Buying Plane Tickets Online

[Christina]

I have to book a round trip flight back east for the middle of April and I'm not sure what the best site to use is or how I know that I'm getting the best price. Who uses what and why?

[Notta]

I use Travelocity all the time. I used to go through a travel agent (I travel for business and thought she'd have access to the best prices), and she told me that everyone has access to the same information.

I have never been disappointed with Travelocity. I can see all the different flights & prices, nothing has ever gone wrong (and I travel 12 - 13 times a year), and it has been just right for me.

My husband booked through Orbitz once and we had a helluva time getting our tickets at the airport -- they didn't have a record of our reservations OR our payment.

[Garnet]

I've used Expedia for years and never had a glitch. I don't know if they've got the best deals, but they are realiable.

[Goldie]

I use expedia. I've never found anyplace cheaper and it's easy to use. I book a lot of flights for our business. We fly people all over because our employees are 3 weeks on, one week off and we pay for their transportation home.

[Christina]

Thanks. I'll check all of those out in the morning. I'm procrastinating because once I book the flight I can't back out of going to see my family.

[BioBeing]

I don't fly often, but when I do I check all 3 of the ones mentioned already! Don't forget Priceline too, if you don't care about times/stops etc. Recently my wife had to go visit a sick friend, and we got a great last minute deal at Travelocity. The flights we wanted for about the same price as we could have got on Priceline.

[Ray Moscow]

I sometimes end up easier the actual airlines' sites for buying the tickets, but I use the usual search engines first to compare.

But I've used Travelocity before with no problems, too.

[VoxRat]

I've used travelocity. No complaints. For some reason I can't remember, I mostly switched to SideStep (http://www.sidestep.com/h/landing?kw=Sidestep&product=air). Also no complaints.

But neither of these, nor any other online airline ticket search engine I know about, includes Southwest Airlines (http://www.southwest.com/), where I can often get a much better deal. So I check them first.

[Christina]

I'm still procrastinating but I've looked around a bit and SFO has flights straight into Philadelphia but I was really hoping to fly from San Jose to Newark. Thanks for reminder about Southwest. They fly out of San Jose all the time and I see they fly directly into Philadelphia but it doesn't look like they have any nonstops but I'm still looking. I hate changing flights given how behind schedule everything is most of the time these days.

[Lisa0315]

Good information. Does Thalia post here? I bet she could give you some really good advice on airline tickets.

Lisa

[Goldie]

I usually fly Alaska / Horizon (puddle jumpers) and it costs the same through them as it does through expedia. The feature I like is that expedia keeps track of my history for me. That is important for my business.

[nygreenguy]

Katie flies a whole lot. We find orbitz tends to have the best prices, but we've never had problems with any of the major sites. Id check them all out and compare the prices.

[Izmir Stinger]

If you are buying tickets more than a month out, check all the airfare booking sites. If you are only a few weeks out, there isn't much point; everyone will have the same flights at the same prices.

[Christina]

Damn - I forgot to do this, probably because I don't want to go. I'm going to start checking all of these now.

[Joykins]

I price it out on orbitz and travelocity, find the lower cost carriers, and then check out those airlines' websites too, and then go with the lowest price.

[Christina]

The prices were all the same. I got a round trip ticket from SFO to Newark for $279. It was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be.

[Goldie]

GREAT! :D
It has been my experience that they are all pretty close in price, as well.

If you are flying to major cities...or even some what larger cities, it's pretty cheap. When you fly to places like Medford, Or., Redding, CA or Pullman, WA... it gets pretty pricey. :(

[Free in Freeport]

Do not use orbitz under any circumstances!! They are impossible to hold accountable!