Just a thought about booking through third party websites

[hazeof3dd]

I'm fairly new here, and am not familiar with most of the website I see some of you booking your flights through, but for the most part, I believe that these websites tend to search for the lowest price available from the airlines, add on a service fee, then they offer you those as "the lowest available price". Personally, what I do, is use orbitz.com to search many airlines for the best price available, and then go to the airline's website and book it through there because you will almost ALWAYS pay less. Just my opinion, I could be wrong about some places, I think that some places buy bulk tickets at a set price from airlines and then are able to sell them to you at a cheaper price, but I'm not sure about that.

[wrp96]

Actually, what most of us recommend is searching an agent like Kayak.com or ITA which searches other search engines to see what the best cost is (or flight) and then go directly to the airline's website that offered that fare to book.

[parody]

what I do, is use orbitz.com to search many airlines for the best price available, and then go to the airline's website and book it through there because you will almost ALWAYS pay less.

 

As a basic strategy, this is fine as long as you know which airlines are and are not included in Orbitz, etc. For the most part, these third-party websites are almost completely silent on this subject, although there are a few exceptions. Very early on they were somewhat forthcoming but at this time they say absolutely nothing on this very crucial point. It is clearly the case of the "buyer beware". Almost exclusively (but not quite), Southwest Airlines is not included in searches done with Orbitz, etc. They also do not include jetBlue which can have a material effect if they are a major player in the market you are interested in. Kayak.com, which wrp96 mentions, does include jetBlue and has many other admiral properties, although they are not an online TA like Orbitz, etc.

[hazeof3dd]

As a basic strategy, this is fine as long as you know which airlines are and are not included in Orbitz, etc. For the most part, these third-party websites are almost completely silent on this subject, although there are a few exceptions. Very early on they were somewhat forthcoming but at this time they say absolutely nothing on this very crucial point. It is clearly the case of the "buyer beware". Almost exclusively (but not quite), Southwest Airlines is not included in searches done with Orbitz, etc. They also do not include jetBlue which can have a material effect if they are a major player in the market you are interested in. Kayak.com, which wrp96 mentions, does include jetBlue and has many other admiral properties, although they are not an online TA like Orbitz, etc.

yes, i am aware which airlines are not included. For my two main departure airports (BDL and PVD) it is only Southwest and I ALWAYS check them first. I believe that Jetblue and Southwest are the only two major airlines not included. I have seen Independence, Frontier, Airtran, Spirit, Midwest, America West, etc, all in Orbitz. I just mentioned orbitz because it seems to be the simplest to use. I had not heard of kayak.com I'll check it out

[parody]

I believe that Jetblue and Southwest are the only two major airlines not included.

 

With respect to "major" airlines, you are absolutely correct. But, it is useful to note that USA 3000 is not included in searches done with sites such as Orbitz and Kayak. Although an extremely small airline, it is useful to note that they are the only one to fly nonstop from Bradley to Cancun.

 

BTW, I believe that Kayak "scrapes" the fares shown on Orbitz.

[hazeof3dd]

With respect to "major" airlines, you are absolutely correct. But, it is useful to note that USA 3000 is not included in searches done with sites such as Orbitz and Kayak. Although an extremely small airline, it is useful to note that they are the only one to fly nonstop from Bradley to Cancun.

 

BTW, I believe that Kayak "scrapes" the fares shown on Orbitz.

USA 3000 is one of those "scheduled charter" airlines. I'm surprised Kayak shows them, as they aren't your usual scheduled airline. This Kayak site sounds very cool, gonna check it out now

[racephoto]

Every once in a while I'll book my ticket through orbitz. I feel it's only fair, I use their site so much that they really do deserve that $6 from me every 6 months or so.

[wrp96]

Every once in a while I'll book my ticket through orbitz. I feel it's only fair, I use their site so much that they really do deserve that $6 from me every 6 months or so.

 

LOL!:)

[parody]

I'm surprised Kayak shows them

 

Actually, I said that Kayak DOES NOT show USA 3000. In looking around now, I see that Mobissimo.com does include them.

 

As an aside, some of the co-founders of Kayak originally came from Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia. Possibly you have read or heard about the "cheat sheet" that one of the co-founders put together on how to reach a human when dealing with a company's automated voicemail (http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/)

[LUCY55]

I tend to agree with the earlier post-I find the fares on a travel site but book with the airline. However, I just had an interesting experience. Needed tickets for cruise out of florida for springbreak--not particularly happy about the high fares. Someone on CruiseCritic had mentioned Kayak so was watching them also (Thanks! whoever it was.) They showed $227 RT fare from Midway on AirTran. I could not find anything near this on AirTran's site. I did try to book through the link on Kayak that took me to cheapseats.com. There were significant fee's mentioned. However, I got a concellation ("unable to confirm itinerary") soon after I thought I had booked. Unhappy, I decided to call cheapseats.com's 800 number. They were very pleasant and said there were problems with their on-line bookings. They got me a slightly different itinerary for $227 with no other fees. I have called AirTran to confirm that we actually have tickets and confirmed seats--and we do.

[Hootsie]

Sometimes the best price is flying on two airlines tho so Orbitz saved us big time.

[hazeof3dd]

Sometimes the best price is flying on two airlines tho so Orbitz saved us big time.

yes that is the one exception. Although flying on two airlines (while I haven't ever done it) seems quite inconvinient to me.

[Hootsie]

yes that is the one exception. Although flying on two airlines (while I haven't ever done it) seems quite inconvinient to me.

 

No different than any other flight unless you get a direct and since we live in Montana, that NEVER happens.

[wrp96]

yes that is the one exception. Although flying on two airlines (while I haven't ever done it) seems quite inconvinient to me.

 

The only inconvenience is that because you will be flying on a one-way ticket each way, you will be more likely to be pulled out for extra security.