IT is official – the tables have turned. According to a study released by PhoCusWright, which tracks travel industry trends, this is the year where the majority of travel dollars in the United States are being spent online -56 percent of them, to be precise.
And if you’ve been on the web lately, you know that there are more places than ever vying for your money.
What was once a small niche can sometimes appear to be a teeming mass of confusion.
Don’t power down, though – just smarten up. Here, a refresher course for those on the hunt for great airfares.
1) KNOW WHOYOU’RE DEALING WITH
Exactly where you’re searching for that low fare makes a tremendous difference.
In the beginning, there was just one type of site:The third party, a.k.a. the online agency.
Today, these are still the most famous (thanks in large part to their massive marketing budgets) for example, Expedia, or Travelocity. They function as middle men. That is, selling other people’s stuff.
Orbitz was founded by airlines to take business back from the middle men – it has now been sold off, and functions just like any other online agency.
Then there are sites that are generally considered agencies, but generally deal in bulk or consolidator fares. Think Priceline or Hotwire.
Here, you’re going to generally going to be enticed into buying product that the provider has already washed their hands of.
While they are often very helpful for last minute travel, don’t expect them to leap to your aid, should anything go wrong.
But if something does?
“You might as well tear up your ticket,” says George Hobica of AirfareWatchdog.com, an airfare tracking site.
More recently, the aggregator has started to change the way people use the internet to travel.
The best known example, perhaps, is Kayak.com.