Exploring a proven route to cheaper airline tickets

Time was you’d see column upon column of ads for airfare consolidators that boldly proclaimed, in large type, savings of as much as 70%.

If you search hard enough, you can still find a smattering of such ads listed under air travel. The paucity is symptomatic of changes in the air ticket consolidator industry: The Internet has led to a contraction in the number of consolidators as well as changes in the way in which they conduct business.

“You don’t see them as much,” says Terry Trippler, an airfare expert and president of Terrytrippler.com, a travel consumer advocacy site. “They’re still out there but not in as great numbers.”

Airline ticket consolidators fill an important niche for the industry because of their ability to fill unsold seats, and they provide a valuable service to the consumer, who can take advantage of reduced ticket prices.

Consumers can use online and offline air consolidator agencies or enlist the services of a knowledgeable travel agent.

Here’s how it works: The consolidator procures (typically on consignment) blocks of tickets at reduced bulk rates, then increases the price and resells them to consumers, often for less than published fares.

“Consolidators like it because they can mark it up to whatever they want,” says Jared Blank, travel industry analyst and editor of Online Travel Review.

For consumers who wish to explore the possibility of using a consolidator, the help of a good travel agent can be invaluable. “Consolidators are healthy and well,” says Susan Tanzman, owner of Martin’s Travel and Tours in West Los Angeles. “But what they’ve learned is dealing with travel agents is a better way of distributing their product.”

Agents deal with a few reputable consolidators and know which ones specialize in certain markets. “The consumer doesn’t know if it is a legitimate consolidator,” says Tanzman. “I even give lectures to travel agents on how to pick consolidators. Non-accredited sellers of air travel are a serious problem to both the travel agent and the consumer.”

Tanzman cites the air tickets she arranged for a group going on a cruise to Copenhagen as an example of the potential savings. The best published fare she could find was $1,330. The consolidator she worked with got the group tickets that allowed additional stops, including London, for $1,120, a $210 savings.

Blank says consolidators still offer deals, especially in ethnic communities. “I tell all my friends in Los Angeles to go to Koreatown when you are looking for tickets to Asia and talk to any of the travel agencies,” Blank says. Consumers won’t always find a better deal, he says, but “it is certainly worth checking.”

Some consolidators have added an online component to their businesses, while others have used the Net to completely transform themselves.

One of the first consolidators was CheapTickets. The company, founded in Honolulu in 1986 with a single kiosk on Kapiolani Boulevard, is now a full-service online travel agency.

“The founder of CheapTickets, Mike Hartley, pioneered going to airlines and getting them to realize that flying planes with empty seats wasn’t good,” says Evans Gebhardt, president of CheapTickets.com. “ ‘Give them to me, and if I can sell them, you’ll at least get some money for them,’ ” Gebhardt says Hartley told the airlines.

The Web is now the primary channel through which Cheap Tickets sells about $1.5 billion in travel per year, says Gebhardt.

A search on CheapTickets .com includes its specially negotiated (or unpublished) fares besides “regular” published fares. “It’s actually impossible to know if you’re buying a published versus a nonpublished fare,” says Gebhardt. “To consumers it looks exactly the same.”

The Web has not only expanded the reach of consolidators like CheapTickets; it also has greatly expanded the options airlines have for unloading excess inventory. Deeply discounted last-minute Web fares are available through most major airlines’ websites as well as some third-party sites such as Orbitz. “Opaque” websites such as Hotwire and Priceline are also channels for excess inventory.

Opaque sites are essentially consolidators, says analyst Blank. They are given a specially negotiated rate, just like a consolidator. Because the name of the airline is hidden until after the purchase, the airlines’ retail pricing integrity is maintained.

Another way for airlines to sell tickets in bulk online is through “dynamic packaging,” whereby an online agency will roll the cost of an entire vacation -- hotel, air and often car -- into a single price. Because the price for each component is not itemized, this technique provides airlines with another discreet way to offer bulk fares. Though some consumers balk because they cannot compare the cost of each component against a published one, the online agencies claim there are big savings to be had.

Some tips when using consolidators:

* Make sure you know the rules, Trippler says: “Do you get frequent-flier miles? Can you make a change?” These tickets typically carry greater restrictions than most nonrefundable discounted tickets.

* “Go on the Web first and check published fares,” Blank says. “Then call an offline agent and see if they can help you with consolidator fares.”

* Know whether taxes and fees are included in the quote from the consolidator. “When most consumers get quotes, they get net cost, and that doesn’t include taxes,” says Tanzman. “Most taxes [for international flights] are going to run $70 to $200 per ticket.”

* If you deal directly with a consolidator, make sure it has a California seller of travel number. In California, you can go to the state attorney general’s website ag.ca.gov (click on “Sellers of Travel”) and search to see if a consolidator is registered. It doesn’t guarantee a company is reputable but signals that the seller of travel has at least followed the law to be registered. The registrant’s Web information allows consumers to track down the seller of travel if something goes wrong.

Jane Engle is on vacation. The Times welcomes questions and comments on Travel Insider; send them to 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail travel@ latimes.com. James Gilden can be reached through www.theinternettraveler.com.