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Topics: Domestic Flights, International Flights, Travel

Airlines allocate different fare classes to different seats. Let's say that there is a plane with 100 seats, for example. (Nice and convenient)

Perhaps 20 will be First and Business Class.\\ Maybe 10 will be set aside for special corporate clients.
Maybe 10 will be for people with advanced purchase, fixed-date tickets.
Another 20 may be for people who have bought packaged tours, including accommodation.
The other 40 will pay full fare.

Of course, the proportion of seats and the number of different fare categories they have depends on the airline. International flights have many different seating classes, for example, discounts for clients of other airlines in the Star Alliance, or international connecting passenger discounts, etc.

In the busier seasons, they play with the proportions of the seats. They know that people are prepared to pay more, so why give them a discount? At these times, they might not offer discounts for package tours, etc.

The best way to find out the cheapest seats is to ask a travel agent. Before I worked at one, I always thought that travel agents added to the cost of the ticket to make their money. This is true in some cases, but most airlines sell their tickets at special rates to the travel agents. Even when the travel agent adds their commission, they are still cheaper than buying directly from the airline. In this way, the travel agents do the advertising and money collection for them, so it saves great expense on behalf of the airline. They want agents to do the hard work, so they give the agents incentives to be there. A notable exception is Skymark airlines, (Itami-Chitose and Haneda-Fukuoka only) which does not use agents at all: they operate a phone service where you purchase via credit card direct from the airline. If you buy their tickets from an agent, it will cost you MORE.

In the end, the travel agent does not really care which airline's tickets you buy. They are still going to get their commission, if they can beat their competitors. So they will try to find the cheapest seats on the cheapest airline for you. If your agent can find a cheaper airline than the agent down the street, they win. Now that I don't work at one anymore, I can tell you my advice... PLAY THE TRAVEL AGENTS OFF AGAINST ONE ANOTHER! They are used to it anyway, and you probably won't get far without a written quote, but a saving is a saving right?

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