I have been thinking about trying some consolidated fares... But does it really offer better fares? What about international and domestic routes? I guess my question is, when would you find a consolidator particulary helpful?

Sorry if this was a overly repeated question. Feel free to move if it's not in the correct board as well. I tried searching but coudln't really find an adequate answer.

Consolidator fares are usually cheaper than regular published fares.

In my experience, consolidators tend specialize in some destinations. For instance, a consolidator located in Chinatown/who services local asian communities will focus on Asian destinations.

They can provide better rates because they buy the seats in bulk in advance from the airlines at a discounted price and resell them.

Since they generally bought them very early, you might end up in a situation where you can't find anymore cheap fares directly with the airlines/ the major travel websites but the consolidator would still have some reasonable fares available.

This happened to me last summer. I had a last minute trip to book to Japan. Cheapest fare quoted by NWA was approx 1800 USD. Same seat on the same plane was available at 1100 USD at a consolidator.

But YMMV, so the best advice is to check the prices from various providers and compare! Also, if mileage accrual is important to you, make sure you double check that the consolidator fare you are interested in do earn mileage.