Is It Cheaper To Buy Plane Tickets From The Airlines Or A Third Party Platform?

Buying a plane ticket can be one of the most stressful parts of traveling, especially if you need to find the cheapest flight available. Plane tickets between the same two cities can vary widely in price based on the time of year, day and time of departure, and how many stops you'll make along the way. Sometimes, just changing your arrival or departure airport in those cities can change the fare price. The cost of a given flight will also fluctuate depending on where you do your travel shopping. In most cases, it's cheaper to book a flight through a third-party website rather than directly from an airline. We picked out some of the best flight-booking apps in July, and in 2023 Self compared 25 popular routes originating at New York's JFK airport, Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), and LAX in Los Angeles. 

They concluded that buyers could save more than 20% by booking via third-party apps, although there were exceptions. Tickets were more than $500 cheaper for a round-trip from New York to Tokyo when bought via travel sites or apps, and Chicago to Hong Kong flights also offered significant savings. One outlier was Air France's non-stop flight from LAX to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris (CDG), which Self found to be almost $200 cheaper when purchased directly from the airline. 

Booking.com consistently provided the best deals, and that company also owns Kayak, Priceline, and Agoda. We did our own spot-check on costs for a round-trip economy class ticket from Los Angeles (LAX) to Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. (IAD) on American Airlines. A flight at 8:53 a.m. was $537 if you bought your ticket directly from American, $416 from Booking.com, $463 through Expedia, and $442 via Agoda. The same flight was $537 through Kayak, matching American's direct purchase price.

Booking through an airline usually costs more up front for a few reasons, some having to do with convenience. Cutting out the middleman means you'll have an easier time if you need to change your travel plans, since you'll be dealing directly with the airline's customer service staff. Third-party sites often have complex and confusing change policies, processes, and fee structures, so keep that in mind if you're eyeing that cheaper third-party ticket. Purchasing from the airline itself sometimes opens you up to some helpful add-ons as well. You can pay for upgrades like onboard WiFi on these airlines, premium seating, and airport lounge access in some cases.

Third-party sites are able to offer cheaper flights due to their partnerships with airlines and other travel companies, which is why they often promote bundle deals with hotels, resorts, and rental car companies. Third-party apps and sites also benefit from being able to purchase seats in bulk and resell them at a profit as well as the use of Global Distribution Systems (GDS); computer networks that give them real-time price and inventory information. Airlines are actually able to control the cost of third-party app flights via fare class visibility, which allows them to sell seats with better profit margins by issuing special fare offers. For the best deal on a particular flight, it's wise to use third-party apps or sites to find a suitable itinerary, then contact the airline to compare the cost of that flight purchased directly.