Being a TPA is a competitive business with cutthroat margin, and agencies themselves have very little pricing power. So 8% for the exact same seat is ridiculously high. It may be because they don't have the volume of Expedia and trying to make up by premium. 

I mean if you take crypto out of the equation, I suspect no agent will survive by charging an 8% premium for the same seat. But may be travala finds some crypto lovers  who will pay the 8% to not off ramp via an exchange.

I know some bitcoin maxis who absolutely have no asset other than bitcoin (maybe just like $100), so they have to spend their bitcoin. Probably Travala is for them.

spiderman

It used to be that a flight would cost maybe 50% more than somewhere else. That's what I understood by ridiculously high.