The internet has become one of the easiest and quickest ways to find cheap flights to destinations all across the world and the most common form of finding these great deals is through a flight aggregator. But are these price comparison sites really offering you the lowest prices?

These flight search websites make their income from what's known as CPA affiliate deals. That is, they get paid by airlines for every booking made through their search platform. Often these deals will be based on a percentage of the final sale and each airline will offer their own specific rate which can range from as little as 1% of the ticket price to 5% or more.

This method of income producing activity means that flight search companies are going to make more if you book a flight with one airline than if you book with another. Thus, they introduce a certain bias into their own results which show the scheduled flights that will make them a greater profit. The scale of this bias cannot be measured but the fact that there might exist one at all means you as a passenger should be wary.

The deals effect all types of flights from long haul to internal UK flights. Even a flight from Manchester to Exeter can be subject to big price differences among airline and so also subject to bias among flight aggregators looking for the optimal profit. This holds true for Manchester to Gatwick, Manchester to Heathrow, Manchester to Stansted and many others.

So our advice is to not limit yourself to searching just a single one of these flight websites but to shop around a few of them and compare the results for your chosen journey. This way you can spot any price discrepancies with ease and find a truly low price for your flight.