How do YOU book airfares?

[Bumpa STIKKA]

So when it comes to booking a flight how do you do it?

Do you use a traditional travel agent or do you scour the internet looking for deals?

Do you use your miles and stay faithful to certain airlines or is price the key factor?

Would you fly Aeroflot or not? They sure are cheap!

I always start here...

ITA Software

(You'll have to fill out a simple register form to use the search engine but it's worth it. Actually - the software on this site is what most other sites use!)

I also like KAYAK. Nice and simple to use.

But in the end if I time it well enough I book direct from the airline. It's usually the cheapest and you get to choose your seat.

Hint: If you don't want some crappy vegetable meal then book NON Vegetarian if you can. I learned this early. I got tired of the gay vegetable with rice when they run out of the good stuff!

Airlines are a personal choice but if possible I try to avoid all the Western operated ones. They have crap food and service and the staff are very lazy.

[Guest]

For the last Fifteen years I have been using Travel Centre in Norwich to book my China Airlines biz class flights to Bangkok.

[kevin4252]

I used to swear by Expedia, lately been making the LHR-BKK flight direct thru EVA website, can't beat their fares as a member, got the same biz fare ticket as KL mentioned the other day, and found both Continental and Virgin fares cheaper EWR to LHR,  thru their website than  anywhere else, going Virgin to LHR, on their upgraded coach seat, and regular coach back for about 1050USD, Continental was almost 900 coach.

[deepthroat]

So far I've used Alaska Airlines Frequent Flier Miles for both my trips. With upgrades to Business Class on a partner airline (I chose Cathay Pacific) the costs to me are insignificant to free, depending upon how many miles I have. Hardest part is just getting the trip booked as the Business Class seats either have to be booked about 6 months in advance (the day the flight opens up for booking) or within about 72 hours of the flight.

Here's info from my 2010 trip report:

I flew Business Class on Cathay Pacific last year, thanks to some last minute gyrations involving my Alaska Airlines Frequent Flyer miles. I did the same this year but it was far less of a hassle. I try to use my Alaska Airlines Frequent Flyer Visa card for every purchase I make, but the big trick to making this strategy work is that I deduct EVERY purchase from my check register just like I would a check or debit transaction. When the bill arrives at the end of the month, I pay it in full. Always. No exceptions. If you cannot follow that discipline, don't try this strategy, as the interest on credit card debt would make any advantages earned from this strategy null and void.

Checking my Alaska Air account, I found I had nearly 40,000 miles. This meant if I wanted to fly Cathay Pacific Business Class again, I needed an additional 60,000 miles. It turned out that Alaska Air was offering a 20% bonus for instant miles purchased at .0275 (2 and 3/4 cents per mile) which meant that for about $1,035 including all taxes, I could book a roundtrip ticket for January to Feb. 2010. This is a pretty good deal, all considering. I recently went and checked and the cheapest I could find for just the San Francisco to BKK roundtrip portion was $5,445 from Kayak or Expedia. So for a grand, I got roundtrip first class from Seattle to San Francisco, then roundtrip Business Class from SFO to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to BKK. The flight times are great (leave Seattle 6pm Tues, arrive BKK 11am Thursday) and the seat/bed is amazing. I arrive in BKK without the jet lag and misery. All for a measly $1,035!!! It would cost around that much for a Cattle Car Coach Class ticket under normal circumstances. In fact, it was $1100 just for the SFO to BKK leg in coach!

A little math reveals that buying the instant miles outright, even if you don't have a balance in your Frequent Flyer account with Alaska Airlines, would save you a ton of money on this flight. And when I checked just now, they are running a special and offering 30% bonus miles with every purchase! Thus, if you bought 70,000 miles it should work out to about $1,925 before taxes for the roundtrip North America to Asia flight using Cathay Pacific. And obviously, getting the card and using it (responsibly) for all your purchases over the next year or two could cut those costs dramatically.

[katoeylover]

Travelsupermarket.com

Always have the bargains!!

[azza33]

I have a new religion - I attend service every Monday morning at the Air Asia website to see the new specials.

Before that i would fly either Thai or Malaysian to LOS - just depended on who had the better deal.

I'm fortunate that we have 2 low cost carriers flying into Melbourne Australia - Jetstar and Airasia.

2010 could be an interesting year as Air Asia X is planning to upgrade their premium seating which would make then
all the more usable as i'm not the biggest fan of economy - the seats are just too small for my liking.

I'm planning a big trip in 2011 & will use Malaysian business class - points plus pay a few dollars to top up - I think MAS ff program is very very reaosnable indeed compared to nearly any others i've checked out.

[perth_couple]

Nat does all our bookings and usually it is directly from the airline - she is always looking out for specials etc and like Azza said, we have two good budget airlines out of Australia.

Sometimes we use freqent fliers to get us to Singapore on Qantas then get a super cheap connector from there to BKK...

Have not used travel agents or internet based intermediaries for years...

[marshal]

Have used STA and opodo quite a few times, but will be shopping around a bit in the future!

[katoeylover]

Consolidators are pretty good, but you still need to look around.

Its a continual search until you find the fare you are prepared to pay for a certain trip.

Took me 3 weeks to get a biz class on Eva for less than i have ever paid before for theis year's easter trip.

[seamus]

Yep, I was another one that went either through Expedia or west/east travel. But found a new site called Ticketstoworld & beat every body by at least £180, at time of booking.

[Steff]

I find most of the time the best deals to be had are with the Airlines directly.

Two weeks ago I booked a ticket to BKK using points that I had accumulated by using a Visa card. $1.00 = 1 point. Round trip Canada to LOS was 100,000 points plus I had to pay the taxes and any other additional surcharges. This means I had to spend $100,000 to get this economy class ticket plus pay the taxes which in this case was $445. All things considered it is a damn expensive ticket. The only good thing about it is you can pick whatever Airline and flight schedule you want as long as the cost of the ticket (before taxes) does not exceed $2,000. However I could not select the seats I wanted and it was a hassle every time I wanted to speak with the booking entity. A real pain the ass with going through 10 minutes of punching numbers on the phone to finally speak with a person. In the end I cancelled the booking (which cost me a $200 cancellation fee) and then booked directly with an airline. The ticket was cheaper; I got the sits I wanted; and the 100,000 points were reinstated into my account so I will get to use them and go through the hassle again in the future. :-)

[stonefre]

This is based on my personal experience traveling from the US. Having made at least 8 trips from the US, I've found the prices online vary almost daily. Vayama seems to have the most consistent low prices flying from the US at least when you are not located near one of the major Airline hub cities and have to fly first to one of the hubs to change planes. Here are the sites I monitor at least once a week. My list trip I bought a ticket from Continental's web site for $999 which is an awesome price from my location, but their prices can vary but if you keep looking daily sometimes you stumble upon a deal.

http://www.mobissimo.com/search_airfare.php

http://www.vayama.com

http://www.continental.com

Also be careful that the price quoted includes taxes and fees. Sometimes when you decide to buy they add the fees and taxes then and you find it is not the deal you thought it was. The first price on the sites above are the price including taxes and fees.


Most of the other sites such as Exepedia, etc. may come close but rarely are ever cheaper than the one's I mention above. The secret is to check often for a few weeks before you intend to buy to find the best price and of course as always after you buy you will most likely find a cheaper flight but probably not enough to make you lose sleep. I've also heard early Wednesday is a good time to shop as many airlines post new prices then. Not sure how true that is though.

I think if you live near one of the major US hubs you most likely will always find better prices than the one's I find due to the extra flight I'm required to take.

[ezflip]

I agree that with most websites the prices varies. Dates come in to play as well. What gets me is that the price for seat X during 1 time of the year will be 600$ (one way) but the same damn seat at another time of the year will go for 2000$ (usually around xmas time) WTF? Did the seat suddendly become gold plated or something?

Being that my starting point is Montreal, I have a choice of going eastward or westward. About the same amount of mileage either way. You guys in aus have it so sweet. Your practicaly in the same time zone, or about. The real difference is the time wasted by travel; eastward - lose 2 days of travel, westward - lose 1 day of travel.

I end up buying my ticket directly from the airline since I can accumulate the air status miles. Air Canada 'Prestige' start at 25,000 miles. 'Elite' equivalent of Gold status with Star Alliance start at 35,000. Since a trip to LOS is about 20,000 miles, going twice a year qualifies me for the better status with 40,000 miles. Which gives me free upgrades and better deals.

[azza33]

Supply and demand

Sucks I know-competition is the key to driving down prices! Only problem is airline industry suffered so much during the gfc that it will likely go the other way - thank goodness for budget airlines!

[TTChang]

Most of my recent bookings have been on airlines' own websites.  But even then I've been looking out for the special deals (and checking out what date changes might be allowed or cancellation charges there are).

Travel agents must be having a bad time of it, even some of the internet based ones.  For example, I don't mind paying a bit more when booking with a top company like Trailfinders in the UK - whose customer service is second to none IMO.  But if I can book on an airline website, a lot cheaper, then so much the better.