Summer Airline Travel
 By Tom Parsons - Special to ABCNEWS.com
 If you've been searching for tickets for international travel this
 summer, high fare quotes may have you contemplating spending the
 summer in your backyard. You don't have to drag out the tent and
 plaster the walls with posters of Paris. Your cure for high summer
 airfares might just be a consolidator ticket.
     Reputable consolidators sell discount tickets released to them
 in bulk by the airlines. Sometimes you pay as little as half the
 published fare. The airlines use consolidators as an additional
 marketing tool, sometimes offering them special incentives to sell
 tickets on flights that are not full.
     International consolidator tickets are technically forbidden by
 a 1958 law against the sale of tickets below their published price.
 That law has not been enforced in almost 40 years and has become
 rather like laws against riding horses down Main Street on Sunday.
 These days, many consolidators are active partners with the airlines
 whose discount seats they sell.
 Ask the Experts
     Airline ticket consolidators can be one of the best allies of
 bargain travelers, but if you dont know how to find a good one, you
 could be walking through a trapdoor with a hard fall at the bottom.
     You can book directly with many consolidators, but I strongly
 advise that you book through a local travel agency unless you know
 and trust the consolidator.
     Any agency of significant size should have well-established
 relationships with the best consolidators and will be in a position
 to vouch for their credibility. A good travel agent can also let you
 know of any special promotional fare that beats what the consolida-
 tors have to offer.
 Read Up in the Regionals
     If you want to go it alone (or if you want to get an idea of what
 fares are currently being offered), check your Sunday newspaper tra-
 vel section, or the travel section from prime gateway cities. If
 you're flying to Europe, check The New York Times and Boston Globe.
 If you're flying to South America, check the Miami Herald. If you're
 flying to the South Pacific or the Orient, check the The Los Angeles
 Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
     You may realize the best savings by booking a low-cost domestic
 ticket to the gateway city and a consolidator ticket overseas. Most
 public libraries carry major out-of-town papers. If yours doesn't,
 check a large book store on Monday afternoon.
 Cheap and Flexible
     While a lower price is the biggest consolidator draw, there are
 two other major advantages. Consolidator tickets don't require any
 advance purchase, except for the time needed to get the ticket to you
 if you're purchasing by phone.
     In addition, the tickets often don't have the minimum and maximum
 stay requirements that regular discount tickets often carry. For ex-
 ample, the lowest airline fares for travel to Europe limit your stay
 to 30 days. The standard time limit on consolidator tickets is 90
 days.
 Consolidator Check List
     Ask if your ticket allows you to be placed on an alternate air-
 line in case of extremely delayed or cancelled flights. Most common-
 ly, you will be limited to the carrier you were ticketed on.  Find
 out if you can get frequent flier miles for your travel. Usually, you
 can. Determine the consolidator's policy on ticket changes, lost or
 stolen tickets and ticket exchanges. When you purchase from a con-
 solidator, you are subject to their ticketing rules - not the ticket-
 ing rules of the airline. Always pay by credit card. Any consolida-
 tor that insists on payment by cash or check should be avoided. Check
 your booking by calling the airline direct 24 hours after you've
 purchased your ticket. If the airline does not show your reservation,
 call the consolidator (or your travel agent) immediately.
     International travel is in unusually high demand this year. While
 it is not uncommon to save 40 percent to 50 percent by using a con-
 solidator, the combination of low availability and high demand puts
 savings for travel this summer more in the 10 to 25 percent range.
 But even those savings are worth pursuing, given the current high
 cost of international tickets.  Having some flexibility on travel
 dates could increase your savings to some destinations.
     Today, for instance, the lowest published round trip between New
 York and Rome is $1,030. Consolidators offer this ticket for $795,
 saving you $235 per ticket. Los Angeles to Sydney shows a lowest
 published fare of $998. Consolidators offer this ticket for $795,
 saving you $203 per ticket.
     Another tactic for traveling to Europe in the summer is to buy
 the cheapest available consolidator ticket overseas and then travel
 by rail to your ultimate destination. For example, if the consolida-
 tor fare to Brussels is $350 less than the consolidator fare to Rome,
 use the cheaper fare with a second-class Brussels-Rome rail
 roundtrip.
     Used cleverly, a consolidator ticket will put you on the same
 plane as the folks who purchased from the airlines, at a significant-
 ly lower price.
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