Tripmela Inc, India’s best source for online travel specials, announced the results of a study that finds that airfares quoted by online travel agencies vary widely across the different websites. In several cases, the study found differences in airfares of more than Rs.10,000.
Using Tripmela?s Searchmela.com airfare comparison tool, the study compared airfares quoted by the four leading online travel agencies across 100 routes within India. There was not a single route where all 4 websites brought back the exact same fare. In cases of flights between two secondary cities, the differences were often extreme. For example, a search for flights between Chandigarh and Ranchi found a difference of Rs.10,905 between the highest and lowest quotes.
Just as frustrating for consumers, on 45% of the routes, at least one of the online travel agencies said that there were no flights available between the two cities, even though other agencies quoted fares.
?Consumers who only search one online travel agency prior to purchasing their flights are leaving money on the table,? said Jared Blank, CEO Tripmela, Inc, the parent company of Searchmela. “We recommend that consumers search 3 or more sites to ensure that they are seeing all of the available flight options and finding the lowest fares for their trip. Consumers can certainly take the time to do this themselves. Of course, we recommend using Searchmela.com?s airfare and hotel search tool that allows consumers to quickly and easily compare prices from their favorite online travel agencies.?
All of the news from the study wasn?t bad for consumers. One positive discovery was that inexpensive last minute fares were available on many routes, especially between metros. ?Just because you have a last minute trip does not mean that you have to pay extremely high prices,? Blank added.