We are planning a long weekend to Paris in the middle of October and have been searching for good airfares which don't seem to be coming down? I have never used a "consolidator". Has anyone used this method? How confident can one be with offers? Do you think regular fares may go down during the summer for travel in October? Thank you, Fodorites, for your comments.

Consolidators simply move tickets for airline companies at less than published prices which technically is "illegal" but most airlines "allow" it to occur since it obviously increase revenue.

The consolidator will issue you a ticket (if not using an e-ticket system) for a specific airline and flight and you'll pay the consolidator's advertised "fare" (taxes and other charges are usually not mentioned in those advertised fares in the newspapers).

If you can get a good price go for it, use a credit card to pay for it to insulate yourself from possible fraud, and you can always confirm with the airline itself that your reservation is in the system.

Someone will undoubtedly supply you with website addresses.

www.bestfares.com

www.justfares.com

I booked a long weekend to Paris (from Boston) in October using www.1800flyeurope.com. I got an excellent fare, much better than was being offered anywhere else at the time (and I checked a lot of places). They won't tell you the airline on the website, but I found out that if you call the 800 number, that they will give you the airline information over the phone. I ended up booking over the phone instead of online because the woman I spoke with was so helpful. I got our email confirmation instantly and was able to use the reservation number to check the American Airlines website and see that we were really booked!

Hi,

I have found http://airtravelcenter.com/onetrav.htm
to be a good place for low prices.

Have you tried www.rbitz.com, www.expedia.com and www.travelocity.com?

You might want to download sidestep.com which searches for cheapest fares

http://www.sidestep.com/home.html?SbAutoOpen=1