked through the various t&cs and disclaimers.
So many alarm bells, including statements about being charged up to 75 if you cancel your flight within 24 hours.
Noted that prices are not guaranteed until ticketed.
Clicking on the links to fees and to cancellation rules leads to 'page does not exist' but I did find them elsewhere on the site and they contain all the usual conditions that travellers rarely check for including stated hefty fees and distancing themselves for eventualities.
Further noticed that you have to enter all your personal details as well as card payment details before you can proceed to get the 'guaranteed price'.
So I rang them. Spoke to someone who eventually located the flights (after struggling with Izmir Airport having a code of ADB and not being sure why I wanted to pay in GBP). After a while she advised she had the flights and am I ready to proceed and do I have payment details?
I advised I would much prefer to hear the price first if you don't mind.
Was quoted 668.47 per person.
After I pointed out this was 4* greater than the price on their website I was given a series of excuses including bizarrely the currency being GBP (no idea of the relevance but it was apparently a factor...) and being told that luggage will now be included (as some kind of bonus).
After I hung up I went back to Google Flights and the price with this OTA has now changed to 636 per person.
This suggests that:
1. The 668 price I was quoted included luggage all along despite not asking for it
2. Now that they've obtained the correct live pricing, Google Flights is apparently showing the correct live price from that OTA in the search results.
3. They're a bunch of bell ends.
To balance this negative experience, I will link to my positive experience using a different OTA: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k15372185-Trip_Com-Air_Travel.html
thus highlighting that not all OTAs are the same. Justfly are clearly a bunch of Shonky Shonkies (Haven't heard that in a while since that guy with the penguins avatar vanished - what happened to him anyway?), but there are others that clearly use live pricing (though they may still have onerous t&cs) - can identify them by noting how their prices are much closer to that charged by the airline directly.
Not that I expect this thread to be of any use since many people seem to only come here after they got burnt.
So here is a flight I actually intend to book at some point:
London to Izmir Return
Out 23rd May 2026
In 30th May 2026
Google Flights shows SunExpress non-stop flights for 157
Selected this and the results are mostly around 560 - 580 or so, with various OTAs.
The option to book via the airline itself is missing.
However, there are a couple of OTAs charging under 160, including JustFly at 158.
Before proceeding, I went to the airline site and got a price of 562 (HBO - no checked bags).
Clicked through to JustFly.
Confirmed the price on-screen was 157.38
Looked through the various t&cs and disclaimers.
So many alarm bells, including statements about being charged up to 75 if you cancel your flight within 24 hours.
Noted that prices are not guaranteed until ticketed.
Clicking on the links to fees and to cancellation rules leads to 'page does not exist' but I did find them elsewhere on the site and they contain all the usual conditions that travellers rarely check for including stated hefty fees and distancing themselves for eventualities.
Further noticed that you have to enter all your personal details as well as card payment details before you can proceed to get the 'guaranteed price'.
So I rang them. Spoke to someone who eventually located the flights (after struggling with Izmir Airport having a code of ADB and not being sure why I wanted to pay in GBP). After a while she advised she had the flights and am I ready to proceed and do I have payment details?
I advised I would much prefer to hear the price first if you don't mind.
Was quoted 668.47 per person.
After I pointed out this was 4* greater than the price on their website I was given a series of excuses including bizarrely the currency being GBP (no idea of the relevance but it was apparently a factor...) and being told that luggage will now be included (as some kind of bonus).
After I hung up I went back to Google Flights and the price with this OTA has now changed to 636 per person.
This suggests that:
1. The 668 price I was quoted included luggage all along despite not asking for it
2. Now that they've obtained the correct live pricing, Google Flights is apparently showing the correct live price from that OTA in the search results.
3. They're a bunch of bell ends.
To balance this negative experience, I will link to my positive experience using a different OTA: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k15372185-Trip_Com-Air_Travel.html
thus highlighting that not all OTAs are the same. Justfly are clearly a bunch of Shonky Shonkies (Haven't heard that in a while since that guy with the penguins avatar vanished - what happened to him anyway?), but there are others that clearly use live pricing (though they may still have onerous t&cs) - can identify them by noting how their prices are much closer to that charged by the airline directly.
Not that I expect this thread to be of any use since many people seem to only come here after they got burnt.
