Airfare Discounts

Many online travel sites give discounts to passengers who book their flights early, the percentage ranging from 10% to 30% off. Online travel sites are usually third-party companies that make bulk purchases of flight tickets from airline companies and resell these tickets in their websites. Airlines benefit in this kind of set-up since their seats are guaranteed sold, while online sites earn money through getting cheap, wholesale prices and selling flights in a much higher rate. Whatever fee that online travel sites put on top of the wholesale price is their profit. The 10% to 30% discounts are actually just a small value off their big profit.

Third party travel sites can even provide airfares lower than what the main airlines companies offer, since these sites have the authority to change the prices of the seats they purchased. Airline companies cannot offer the same rate, as they must adhere to their regular matrix.

Although travel sites generally offer discounted prices on early bookings, there are also instances when airfares dramatically drop as the date of the flight gets closer. This happens when many seats are still not bought, the demand of passengers to fly to the destination is low. Airfares then are reduced to half its price. This rarely happens, but lucky are the passengers who can book on these flights.