Does anyone have any experience using a ticket wholesaler for flights abroad? I’ve only had one similar, domestic, experience, and would like some advice and/or references and/or links to someone who can help fly me from Washington, DC to a large European capital city for an affordable rate. Going through the usual on-line channels (Expedia, Travelocity) gets me a $630 fare, which isn’t that bad, but I’m sure someone can do better.
Mercy buckets.
Another site you can try is http://www.cheaptickets.com, but I don’t think they’ll beat the other sites by much.
A friend of mine has travelled very inexpensively to Japan by volunteering to carry a package for a courier service. You may want to look into that.
We usually buy tickets from a consolidator service, I’m not sure if that is the same as a wholesaler or not. They buy up blocks of tickets at a discout & sell them at a lower rate. The ones we use are based in Germany and specialize in working with the US Military families but they will sell to anyone. Right now, there is an ad in the paper for a roundtrip from Washington to Frankfurt for $295 + tax (prob another $100). These are on major carriers (Northwest, Lufthansa, ect.) and are just like flying any commercial flight. If you’d like, I’ll do a little digging tomorrow and get the e-mail addresses for a few, couldn’t hurt. I’ve bought them for friends in the States before and they just UPS the tickets to you. (I’ll only send you the addresses of ones I’ve had personal experience with)
Montfort, consolidators work okay, but the fares are usually HIGHLY restricted. What you get in cheapness you lose in flexibility. - nonrefundable, high fees for any change in itinerary. So read all the fine print. Other than that it’s a great way to go. Happy trails! Oh, and thanks for picking me in the iampunha/Montfort showdown. I think.
Arnold: I was referred to cheaptickets.com by Travelocity. They couldn’t help me out.
The courier idea is a great idea. I’d love to do it, do you know how your friend got hooked up with that?
I’m thinking of marching to the country’s embassy here in DC (It’s apparently walking distance from my office) and saying “Hi, I’d love to visit your fine country, but I can’t afford to. Can you help me out?”
Magdalene: Fortunately, my plans are rather flexible. I’d like to go the week of T-giving, meaning I only have to take 3 days off work. I’ll have flexibility about flying out either that Friday night before the week, or even that Saturday or Sunday night, with an ideal return being the Sunday post Thanksgiving, but of course I could come back a day or so earlier than that.
And, you’re welcome. I think.
Mmm…I am given to understand that Priceline can get a 50% discount on international flights. I flew with them (domestic) just last week, and it was super. I got a great deal (spent about $160 less than Travelocity’s lowest quote), and would definitely do it again. The only drawback is that you can’t choose what times you want to fly, only what days, so if you have a very tight schedule, it doesn’t work so well. I might have been lucky - even though I couldn’t specify times, what I ended up with was perfect.
I know this might sound crazy, but…have you tried calling the ticket offices of the airlines themselves? When my mom told me she was going to do this (with British Airways) I thought she was off her rocker, but then she managed to get a ticket from Philadelphia to London for about $200. Either she was extremely lucky or there’s something the airlines aren’t telling us.
I usually use itn.com at the bottom of the page is a link to the big airline computer that all airlines use. Then you can see all the rates for all flights you want then call airline, hope you get a female clerk, then you can dicker.