Airline and hotels both have a special category of rate that are designed for the leisure traveller but that you can never find online. These rates can offer savings of as much as 80% off the standard cost, and in this article we explain how it all works.

Discounting without competing against their own direct sales channels

Airline and Hotels now increasingly offer best price guarantees on their websites. Direct sell websites even go as far as saying that they will refund you double the difference if you find the same deal cheaper anywhere else. The principle that drives this is simple- drive customers to book direct, cut out the middle men and make more money. And, to ensure that no one is selling cheaper than the direct consumer site, they offer an incentive to customers to report anyone that does so that those companies can be reprimanded or have their sales contract taken away.

But airlines and hotels still need to fill up their seats and rooms, which means they need to be creative with their distribution strategy. They can’t offer rates to travel companies that are much cheaper than their own direct sales channels because if they do, it is inevitable that someone will undercut them.

That’s why we have IT Air Fares and FIT hotel rates

Let’s begin by clarifying- you don’t need to be a geek who knows how to write code in PHP or someone who has the body of an athlete and resting pulse under 60 to qualify for these rates. IT stands for Inclusive Tour and FIT stands for Fully Independent Traveller. These are rates that MUST be packaged with other products and sold at one fully inclusive price without revealing the sum of its parts.

This model allows hotels to sell rooms cheap and airlines to manage their yield by releasing seats at a lower price without having to discount against their own direct sales channels. They can still earn the higher margins on their room only or flight only sales both on their own platforms and through the travel trade whilst releasing discounted seats and not alerting the market.

What is the difference?

It is well known that flight prices go up the closer you get to the departure date. The reason for this is that airlines know that travellers will pay a premium when they NEED to travel. Because most airlines follow the same strategy, the consumer has little choice but to pay the premium. Hotels also have the highest rates for last minute bookings. The highest rate of all being the rack rate or walk in rate where someone comes in without a reservation asking for a room.

It is however also well known that you can often get a big discount on last minute holiday deals.

So how does that work?

A holiday is a flight and a hotel which are more expensive the closer you get to the departure and yet a flight and hotel combined can often be cheaper?

In short, the answer is yes. FIT and IT rates are fixed and don’t generally have advanced date booking requirements. This can have a crazy impact on pricing. A flight on Virgin Atlantic to New York tomorrow for 5 days will cost me a whopping £1,061 when I check the best rates on Kayak, Skyscanner and Momondo. The IT fare on the other hand, which is available on the same flights is only £360. As a travel agent, you can buy an IT fare for yourself but you obviously can’t sell it.

Here is how you make some serious money!

The cost price of our cheapest hotel in New Jersey (another state, but just across the Hudson and a short drive from Manhattan) is only £34 per night. 5 nights will therefore cost £170. Add this to the £360 for the flight, and the cost price for the holiday is £530. The cheapest flight only deal is £1,060. If you have someone who just wants a flight to New York because they are visiting family, joining someone else who already has a hotel booked or are having their accommodation being taken care of by their host in New York, they would have to pay £1,060 for their flight. You could sell them the same flight (including the hotel) for £899.

Your customer saves £161 and you make a whopping £369. If you have 4 travellers who need these flights then you would make over of £1,500 because the room actually sleeps 2 people, which means you can split the hotel cost between 2!!!!!

You can tell the customer you have thrown the hotel in for free, whether they choose to use it or not!

The Sunday Rule

In addition to advance purchase rules, many airfares have what’s known as the Sunday Rule or Saturday Night Stay rule. This is designed to prevent business travellers using cheaper leisure fares for corporate travel where airlines tend to make most of their profits from. The Sunday rule applies to flight only sales but often will not apply to IT fares. Whilst big corporate travel companies will have the services of a Corporate Travel Management company, there will be many smaller businesses that simply book their travel online. If you are one of these people, you could save a fortune every year by using IT fares for yourself. If you are selling travel, let your contacts know that you can save money for business travellers and start making some serious money.

FIT Rate Advantages

For hotels, the FIT rates won’t just provide you a cost saving on the room only rates available on hotel or online travel agent websites. FIT rates will often feature some added value benefits. Most rates on hotel websites will be room only whereas the FIT rate will generally include breakfast and sometimes even have free upgrades to half board. FIT rates will provide family deals, all inclusive deals and the use of some services (such as the Spa) for free that would normally be chargeable.  

Access IT Fares and FIT rates on the Portal

Our travel agent portal which is available to all paid up members features all our IT fares and FIT rates. Simply login and use the search facility to see rates and check availability. If you complete our GDS Training Programme, you will also be able to use the GDS to search and book your IT fare.

We have IT or Seat Only rates with all the following airlines:

• Air Europa
• Air France
• Alitalia
• Aer Lingus
• Air Canada
• Aerolinas Argentinas
• Air Malta
• Air Mauritius
• Air India
• ANA
• American Airlines
• Asiana
• Avianca
• Air China
• Austrian
• Air New Zealand
• Brussels Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Czech Airlines
• China Southern
• China Eastern
• Delta
• Egypt Air
• Ethopian
• Emirates
• Etihad
• Eva Air
• Finnair
• Garuda
• Gulf Air
• Iberia
• Iceland Air
• Kenya Airways
• KLM
• Korean
• LATAM
• LOT
• Lufthansa
• Malaysian
• Oman Air
• Philippine Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar
• Royal Brunei
• Royal Air Maroc
• Saudia Arabian Airlines
• SAS
• Singapore Airlines
• South African
• Sri Lankan
• Swiss
• TAP
• THAI
• Turkish
• Ukraine
• United
• Virgin Atlantic
• Vietnam Airlines