There are a few options for buying that cheap flight but getting a bargain has become a bit of a long stretch for most, as customers are very often looking for the cheapest advertised fares on websites, for some its very frustrating to know that those fares advertised are no longer available or simply not valid for peak seasons.
Its true that most travel / flight deals advertised are normally for the off peak seasons where air traffic is at its lowest level, the fares are not necessarily representative of a travel companies fares, they are simply a third party promoting air fares for those particular airlines that they deal with.
Some travel websites offer fares significantly lower than others, this is mainly due to the fact that they don’t specialize in that area and don’t benefit from the extra reductions or exclusive fares offered by the airlines to those individual travel companies.
The best way is to make sure that the travel business or website offering fares to your particular destination are a specialist or not. Depending on the size of the travel agent they may only offer specialist fares to certain destinations and that is the main reason why you should always book with a travel agent which has expertise in your travel niche.
There are other things to look out for dodgy websites! make sure you can verify the website properly and identify its source by checking its terms and conditions, its membership status by visiting any apparent logo’s on its website should give you a good idea if the website in legitimate or not as most authentic travel website will display the IATA logo and can be verified by visiting the IATA website.
Another useful tool is review websites, if a company or website is dodgy you will find some clues from people that have left negative reviews or have written articles on forums to make people aware of a sham business(s)
Its very frustrating for people who think they have come across a bargain flight or holiday by using some of the comparison websites, most comparison websites are genuine and are affiliated with trusted or reputable travel companies, comparison websites search their affiliate’s partners own website and display the results back to the end user i.e. the customer. Not all fares are always available due to increased demands, cheap fares are sold out very quickly and you go back to step one over and over again.
When looking for cheap airfares during peak seasons it may be a good idea to go directly to an independent travel agent and request for cheaper fares by asking to be put on a wait list, the trends are changing very rapidly and customers often want to buy instantly not knowing that there are options available to them if they used the facilities on offer by some travel agents.