> one carrier always has the best rates for my city, middlemen rarely/never cost less Couple of things: First, the post is from 2014 which was still during the

> one carrier always has the best rates for my city, middlemen rarely/never cost less Couple of things: First, the post is from 2014 which was still during the rise of online travel agents like Expedia and Orbitz and Travelocity and all of their kin. There was a lot of money sloshing around in those companies to try to give "exclusive discounts" to customers so that people would become accustomed to using the online travel agent instead of booking direct. Bundled travel packages are still very much a part of this and the spiff from a hotel being included can be used to buy down the cost of your ticket so the package looks cheaper. Second, if you are in a city where one carrier is in a position to dominate the rates for your area, an online travel agent isn't going to help you much and the carriers to your area know this so there's little incentive to try to slash prices to compete. But related to this is that a lot of people don't know that, so they still go to the sites they see advertised on TV or elsewhere and plug in a starting point, a destination, some dates, then sort "lowest to highest" and pick the smallest number next to the $ sign.