Should I book flights direct or through a booking site?

At a glance#

Where the price difference comes from#

Portals and airlines sell the same seats from the same fare buckets. The price is formed in the reservation system, not in the shop window, so differences have other causes: the portal’s service fee, payment methods, currency, and which services sit inside the displayed price.

A strikingly low portal price frequently includes neither baggage nor seat selection. With the same services included the two routes usually converge, and the apparent bargain turns out to be a different product sold at a different price. Exceptions exist all the same: individual fares are offered only through distribution, and there the difference is real, if rarely large.

Payment methods move the total too. Some portals surcharge certain cards and display the lowest price only for a method almost nobody uses. Currency is another factor: paying in a foreign currency adds a conversion cost that can exceed the entire price advantage.

The rule is the same as for booking timing. What counts is the total with identical services, not the number on the results page, as when is the best time to book sets out.

The channel, in other words, rarely changes the price and almost always changes the process.

Portals are strong at searching and weak at handling, and airlines are the other way round. For most trips the combination that works is a search through a portal and a booking with the airline, departing from it only when the price difference is substantial or the itinerary cannot be built direct. The exceptions are rarer than the price display suggests.

What changes during a disruption#

Three areas differ, and all three appear only when something goes wrong: authority, handling time and goodwill.

Authority#

A reservation is held where it was created. With a portal booking that means the portal may change it and the airline usually may not.

At the desk that produces the sentence everybody knows: please contact your booking agent. The agent is not making excuses but describing the technical position, which follows from ticketing. The portal is recorded as the issuing agent, and only the issuing agent may reissue the ticket. A friendly conversation at the counter does not help either, because the software there displays the booking but refuses the change.

Standing in that situation costs time, and time is the decisive factor during disruption, as what to do when a flight is cancelled shows. Calling the portal while queueing at the desk saves some of it.

Handling time#

Portals process changes through their own queues. During larger disruptions those queues are long, because many bookings are affected at once, while the airline spends the same period working through its own reservations. Booking direct means not standing in the second row.

One exception exists at the airport itself: on the day of departure the airline handles check in and can make short term changes, though only within the fare.

The difference is invisible on quiet days and large on disrupted ones, which is why it gets underestimated during a price comparison. Reviews help only so far, because they mostly describe the normal case.

Goodwill#

Airlines have their own goodwill rules and apply them to their own bookings. For portal bookings they lack the authority even when willing.

Portals have their own rules in turn, and they vary widely. Some process quickly and without a fee, others charge for every change. A portal booking therefore comes with two sets of terms to read, the fare’s and the portal’s, as what fare rules actually say covers for the first.

During mass disruption another effect appears. Airlines rebook affected passengers automatically, and that automation reaches portal bookings later or not at all. A direct booking sits in the airline’s own queue from the first minute, while a portal booking waits for someone at the portal to act on it.

Schedule changes months ahead are calmer. A message to the portal is enough, and the longer handling costs no travel day.

Worked example: the same flight, two routes#

The same flight is booked twice, once direct and once through a portal with a small price advantage, and then a change becomes necessary.

Comparing prices at booking leaves out half the story, the half that begins when a plan changes. The change fee in the fare applies on both routes, since the fare rules are the same whichever channel sold the ticket. The portal’s handling fee comes on top, and the confirmation takes longer to arrive. A small saving at the time of booking is paid back with the first change, often with interest in the form of time spent on hold.

Two points of contact are the practical core. They mean two queues and two versions of the truth, and both have to be reconciled. After the change the initial advantage has usually gone, and the effort comes on top.

Refunds differ as well. They travel back along the same chain, and every station costs time, which is why refunds from portal bookings regularly take longer.

Choosing a portal therefore turns less on price than on reachability. A phone line that is answered is worth more in an emergency than any saving, and the service hours matter as much: a desk that answers at night behaves completely differently during an overnight cancellation than one that opens in the morning.

An accidental double booking of the same trip needs cancelling immediately, with the cancellation documented, because the processing runs through two parties.

What portals do better#

Two things portals do better than any single airline, and both concern the time before booking.

The search#

Portals show many carriers side by side and find combinations no single airline offers. They also display neighbouring airports together, and the cheaper option frequently sits there. For scoping a route that is the fastest overview available.

The sequence matters. Searching broadly comes first, then a check whether the same itinerary is bookable direct, and only then the decision. That two step sequence combines the breadth of the search with the short paths of a direct booking.

For very rare routings there is barely a way around distribution. Two airlines without an agreement appear in one display only there.

Distribution only fares#

Some fares appear only in distribution, and there the difference can exceed the usual fees.

Packages of flight and hotel belong here too. They follow different rules, because a tour operator stands behind them, and the operator is liable for the whole arrangement, which is an advantage over two separate contracts. Before booking such a package it pays to check who the counterparty is, since that determines who is liable when something goes wrong.

Payment timing is another advantage. Some portals offer later payment or instalments, which can matter on expensive trips.

When it is not worth using a portal#

The detour is not worth taking in these situations:

• Tight itineraries. Changes have to be quick, and a second point of contact costs time.
• Small price advantages. A minor difference is consumed by one handling fee.
• Trips with baggage and seat selection. Those are easier to add direct.
• Complex itineraries with several segments. Changes then touch several segments, and coordinating across two parties takes longer.
• Self connections. They look like one journey and are two, with the consequences set out in what applies with separate tickets.

Each entry describes a case where a small saving is bought with a longer path, and together they cover the majority of ordinary trips. A simple route with a fixed date tolerates a detour through distribution; a complex itinerary with several segments barely does.

Close to departure, booking direct is almost always the calmer route, because changes then land with the airline anyway. Travelling with children or several people adds coordination, since every change touches several names, and across two parties that takes correspondingly longer.

What to watch on a portal booking#

Three points decide whether a portal booking runs smoothly, and all three take five minutes right after booking and are hard to fix later.

The airline’s record locator comes first. It sits in the confirmation and makes the trip visible in the airline’s system, which is also where seats and baggage are easiest to add.

Then the frequent flyer number. Portal bookings frequently fail to pass it on, and without it the accrual is missing. Last comes the payment method: a card keeps the dispute route open, as how a chargeback works describes.

Names and dates need care. A correction has to run through the portal, and with misspelled names every hour counts, because the airline sets its own deadlines.

Award tickets sit outside the question altogether. Points bookings run through the airline’s own programme in almost every case, which makes a mixed travel year simpler than it first looks.

Corporate bookings are a separate case again. A travel desk is also an intermediary, but one with fixed hours and a contract behind it, which is a different situation from an open booking platform without named contacts or agreed response times.

Regular travellers on the same route build up experience with both channels. After two or three bookings it is clear whether the portal’s price advantage was worth the extra path. A useful yardstick in the meantime is what a change in three months would cost, more than what the booking saves today. Who picks up the phone on a disrupted day usually weighs more than the price.

The most common mistakes#

• Comparing displayed prices only. Baggage and seating belong in the comparison.
• Not settling who handles changes. The answer is needed before booking, not during the disruption.
• Forgetting the frequent flyer number. Portals often drop it, so it goes in right after booking.
• Paying without a card. Other methods close the dispute route.
• Treating combinations as one booking. The number of record locators tells how many bookings there are.
• Queueing at the airport desk first. A call to the portal can run in parallel.

Related topics#

• When is the best time to book
• What fare rules actually say
• What applies with separate tickets
• What to do when a flight is cancelled
• How a chargeback works
• Voucher instead of cash