Airhitch® is definitely not an airline. Nor is it a travel agency, tour operator, ticketseller, consolidator, or bucketshop (if you don't know what certain of these terms mean, it's not important, because that's not what we are anyway!).
One of the most important things we are not is an airline. It's particularly important, because many people think the only way they can get on airplanes is by paying an airline to put them on -- they don't see any other way of doing it! And because the airlines have certain ways of doing things (including, as everyone knows, either charging people a lot of money or forcing them into a lot of restrictive travel patterns, or both), many people normally assume we do things the same way. We don't.
Like, for example: we don't charge "airfares". Why is this? Because only airlines -- legally and logically -- can charge airfares. Why? Because only airlines control aircraft. Only airlines can fly them where they want, when they want. Neither the U.S. Government nor any other national government that we know of will allow commercial aircraft in their airspace that are not controlled and operated by airlines. A "fare" is defined as something you pay to the operator of a commercial conveyance in return for carriage on that conveyance. When you get on a bus, you pay the "fare", and you pay it directly to the bus driver (or to the bus company, somehow).
This is not the case with Airhitch® -- since, because Airhitch® is not an airline, it doesn't own or control any aircraft. What you pay to Airhitch® is a fee to participate in the program. Part of the program includes us remitting, to the airline that carries you on their airplane, that portion of the fee you pay to us for participation in that program!
We have agreements with many airlines -- and with other entities that are also not airlines but also have agreements with airlines (this whole category is called, generically, by the name "transportation provider", "TP" for short) -- who like to make sure their aircraft don't take off with empty seats on them, or at least minimize the number of empty seats at takeoff, and are willing to quietly cut the price on them if that is what is necessary to fill up the airplane. Many TPs won't or can't do this publicly, because they feel it would cause Mr. & Mrs. Typical Traveler to always wait until the last minute and to engage in a war of nerves or "chicken" with them, in order to try to get a superlow price for boarding. But they will do it quietly, with certain categories of passengers, like -- AIRHITCHERS!
Yes, that's right: you. And what is an Airhitcher? A person who has agreed to make him/herself reasonably flexible in order to travel at a low cost, someone who understands the value of getting from a certain region of the world to another region at low cost, rather than insisting on a certain specific point-to-point itinerary; someone who doesn't absolutely, positively have to get there overnight; and someone who has a certain leisurely and experiential approach to travel.
Q. CAN YOU CITE ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW AIRHITCH® DIFFERS FROM AN AIRLINE?