About Us
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We are Global Touch Intl, Inc. Our company is organized into two divisions: Global~Touch Technologies (GTTec) and Global~Touch Travel Services (GTTs). Founded in 1993 by George Stefanopoulos, M.S., M.Sc., Ph.D., both company divisions have been quick to respond to our clients evolving needs, incorporate the latest technology, and adapt to new market conditions. The result has been fourteen years of growing, uninterrupted success in serving our valued clients needs. Since 1993 our Travel
Services Division, GTTs, has been one of America's leading rating
companies of air~tour operators and travel agencies to international destinations. GTTs was the first
of only a few companies to recognize that around-the-world and complex
multi-stop itineraries were not priced efficiently by the airlines and
the retail travel sellers. GTTs has been serving the international
travel needs of travel agencies, corporate travel departments, and the
frequent international traveler for the last fourteen years. With a global
network of specialty travel consultants and suppliers in thirteen
countries armed with the latest technology, we pride ourselves in our
ability to synthesize the optimum itinerary for your international
travel at the absolute minimum cost. Using our services will almost
always yield the least expensive way to buy international~airfares. With the exception of Hawaii, GGTs does not sell
domestic (USA) airline~ tickets. For the last three years, GTTs has
also been providing, quality travel accessories, and other
travel-related quality products that make travel safer, more
comfortable, and more enjoyable. You can place your order with
confidence in our Travel Store.
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About Air~Consolidators
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terms "air~consolidator",
let us try to explain. Because we sell a tremendous amount of airline~tickets, certain airlines are willing to give us special fare
contracts to promote their airline. These fares are
"unpublished" fares as opposed to the "published"
fares which every travel agency has and which the airlines will quote to
you when you call them directly. The "unpublished" fares we
sell range between 10 to 50% cheaper than the "published fares".
Most of the business we do involves international travel to Europe,
Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin/Central America and the South Pacific. The
tickets we sell are on your regularly scheduled airlines. We are not
allowed to advertise the name of these airlines and can only reveal the
name when you contact us. We do not
deal with charter airlines, we do not buy bulk seats and try to resell
them. We sell you these seats from the regularly scheduled airlines, the
same seats you would purchase from the airline's agents, but a
significantly reduced price. The only proviso is that the airplane must
have a significant number of empty seats, otherwise the airline demands full
price.
People frequently ask us why do the airlines "secretly" sell their tickets at lower prices and why do they only do it through special agencies. The answers are relatively simple. The airlines give us special fares to fill otherwise empty seats. The best analogy is your supermarket. If they don't sell a pound of sugar today, they will sell it tomorrow and make a profit. Not so with a pound of tomatoes which has a limited shelf life ( readers familiar with Microeconomic Theory are referred to Paretto's Pricing Optimization for Perishable Commodities). Similarly, when that plane takes off with an empty seat, the value or that seat and its profit to the airline is gone forever. Thus, it is better for the airlines to get something for the seat rather than nothing. That does not mean we only sell last minute seats, but seats from the same inventory purchased (at a higher price) by the passenger seating next to you . The airlines make most of their money by selling from their published fares, so they don't want to lose that profit by reducing fares overall to the general public. So another analogy is in order. Just as many manufacturers have out-of-the-way factory outlet stores to sell their overstocks and seconds, so the airlines use air~consolidators. We are "out-of-the-way" in that we are not allowed to advertise the names of the airlines. Just as savvy shoppers know about and take the time to shop the outlet stores, so too savvy travelers and retail travel agency owners and managers know about air~consolidators and use them to save money. There are pros and cons to buying air~consolidator tickets and the pros far outweigh the cons. You are flying on a major airline at a dramatically reduced price; you can buy your ticket for next day travel to almost a year ahead; your ability to buy tickets within the 21, 14 and 7 day advance purchase rules for the same price only increases the amount of money you saved; you may earn frequent flyer mileage on most of our airlines; in many cases these fares are available for both individual and group travel; you can fly into one city and leave from another -and discounted business class fares are available on some airlines. The negatives are that the airlines don't want to make changes or refunds to these tickets once they have been issued. If changes or refunds are allowed heavy penalties are charged. You can purchase your international airline~tickets through our affiliated travel agencies and have the benefit of full customer service. Corporate clients and existing retail clients who are familiar with the rules and procedures may also purchase their tickets, at a slightly lower price, directly from our web site; customer service is provided by the Q&A Page, by Email and/or by the e-Service internet forms, but not by live agents. |