Your experiance with Airfare.com

[guitarboy53]

Hello everyone,

 

I see that Airfare.com has some pretty cheap flights. What has been your experiance been with the online company? Are they the same as any other company when it comes to buying airline tickets? Thank you for your help!

 

matt

[zaandam_2]

i bought a one-way to rome last fall through them. no problems.

[goodml]

I've been watching flights from Detroit to LA using farecast.com which shows the prices that are available through the airlines own websites. I just ran those flights again on farecast and then on airfare.com and the price is exactly $50 higher (once the taxes are added in) on airfare.com than the same flights if I book them through the airline's own website. I assume that means they're adding in a service charge.

 

I usually use different internet sites to shop for flights but then always book directly on the airline's own website.

[greatam]

Airfare.com only sells consolidator/bulk tickets. From the website

 

6. Class of service

 

All tickets we sell are coach class unless otherwise specified. In many cases, we book in the lowest category of coach known as bulk or consolidator tickets to get you the lowest price.

 

Consolidator class tickets are NOT ENDORSABLE (they have NO value) to another airline.

 

What that means-IF you would have problems with your flight, for whatever reason, the originating airline CANNOT put you on another carrier UNLESS the originating carrier is willing to PAY for your ticket. Not likely to happen, especially with the financial problems quite a few airlines are having.

 

You are essentially STUCK with your originating carrier. If they have no seats available, you are either out of luck and entitled to a refund ONLY or will have to wait until the originating carrier does have seats available.

 

Even the lowest class airline ticket booked off an airlines' website can be used on another carrier-ie is ENDORSABLE.

 

Airfare.com is often higher priced than booking directly from the airlines website.

[DMorris]

I've been watching flights from Detroit to LA using farecast.com which shows the prices that are available through the airlines own websites. I just ran those flights again on farecast and then on airfare.com and the price is exactly $50 higher (once the taxes are added in) on airfare.com than the same flights if I book them through the airline's own website. I assume that means they're adding in a service charge.

 

I usually use different internet sites to shop for flights but then always book directly on the airline's own website.

 

Looks like farecast.com doesn't do International flights or am i missing something?

[parody]

Looks like farecast.com doesn't do International flights or am i missing something?

 

With respect to farecast.com, you are not missing anything. (Conversely, this thread was originally about airfare.com.) While still in beta, farecast.com currently does projections for only 75 US cities, and it's not clear how many O/D pairs this includes. Over time more cities will be included as well as foreign destinations. They strive for an accuracy rate of 70-75 percent although a small sample test by the Wall St. Journal derived a 50% accuracy rate and the Seattle Times, a 61% accuracy rate.

[Jeanie821]

I prefer Kayak. They research the fares, but refer you to the airline's website to book.

[parody]

I prefer Kayak. They research the fares, but refer you to the airline's website to book.

 

Using Kayak is a good strategy, but note that they might also refer one to airfare.com for booking if they provided the best fare. It's not clear, however, which (subset) of websites Kayak uses for a particular search. The list of all possible websites, is extensive, although it does not appear likely that all are included for every search.

[FlyerTalker]

The is NO one website that has all the possibilities for fares and routings. The best strategy is to have a set of tools that you are comfortable using (Kayak, Sidestep, ITA, FareCompare, FareCast and others), use them all, and be decisive when it comes to making purchases. If you are happy with a number - and with all of the conditions that go with it (including airline, aircraft, routings, times) -- take it.

 

Also, invest the time to learn the game if you want to maximize your return.

[parody]

and others

 

To this fine list of websites, add southwest.com if Southwest Airlines is a possibility as it is not included in any of the search sites listed.

[Jeanie821]

To this fine list of websites, add southwest.com if Southwest Airlines is a possibility as it is not included in any of the search sites listed.

 

Kayak includes Southwest - I think it's the only flight aggregator that does.

[parody]

Kayak includes Southwest - I think it's the only flight aggregator that does.

 

Sorry, but Southwest is NOT included on Kayak searches. (Possibly you may be thinking of jetBlue, although many other sites now include them also.) You can read #17 of their FAQ as to why they do not include Southwest. On this point, you remind me of an anecdote. When Kayak first emerged, they touted the fact that they included "every airline in their searches". I email them and pointed out that this was not true. Within a matter of 24 hours, Paul English, a Kayak co-founder, modified their website to note this fact (although stated deep into their website). Still, their forthrightness was quite admirable and sets them apart from most others.

[Jeanie821]

Sorry, but Southwest is NOT included on Kayak searches. (Possibly you may be thinking of jetBlue, although many other sites now include them also.) You can read #17 of their FAQ as to why they do not include Southwest. On this point, you remind me of an anecdote. When Kayak first emerged, they touted the fact that they included "every airline in their searches". I email them and pointed out that this was not true. Within a matter of 24 hours, Paul English, a Kayak co-founder, modified their website to note this fact (although stated deep into their website). Still, their forthrightness was quite admirable and sets them apart from most others.

 

My bad. They used to.

 

I'll go get my flameproof suit now... :o

[Prairie_Gal]

I am getting annoyed with Kayak. I used to think it was the best flight search engine. My flight searches continually bring up the lowest prices from Orbitz, yet when you click on them I always get a message that the flight has gone up to X amount of dollars. Usually a lot! I realize this is a problem with Orbitz, not necessarily with Kayak, but maybe they shouldn't include them in their flight searches if they are never reliable. It just gets frustating. I never click on the Orbitz prices anymore.

[TenerifeSharon]

I had the same thing happen this evening when Kayak referred me to Airfare for the best fares from LAX-Auckland and Sydney-LAX. After trying all 8 of their best fares (Airfare), not a single one was available at the fare that had been quoted through Kayak. Not even close!

 

Maybe someone has a suggestion. Our problem is that we want to fly on or around Jan. 24 (still very high season for flights "down under") and return on or around March 13. I'm getting prices of $2000 per person and upwards. Airfare was showing great fares of $1480 on United for all of those flights -- strangely enough, all unavailable. Next best - not through Airfare - is Air Pacific for about $1280 BUT I'm reading very mixed reports about Air Pacific. Air Tahiti Nui anyone??

 

TIA.

[de guru]

i bought a one-way to rome last fall through them. no problems.

 

Whom do you recommend for one way fares (to and from Europe) so that you can catch transatlantic cruises?

Jack

[TenerifeSharon]

Whom do you recommend for one way fares (to and from Europe) so that you can catch transatlantic cruises?

Jack

 

To Europe for one-way fares, you can get some good prices from http://www.bt-store.com.

If your transatlantic ends anywhere near Germany and you want to get back to the U.S., we have often used http://www.ltu.com For our one-way fares from Düsseldorf (DUS) to Miami (MIA) in March, we paid € 285 per person ($370). LTU has recently been bought by AirBerlin (another charter airline in Germany that flies lots of tourists to and from Spain, Greece, etc.) As soon as the winter flight plans are published, we'll see what AirBerlin has in mind for LTU.