If you book flights over the phone, you’ll indeed get better airfare rates. Thus, it is preferable to book directly by calling an airline. Passengers generally prefer to book flights with the airline by calling or visiting their official website. That’s because it is easy and more convenient to book.
But the airline agents will provide you with insights on airline booking and other policies, which may be somehow helpful for future reference.
When You use an Airline Number to Book a Flight service via call, you get two advantages, one you can speak to a live person at the airline, and two, you earn loyalty benefits. Calling the airline even makes it easier to obtain frequent flyer benefits, and you can get notified about your miles balance and also book award flights if you are eligible.
How do i book a flight on delta over the phone?
To speak with a representative about a new or existing reservation, call (833) 844-1239 If you are a Medallion® Member, check the Contact Us section in the Fly Delta mobile app for your dedicated phone line.
How do I talk to a real person for United Airlines Reservations?
If you need to talk to a real person at United Airlines customer service you just need to dial at “(833) 844-1239” phone number.
How do I make American Airlines Reservations over the phone?
If you’d like to make or change a reservation, please call Reservations at (833) 844-1239.
If you want to resolve any kind of sudden or required query related to American Airlines, then you can directly talk to a live person by dialing American Airlines phone number (833) 844-1239 where the entire live person team is 24/7 available for providing instant assistance your every single query.
In the U.S., please contact American Airlines or American Eagle at 800-433-7300 for further information. If assistance is needed in Spanish, you may dial 800-633-3711. If you have a hearing or speech impairment, you may contact American Airlines or American Eagle at 800-543-1586.
How to purchase airline tickets over the phone
Believe it or not, sometimes the phone is best for researching and booking your flight. Seems odd for a website to be saying this, right? Wrong! We want to help you find the best deal by any means.
Why book flights by phone?
Sometimes you can get cheaper flight deals.
With complex itineraries, the human touch can help.
Specialists can offer expert advice.
Here are some useful insider tips that can help ensure you get the most out of booking your flights via phone.
Benefits of Booking flights by over the phone
If you are booking a flight by Airlines Phone Number, you get various benefits from the airline. Calling an airline directly to book a ticket provides you with:
- Discounted flight tickets with Cost-effective fares.
- Loyalty benefits and bonuses with additional advantages.
- Exciting flight deals with award-winning amenities.
- Spacious seats on your desired seating space like a window, aisle, etc.
- There won’t be an extra booking, change, or cancellation charge.
Furthermore, booking air tickets by calling an airline’s contact number is also beneficial because there is less likely to be an error. Still, if an error occurs, it can be resolved in real-time.
By calling an airline and speaking to their representative, one can easily obtain the information he needs and verify travel, departure, and destination requirements.
The airline agents are usually highly professional experts who are trained in providing the passengers the best possible service. They help you find something you ought to and make you stick to that no matter what. Also, they can offer you deals far better than a website.
The benefit of using a consolidator?
Air consolidator fares are cheaper for international travel than the fares travelers can find on their own. Because air consolidators buy seats from airlines in bulk, they can resell them to travel agents for a lower fare than if a traveler bought airfare directly from an airline on their own, without an agent
How to buy consolidator airline tickets?
- While buying consolidator tickets, always check if your consolidator has a long-standing relationship with an extensive range of reputable airlines.
- If you want to book an upgraded seat for your customers at a discounted price, first check the various restrictions associated with a consolidator you are going to choose. Some consolidator tickets can have certain conditions while others do not.
- A genuine flight consolidator will always provide phone support and help desk support, so you can consider these factors while selecting a consolidator.
- Travel agents can check if a flight consolidator can offer them enough discounts so that they can easily add their desired markups.
Does calling the airline directly to book get you better rates than using their website? No.
Does [contacting] the airline directly to book get you better rates than contacting a travel agent or third-party site? Very often.
Calling vs. Website
As other responders have indicated, in this day and age, web rates are almost always better than phone rates. The reason is simple: Almost every large service company these days (be it an airline, a telecom company, bank, broker, etc.) saves a ton of money by getting you to self-serve, to the degree that online rates are almost always better than phone agent rates.
This didn’t use to be true, where calling and begging for a special deal might get you special savings offer. But as time goes on, that becomes decreasingly true, especially for non-recurring-cost services like airline tickets (there are still exceptions for subscription-based services like TV and mobility where your lifetime business has more value). It’s more expensive for airlines to sell you a ticket over the phone than over the web, and so that’s reflected accordingly in the rates.
Furthermore, it’s much less likely there will be an error, and much easier to get errors fixed, if you book online. You can verify all the dates and destinations before you hit the big green Submit button and can fix them before they see any of your money. You get an email confirmation right away and can correct any issues right then, too.
And the day of the flight if there’s any mismatch between the flight and what you booked, you have the proof of what you paid for. For disputes regarding purchases made on the phone, it’s the agent’s word against yours, and even if there’s a recording, convincing them to pull it up can be challenging.
Airline Directly vs. Third Party Website
There’s a good way to test this. Use one of the meta-search tools like Hipmunk or Google Flights to search for an actual or theoretical flight itinerary. What’s interesting about these tools is they query all the airlines directly, along with a number of the travel agent sites (Expedia, Priceline, Cheapo Air, etc, etc, etc).
I travel a fair bit and almost use Hipmunk for my searches, and roughly 90% of the time, the best fare comes directly through the airline website.
But the other advantage of these search tools is that you don’t have to care because it does that work for you. The 10% of the time that one of the agents really does have access to a cheaper fare, you’ll see that anyway, and can proceed with that.
The one caveat I’ll add is that a cheaper fare for one flight does not always equate to less money spent in the long run. Being someone who does book directly with airlines 90% of the time, things are pretty straightforward: I either pay to check my bag or don’t, and I either pay for a seat upgrade or I don’t. I know what I’m in for, and the total bill rarely differs from what I expected. Conversely, the number of times friends and family don’t credit get their paid checked bag or seat selection/upgrade or where the total price didn’t include what they thought it did, is definitely not zero. Special travel-oriented credit card benefits also seem to work a little more smoothly when paying airlines, hotels, and rental car companies directly. Third parties introduce another potential for problems with hidden fees, ticket price changes, missed notifications for canceled or rescheduled flights, and so on. So, unless a third-party fare is significantly cheaper than the direct-from-airline fare, sometimes the direct airline booking is still a better bet, if not in pure dollars but also the ability to have a misery-free trip.
Which is better to book an air ticket between an online travel agency or through an airline company site?
There are always pros and cons between booking from OTA and Airlines. Below is a comparison of the OTA website to Airlines’
PROS
OTA website often aggregates many airlines in one interface, so there is one UX for all. It helps you quickly compare prices, departure times from many airlines instead of going site to site. The payment is also quite simple if you buy a roundtrip or multicity trip. You have to pay once for a trip with many airlines.
OTA has often protected customer’s rights rather than airlines’ rights. On airlines’ right, you often find unusual services (such as insurance, baggage, hot meal, aka SSR – Special Service Request) are selected by default. OTA always removes those services for the customer by default.
Customer service. There are different rules & fees for Changing Flight, Cancellation, … from airline to airline. However, you just call OTA, they will serve you as one Contact Point.
CONS
Airlines often treat you as a direct customer if you buy on their website. They will think “Hey, he/she is an airlines’ customer, NOT someone else”. They can make some flexible rules for you. However, modern airlines do NOT do that. Because where there or not you always are their customer.
In some cases, you can contact directly to airlines to request service if you buy a ticket directly on the airlines’ website. Some airlines refuse to serve special requests if you buy via OTA
Are there any advantages of booking flight tickets directly with the airline?
This depends on the situation and flight or flights you’re looking at.
It can be very convenient and hassle-free to use airline websites for international flights with connections. The airline is going to ensure a smooth transfer and no baggage issues (hopefully).
Booking a flight like that via a third party can become troublesome if they have sold you the cheapest price and booked you on separate PNR’s. You might be transferring at a port and not realize your luggage has not been tagged through to its end destination.
Also, I’ve found if it’s airline direct, any cancellations or changes before the trip are communicated directly by them. Sometimes via 3rd party, the communication needs to go via the 3rd party and there is the chance for it getting mixed up and unclear.
Third-Party sites tend to “promise the world” or say “yes” to all your requests in order to get your sale when they may not really have done what you’ve (stupidly) believed to have been rock-solid promised by your agent. Classic examples are your “special meal” requirement being arranged (rarely works via 3rd party), bassinets promised, exit rows promised, spare seats promised.
This only leads to disappointment and misdirected frustration when you bitch and moan to the cabin crew that “I didn’t get my special meal!” “I didn’t get blah, blah, blah!”.
- It’s not cabin crews’ fault 99.99% of the time
- If they find out you didn’t book with them directly, there’s absolutely nothing they can do and you only have yourself and your agent to blame.
- Local or domestic single-leg trips don’t really present any issues with 3rd parties most of the time. 🙂
When using a consolidator or discount travel agency:
- Ask whether there is pricing and availability for an alternative airline.
- Use the expertise of the assistant who may suggest cheaper dates or routing options.
- Try to negotiate! Sometimes the price is not fixed.
- Ask if their ticket will earn you mileage.
- You can usually hold the seat for 24 hours with no charge. If you say you are going to shop around, they may give you an extra discount.
- If it is a discounted ticket ensure that you are comfortable with the restrictions.
- Ask the name of the airline, flight times, and route. They are not allowed to advertise the details of the cheapest deals online but you can ask on the phone.
- Always: Recap everything before ending the phone call – flight numbers, times, date, day of the week, connections, and how your name is spelled (use your legal name that matches your ID).
- Ask for the name of the person you spoke to and their telephone and extension number.
- Ask for a reference number, usually a record locator.
What is the benefit of buying one-way airfare?
There are a lot of possible benefits to be had when purchasing a one-way fare in comparison to a round trip booking, however, it’s always important to understand what the implications are. This assumes you need a round trip booking, but there can be instances where booking a one-way can be cheaper than booking a round trip:
Pros
Creates flexibility in your travel plans. Oftentimes, I advise my clients to book one-way on cash and one-way using their points and miles. Many times, they only have half the number of points, so it can be a good way to use your miles and save money while you are at it
Allows booking on separate airlines.
Many airlines work in an oligopoly these days, especially in North America, so they are typically priced the same between two destinations. Many times, one airline might have a better schedule than the other, but only on one way of the journey, so you can typically buy two one-way tickets at the same price as a round trip to form the perfect itinerary. Airlines don’t like it, for obvious reasons.
You can decide on your travel plans later. With increasing amounts of change fees, it’s sometimes cheaper to just buy one-way tickets, and buy the return portion once the travel dates have been confirmed. Otherwise, it is just more money in the airline paying for the change fees
Cons
One-way tickets are often a higher security threat than round-trip bookings. For example, customs and immigration officers typically like to know when you intend on heading back. They might not view it positively that you only have a one-way ticket.
The biggest issue is price. Previously, one-way tickets could cost more than a round trip ticket, however, airlines have started changing their pricing policy. In Europe and North America, one-way tickets are typically half the price of a round trip booking, whereas in Asia it typically is 60–70% of a round trip booking.
It’s not just the cost of the booking, if you need to refund/change your booking, then you are on the hook for two cancellation fees, not just one cancellation fee.
How to Make Southwest Airlines Reservations over the phone?
For your convenience, you can book online at southwest.com. Call us at 1-800-435-9792. Make the reservation at the Southwest ticket counter at the airport.
How do I talk to a live person at JetBlue?
Call 1-800-JetBlue (538-2583) JetBlue Airways Phone Number and Directly talk to the Representative. Special Service Request: 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583) (voice) or 711 (TTY)
How do I get a live person at Spirit Airlines?
Spirit Airlines Customer Service Phone Number: 1 (855) 728-3555. One of the best methods to contact a live person at Spirit Airlines is calling service. Here, you can use the Spirit Airlines Customer Service Phone Number: 1 (802) 618-6067.
How do I Make Emirates reservations Over the Phone?
If you would like to talk to Emirates regarding your queries, then you can smoothly dial Emirates Airlines phone number and follow the below IVR options to speak to someone: Dial phone number 1 (800) 777-3999 and 1 (878) 645-3882 press the options. Press 1 for the general inquiries.
How do I Make Qatar Airways Reservations Over the Phone?
Dial phone number 1-877-777-2827 or 1-802-219-8701 (OTA No.) from a dial pad. Press 1, for the previous or new reservations. Press 2, to submit a complaint or query. Press 3, to repeat the menu. Press 9, to speak to someone at Qatar Airways.
