eBay Guides - Airline Travel Buying Guide
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Airline Travel Buying Guide


Everyone wants a great deal on airline tickets. In addition to low prices, you'll find an enormous range of hotel and flight packages, airline upgrades, and last-minute travel deals on eBay Canada. eBay Canada has special rules about who can sell travel services. Make sure you understand these rules before buying any airline-related service.

Get to Know Your Airline Travel Options


Get to Know Your Airline Travel Options

Find tickets to anywhere in the world or get an unbelievable discount on airline tickets.

  • Hotel and airline packages: Vacation packages that include your hotel and airfare can save you money.

  • Discount airline tickets: Get great low fares with discount airline tickets to destinations around the globe.

  • Last-minute airfare: Travel at the spur of the moment and save a bundle with last-minute fares to popular destinations such as Las Vegas, New York, and Hawaii.

  • Airline upgrades: A comfortable flight starts your vacation on the right note. Upgrade from economy to business class, or even from economy to first class.

  • Airline vouchers: As special promotions or incentives, travel vouchers can define the duration, start, and end date of your stay. Keep in mind, however, that some vouchers have “blackout” dates or restrictions near the holidays or other dates, so ensure that your travel plans are consistent with the voucher.


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Understand eBay Travel Policies


Understand eBay Travel Policies

eBay has special rules limiting who can sell travel-related items on eBay, and what can be sold. If sellers violate these rules, they can lose their eBay selling privileges. Make sure you keep these policies in mind when shopping for travel services on eBay. 

  • Providers of travel: Businesses that actually provide travel services, such as airlines, trains, hotels, resorts, and cruise ships, may list items such as their own gift certificates, airline tickets, lodging, cruises, or vacation packages, on eBay. As providers of the actual travel service, they are often exempted from seller-of-travel laws and need not provide travel licensure information. However, they should clearly identify themselves in the listing as the actual provider of the travel services offered.

  • Travel agents, and other businesses selling travel services: Businesses and individuals who sell and/or arrange air or sea travel or accommodations (but do not directly provide the travel service themselves) may list air- and ship-related travel items such as airplane tickets and cruise trips along with accommodations. They must be licensed as sellers of travel to lawfully do business in all 50 states and they must book travel for you.

  • Individuals: Individuals can sell unused air- or sea-related travel vouchers and gift certificates on eBay. They cannot offer more than one trip per month and cannot sell travel club membership or "choice travel certificates." The seller can only deliver the item to you and cannot play a role in arranging travel on your behalf.

  • Travel club memberships and "choice travel certificates": eBay does not permit listings of travel club memberships or "choice travel certificates" or similar items. Choice travel certificates are documents that are not issued directly by a single provider of travel, but by travel wholesalers, consolidators, or other middleman travel sellers. These certificates generally offer the holder free or low-cost travel services with a choice of multiple hotel chains, resorts, or airlines, the exact location often being at the choice of the buyer or seller. Such certificates are highly regulated in many U.S. states, and in many cases, require additional purchases that violate eBay's fee circumvention policies.

Please note that many airline tickets, vouchers, and frequent flier miles are not transferable. Unless you buy directly from a provider of travel, verify with your sellers that the travel-related item can be transferred legally to another party. You may also want to contact the travel provider directly and ask if they will accept it.


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Find Airline Tickets and Airline Vouchers on eBay


Find Airline Tickets and Airline Vouchers on eBay

Once you know what type of airline ticket, airline package, or airline voucher you want, go to the Travel portal, click Airline, and start searching for item listings on eBay.

Search eBay listing titles for specific words. For example, if you want to find a vacation package to Hawaii that includes airfare type “Hawaii vacation with air” (without quotation marks) into the Search box. Click "Search title and description" to expand your results. Visit eBay's Search Tips page for more tips on searching with keywords.

If you can't find exactly what you want, try shopping eBay Stores, tell the eBay Community what you want by creating a post on Want It Now, or save a search on My eBay and eBay will email you when a match becomes available.


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Buy Airline Travel With Confidence


Buy Airline Travel With Confidence

Before making your purchase, make sure you know exactly what you're buying, research your seller, and understand how eBay and PayPal protect you.

Know your purchase

Carefully read the details in item listings.

  • Figure delivery costs into your final price. If you spend a lot of money, make sure the seller will insure the item when it ships.

  • If you want more information, ask by clicking the "Ask seller a question" link under the seller's profile.

  • Always make sure to complete your transaction on eBay (with a bid, Buy It Now, or Best Offer). Transactions conducted outside of eBay are not covered by eBay protection programs.

  • Never pay for your eBay item using instant cash wire transfer services through Western Union or MoneyGram. These payment methods are unsafe when paying someone you do not know.

Know your seller

Research your seller so you feel positive and secure about every transaction.

  • What is the seller's Feedback rating? How many transactions have they completed? What percentage of positive responses do they have?

  • What do buyers say in their Feedback? Did the seller receive praise?

  • Most top eBay sellers operate like retail stores and have return policies. Do they offer a money-back guarantee? What are the terms and conditions?

Buyer protection

In the unlikely event that a problem arises during your transaction, eBay and PayPal are there for you.

  • Pay safely with PayPal: PayPal enables you to pay without the seller ever seeing your bank account or credit card numbers. In fact, PayPal protects buyers 100% against unauthorized payments from their accounts. Plus, with PayPal Buyer Protection, your purchase can be covered up to C$1,250.

  • eBay Security & Resolution Centre: Visit the Security & Resolution Centre to learn how to protect your account and use eBay's quick and efficient resolution tools.


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