Online travel agents may be cleaning up their act at last

UK travellers could receive windfall benefits from EU action

- SIMON CALDER TRAVEL CORRESPONDENT

Tomorrow I will fly on British Airways from London to Denver. The return trip cost £621. But I could have bought the same flights around £30 cheaper by going through an online travel agent (OTA). Odd though it may seem, the practice of selling some seats at deep discounts through a middleman has some merit from the airlines' point of view.

The roots of the practice lie in the bad old days of heavily regulated fares. On many routes, airlines could not be seen to sell tickets more cheaply than the official fares. So they sold through companies called “consolidators” who punted out cheap seats though retail agencies known as “bucket shops”.

Often the ticket would show an official fare that bore no relation to the amount paid - eg £1,200 for a trip that actually cost £500. That maintained the fiction that every airline was adhering to super-high fares. Thankfully, these days - in most circumstances - airlines can charge what they like. Yet they still often pay a modest commission to online agents who undercut them.