also called airline.com inventory · direct channel fares
The flights, fares and seats an airline shows on its own website and direct channels.
Airline direct website inventory is the flights, fares and seats an airline shows on its own site and direct channels. What it displays can differ from what shows up in the global distribution system that agencies and comparison sites use, so a fare or seat can exist in one place but not the other. That gap is why a price you spot in one channel sometimes cannot be found in the other.
You see a fare on a comparison site, click through, and cannot find it anywhere on the airline's own website. Nothing is broken; the two channels just show different inventory, and the price you saw was living in the agencies' system rather than the airline's direct one.
What an airline displays directly can differ from what appears in the global distribution system that agencies and comparison sites use, so a fare or seat may exist in one place and not the other. Nomads see a price on a comparison site, then cannot find it on the airline site, or the reverse, and assume something is broken.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These are the channels a ticket comes through.
Buying direct means from the airline that issues the ticket, either on its own website, its direct website inventory, or its other direct channels.
An OTA is an online travel agency reselling many airlines in one place, and a GDS is the network behind travel agents and many booking sites that lets them search and ticket airline inventory.
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