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Copyright 1996-2004 Elliott Publishing. All rights reserved.

How Did They Get That Fare So Low?
Fix My Trip · December 25, 2001

Q: A site called Bestfares.com claims it offers a fare between Portland, OR, and Bogotá for $100 less than the cheapest ticket I can find.

The normal fare on Continental Airlines is about $1,000. I usually ask my travel agent to go through a consolidator, and that lowers the price to about $800. But when rates are lower or when there is an airline sale on, particularly on the carrier's site, then no consolidator can beat the airline's sale price. So I just book through the airline's website.

My last ticket to Bogotá cost me $563 before taxes and fees. Bestfares.com is offering a ticket for $463 before taxes.

The site claims that it can offer those discounts because they have 250,000 subscribers, but that makes no sense. They simply refer their members to an affiliate travel agency. I kind of doubt that they or their affiliate travel agency are consolidators, or buy from consolidators. But assuming that their agency buys from consolidators, how in the heck can they get such low prices when my own travel agent has checked every consolidator imaginable, and yet cannot even get close to the sale rate offered by the airlines, let alone beat it?

-- William Gregg

A: What you saw was a real fare, according to Tom Parsons, who runs Bestfares.com. The site is a licensed consolidator that negotiates contracts with 40 different carriers and then passes the savings along to its 170,000 members. A consolidator is a travel agency that buys airline tickets in bulk and then resells them to travelers at a markup.

But there's a catch. In order to take advantage of Bestfares.com's deals, you have to become a member. That costs $59.90 a year. In your case, a membership would be worthwhile since you would be saving $100 (and your total savings would still be about $40).

Another drawback is that Bestfares uses so-called "opaque" fares. That means you don't know which airline you're flying until you book the ticket. If your only interest is a rock-bottom price and you aren't concerned about the airline it's on, then this isn't anything to worry about.

I asked Parsons how it's possible for anyone to underbid an airline's own website. He said that sometimes his site manages to get its hands on what he calls "super-distressed inventory"-seats that the airline has essentially written off as unsellable. When he offers those tickets on Bestfares.com, he'll sometimes get calls from airline executives who demand to know how he can undercut their prices.

I think the question you're getting at is: Should I shell out $59.90 a year for a Bestfares.com membership? I've gotten quite a few e-mails from readers who were upset that the site's rhetoric didn't match reality. Or, put differently, the fares weren't that good. I must admit that Parsons is a skilled promoter, probably the best in the business. So it's easy to come away with the impression that Bestfares.com is the answer to all of your problems, travel and otherwise.

Parsons knows that he's got his critics, but he says they fail to appreciate the complexities of the airfare pricing system. On some days, the airline site will have the lowest fare, he says. On other days, it might be another website. (He doesn't make any apologies for his promotional abilities, by the way. Nor do I think he should.)

My advice would be include Bestfares.com in your list of the usual suspects when searching for a cheap airline ticket online, but wait until you find a fare that will make your membership worthwhile before booking through the site. The fares are real, and if you pay attention to the fine print, you can end up with a cheaper airline ticket.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. Fix My Trip appears weekly on this site.