Wholesale airfare refers to flights that are purchased in bulk at low prices and then sold to end users. Travel consolidators and online travel services buy from the airlines directly and then they have the possibility to offer good prices to their customers. It seems in fact, that it's more advantageous to purchase from a travel consolidator than from the airline directly, because you can make considerable savings. The conditions for settling the wholesale airfare are decided as part of negotiations between the airline and the travel agent, and the terms of the agreement are then put down in a contract.
Nevertheless, when you're surfing the net in search of cheap deals, you have to pay attention to the fact that online travel companies are set up differently, and some prove more complicated than others. You might start on the search for wholesale airfare feeling really confident that you'll get what you want, particularly if you shop in advance. The problem lies in the fact that not all online travel companies offer the same quality and reliability level in their services. In some websites you have to compete by bidding on auctioned fares, while in others you don't get all the information necessary to make a good decision on the purchase of the flight.
The must-know details for online wholesale airfare transactions include: airline name, different flights, purchasing policy and seat location. Sometimes, online travel services don't provide a real-time option for the available tickets. What happens in fact is that the company manually searches for a flight that matches your itinerary and then they get back at you, to make the sale. Don't purchase wholesale airfare tickets without reading the details carefully. There is more to quality traveling than finding a cheap ticket.
It is next to impossible for an individual to have access to wholesale airfare directly, because people seldom buy tickets in bulk, which means that the airline sells at higher prices to direct customers. The discounts are only available through intermediaries, the travel consolidators that sell for the airline. They purchase in bulk, and then they offer discounts in their turn as a way to attract customers. That's pretty much the way a flight sells out. Sometimes, seats remain vacant and they are sold at very low prices, as last minute offers. These are very convenient too, yet, not anybody waits until the very last minute to book a flight ticket.
