Should I book a flight through an online travel agent (OTA)?

Why they exist, when I use them and the risks involved

Going places? Online travel agents may impede your journey, or make it more expensive (Simon Calder)

Travel and the internet are made for each other. The world wide web connects billions of travellers with millions of providers of airline seats, hotel beds and rental cars, allowing options to be evaluated and bookings made effortlessly.

Some online travel agents (OTAs) can offer excellent deals that are not available direct from the provider, especially for long-haul flights.

Conversely, though, internet users can be diverted unexpectedly to intermediaries that are uninterested in providing a decent service. Once online travel agents have your cash, they are usually unwilling to hand it back when things go wrong.

This is everything you need to know to help you make an informed choice for your next trip.

What is an online travel agent?

A web-based intermediary that can offer cost savings and convenience to travellers, and provides suppliers – including airlines, hotels, cruise lines and rental car firms – with wider access to consumers.

Many travellers speak highly of companies such as Travel Republic and Expedia, which offer good value and reasonable customer service. But others appear to be little more than get-rich-quick schemes that depend on travellers’ gullibility – and are responsible for more complaints to the travel desk of The Independent than any other part of the industry.

They typically acquire customers through paid online leads. When I tapped “easyJet flights” into a search engine, the first two responses were both paid-for ads from online travel agents. The top one was from Kiwi.com, based in the Czech Republic; the second from Bravofly.com, a Swiss company.

“Cheap Ryanair flights”? That will lead to a paid ad from Esky.co.uk, whose internet address might lead you fondly to imagine is a British enterprise. In fact, the firm is based in Katowice in southern Poland.

“We are the travel planning experts,” Esky.co.uk claims. “Let us plan the perfect journey for you!”

No thanks. What each of these companies has in common is that they are offshore online travel agents which regard spending money on internet ads as well spent – because it diverts travellers from the airlines’ official sites.

I can get access to all those products myself online. What do OTAs have to offer that I can’t find direct?

Because they can offer suppliers high volumes of business, online travel agents can often negotiate lower rates and pass some of those savings on to travellers. In addition, many airlines like to use an intermediary to provide another sales channel.

Carriers want to be relevant in the intensely fare-sensitive part of the market. A good way to do that, without “cannibalising” direct bookings is to offer some extremely low fares through an OTA. Especially for long-haul flights, the very cheapest tickets are often to be found via such agents.

An example?

On my trip last month to North America, I flew outbound on Aer Lingus – but bought the ticket through Trip.com (based in Shanghai). At the time I booked the Dublin-Chicago flight, the difference between what the airline was charging direct (almost £700) and the fare quoted by the online agent (£450) was so wide that I took the agent route. Saving 35 per cent on what is an annoying expensive eight-hour flight was a reasonable move.

Coming home, though, I wanted to fly from Winnipeg via Toronto to London Heathrow. The Air Canada direct fare for the two-leg trip from Winnipeg was £626 – and the best deal offered by an OTA just £25 cheaper. I booked direct, because I believe a saving of just 4 per cent did not justify the potential downsides of booking a flight through an online agent.

What could possibly go wrong with booking through an OTA?

Where to start? While the base air fare may be lower than the airline offers, “ancillary” products from checked baggage to seat allocations can be sold at a preposterous margin.

Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair, says some online travel agents are marking up charges on baggage by 60 per cent and on seats by 130 per cent.

The chief executive, Michael O’Leary gave the example of a €10 seat allocation fee at Ryanair.com which became €22 through Kiwi.com and €24 on eDreams (based in Barcelona). He said: “We are once again calling on the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority] to take action and end these anti-consumer practices.”

After booking, if anything goes wrong, from a cancelled flight to a misspelt name, resolving the problem can become difficult and/or expensive to resolve if an agent is involved.

In 2016, an elderly couple who bought budget flights online through CheapOair.co.uk for £143 each were charged an extra £2,000 – seven times the original fares – for twice changing their flight dates.

I have lost count of the number of upset travellers who are still waiting for a refund for early Covid pandemic cancellations because they booked through  OTAs. That includes me, still owed hundreds of pounds by Lastminute.com (based in Switzerland).

The airline says (correctly) the passenger’s contract is with the agent and they cannot deal direct. The OTA typically says: “We’re still waiting to hear back from the airline.” And the traveller remains in stressful financial limbo, until eventually giving up.

Are OTAs allowed to behave like that?

Evidently they believe they can behave as they like with impunity. Of course much of the time, they write small print that is overwhelmingly against the consumer.

For example, between London and Singapore on Qantas, departing on 1 October and returning two weeks later, Qantas has a fare of £1,125. On the same flights, TravelUp will sell you a ticket for £957 – a saving of £168, or 15 per cent on the price when you book direct. Many people will regard that as well worth grabbing.

But supposing there is a misspelling on you name. TravelUp insists: “It is not possible to change your name on an airline ticket. The ticket will have to be cancelled and a new ticket will need to be issued.”

This is nonsense. Qantas, for example, will allow reasonable changes (maiden to married name or vice versa, up to three characters misspelt, etc) and even if the ticket has been issued only a modest fee will be levied.

What’s the alternative – just paying a fortune?

No. Contact a good human travel agent. They have access to discount deals too, and can often provide them for almost no premium over the OTAs. So it is always worth calling the likes of Trailfinders and DialAFlight, or asking a local travel professional, to see what they can offer. It is always best to deal with a human travel agent: they will be on your side if things go wrong.