Websites for booking cheap flights

If you go onto the Travelocity website and select a few cities you'd like to go to, they'll notify you when the webfares go down.. just found a possible flight home for Christmas under 500 Euro..

Fellow travel people,

this site searches for flights anywhere in the world (great for intra-European flights) and compares all airlines:

www.farecompare.com

It is awesome.

Hi guys I am trying to book a trip to the states, but there are so damn many travel sites out there, all with different prices, I was wondering if you guys knew of a few that I have not visited yet.

So far I got:

Travelocity
Expidia
Cheapoair
cheapflights
mcflight.de
worldventures
cheapair.com
sidestep.com

I am leaving on the 29th of Sep. Returning on the 19th. from FRA to EWR. So far the cheapest one is cheapair.com with one layover in amsterdam. price is $550.

Can anyone beat this price? or do you know of other sites that have good rates? Muchos Dank you.

http://www.kayak.com

Thanks Guy, but that one is more expensive plus i have to stop in London, HELL NO. With all the delays happening there, no chance.

i was reading in the sunday times last weekend that it can work out even cheaper if you book european flights on american travel websites and pay in dollars

Not sure what you mean about having to stop in London - it should give you a list of all the possibilities, ranked in price order. But I agree it probably won't beat $550. Still, it's worked well for me in the past.

Edit: €506.34 direct flight.

When I booked our flights to America a few years back, I spent literally hours surfing the internet and looking on almost every site available. I then actually went in to a branch of Travel Overland and got a price that was almost half of that which I was being quoted on websites (including, interestingly enough, the travel overland website itself).

following up on that... I use travelocity.ca and expedia.ca quite a bit - with the exchange they are (or have been) around 10% cheaper than the .de sites.

I know that expedia won't let you do that. I tried to book a flight MUC-SFO-MUC on expedia.com and it wouldn't let me, I had to use expedia.de.

agree with kathie. i book long flights always via my local travel agent as i found their prices are always better than the one online.

Well I guess a trip to my local travel agent is my next step. I will see if it is cheaper or not. Thank you all. Go out and get drunk IS FRIDAY!

Opodo is good.

Also Orbitz, its the US version of Opodo. Have you tried the airlines directly, they do quite often have deals that are cheaper than all these travel sites.

man, $550! if that includes all the taxes and service charges, then that's about the cheapest i've seen between europe and the u.s. so far. i paid 550€ going from hamburg through heathrow to pdx, leaving sept 22nd returning october 6th on www.flugboesre.de .i think fra to new york is usually the cheapest route though. podunk germany to podunk usa is always more expensive.

i'm already starting to look for flights to go back around christmas. one problem with www.kayak.com and http://de.reisen.yahoo.com/p-reisemagazin-...ch-buchung-flug ,and some of the others that compare different providers, seems to be that the cheapest fares they quote aren't actually available when you click on them. i just tried cheapair.com and it was about $1100 leaving hannover for pdx on dec 22nd, returning january 12th. i figure it'll probably end up costing at least around 1000 bucks to go home during the holliday season. i'm wondering whether to just book now before it gets more expensive.

this is the most interesting topic for me. i would be very happy to know how other people are faring, and if the travel agencies really still have better deals.

www.farecompare.com
www.mcflight.de

These two have consistently been the cheapest.

yes, farecompare.com seems really good. they also have good tips for buying tickets comparing the fluctuations in prices to the stock market. i would have saved like $80 or 60€ if i had used them and still gotten pretty good flying times. i ended up buying a ticket through expedia.de for 800€ going to pdx on dec 22nd, returning on jan 12th. the times are really good though since it's nonstop from frankfurt, arriving at 12 noon; so it's like an extra half day to enjoy.

i always check the prices on different sights, even after i've bought the ticket. damn! right now at this very moment fly.de has some special offer for 550€ with northwest klm on the days i'm flying, with so so ok times, getting in around 5 pm. i could have saved 250€. i think signing up for e mail alerts on some different sights might in fact be the best strategy. i've still been too lazy to go out of my way to stop in at a travel agent, so i have no idea whether that would be worthwile as well.

anyway, if anyone sees this, fly.de might have really good deals for you right now if you're flying somewhere around christmas.

another thing i haven't figured out yet is if you choose a somewhat higher fare to get frequent flyer miles, like the partners on your program cost a bit more than some other airline, where's the break even point? i guess 20000 miles might roughly be worth $200, and they cost about $3000 to obtain through the flights you took. so it would be like getting back 1$ for every 15$ you spend. anyway, i definately would have taken a ticket for 550€ over 800€, regardless of convenient times, connections or mileage benefits.

I'm now looking at flights over Christmas. I kinda got a late start. Amazing how much it goes up when flying 1 or 2 days before the 24th. By flying on the 24th, I save €150. i'll put my experiences here.

i went through kayak.de and travel-overland and eventually booked my flight FRA-DFW-AUS and back for €538,24 from the latter! same prices. woo-hoo. i've always booked with travel-overland and have always gotten what i wanted.

granted, I'm flying on the 24th, return on 7th Jan, but by starting then, I save €250 as when compared to me originally wanting to fly on dec. 22nd!

EDIT: And I only need 6 days of holiday!

I have found that Orbitz has consistently been pretty low, and I have never had any problems booking with them from DE using a DE credit card. Like Sarabyrd, I have run into trouble on Expedia with this.

I used to always use Travel Overland (agency and website) but have pretty consistently found cheaper deals elsewhere, so have given up on them. Three, four years ago they were really the lowest, but not lately.

So that's my €.02

my bf uses Tui.de but I have used Kayak which led me to Orbitz. Kayak tends to be able to pull many flights out. The one I found on Kayak I couldnt personally find on Orbitz. The next one I had to book through the company since I had an animal in tow...

I have been checking sites lately, it is just a matter of luck with prices.

My experience a couple of years ago was that I was stupid enough to leave my passport at home and only realise half way to the airport, with no chance of then making the plane. The flight I booked that Christmas Eve with 2 hours notice was cheaper than the one I'd booked in September, not that I'd want to make a habit of leaving it that late.

Friends,
are there websites for booking air tickets for a cheaper price..?

Topics merged by admin

www.cheaptickets.com

I generaly find that if you use the mass market site...lastminute ebooker expedia and find the cheap price then go to the airlines direct site it generally works quite well

thanks ITG33K

Skyscanner and Cheapflight.com or Cheapflights.co.uk are usually the ones I check and then I book with someone who price matches or betters the online price.

www.whichbudget.com is a nice site for checking out which budget/cheap airlines fly to/from your destination. They don't search for actual flights like kayak or cheaptickets but they do give you names of airlines to search...

i bow down to whomever recommend kayak to me. so far in using that site, i have found some great deals on flights. i just booked my flight home for Christmas (yes, have been in Germany too long, but I could not resist). kayak led me to the ebookers site where i just paid 455 Euro round trip, FRA-AUS via DFW, 24.12-07.01. American Airlines the 777 route I had last year was not bad (except for the guy that died on the plane).

Yeah, Kayak are great. But it's worth comparing the prices between www.de.kayak.com (Germany) and kayak.com (USA). Even for flights originating in Germany, and even if you only have a European credit card, you can often save quite a bit of money by booking in dollars through an American broker.

Fortunately for Elfenstar, kayak.com wasn't on this occasion offering a cheaper deal on that route on those dates.

elfenstar, that's truly increadible. i've been starting to shop around for flights to the u.s. in september. just two weeks ago i saw 529€ for hannover to pdx on flug.de. that was with all the taxes and fees. now i'm not finding anything below 630€ on any of the websites, i tried kayak as well. i'm in a bit of a slump at the moment, so i can't really make a purchase till next month. generally the longer you wait, it always seems the prices go up. i may still get lucky though, since they do fluctuate a bit.

It is a very good deal, but on the other hand 24.12 is one of the least popular days of the year to fly. That's the day I always fly back to the UK for Christmas (I leave it to the last minute to avoid the tack-fest that is Christmas in the UK), and the airport is always deserted and the flight barely 20% full. On Elfenstar's route, just 24 hours earlier the cheapest ticket is €721 – nearly €300 more. She's also getting a cheap return leg by returning relatively late (07.01), after most people have returned home to get back to work. Those are pretty much the dates that I book to get my €99 return flight to London on Lufthansa.

i cannot afford it either, really. between all the trips and weddings comign up in Aug and Sept, it is a dent in my account, but when I compare the fees to overdrawing my account and how much I saved by buying the tix now, it's a no brainer. just do it!


great minds think alike! i'm home on dec. 24th in time for a (late) meal with my family. the AUS airport is not large, so I'm out of the airport in less than 30 minutes. and yes, one day before, prices go up 200 Euros. same for return leg - this way i get a weekend to get over jet lag.

You can checkout Oceanic too.

they usually only make it half way but it saves you the time of going through customs and Homeland Security(Is that a security outfit? Whats there rate when they work the door at clubs?)

You have a worrying obsession over this only faintly-amusing Oceanic joke.

Funny you mention this caus I was really thinking about posting that. In retrospect I admit it was stupid and I will refrain from further Oceanic jokes. :::bows head in shame:::

You are forgiven, my son.

I've heard from a couple of people who have booked flights online that they ended up paying through the nose for another ticket when they got to the airport because, when they were making the online booking, they had somehow selected the wrong dates, in one case, and the wrong airport, in another.

Well, if you need someone to hold your hand, you'll no doubt have to pay more for the privilege. If you need such a service, you should go to a real travel agent, but expect to pay more than online.

getting the dates mixed up can happen quite easily with all those little boxes you've got to click. i always check them like three times, print it all out and check it all over again. i'm fairly sure that if you notice you made a mistake right after you hit the final confirm button and you see it in your confirmation e-mail, you can still call the service and make a change, if you call them right away. i'd be just as vigilant in checking these things if i went directly to a travel agent, because i think they'd be just as likely to screw up as me.

ok i'm not 100% sure this is real, but if it is i just got a great deal. i just booked on flug.de going from hannover to portland, or roundtrip for 367.70€. the times are pretty good getting into pdx at 11:55 am on september 20th and going back to germany october 12th at 11:00 am. it's with northwest/klm and changes are only in amsterdam going there and seattle and amsterdam on the way back. so if anyone sees this in time, you might find some excellent deals fo wherever you're going on flug.de . definately try playing around with the dates and trying the flexible option too. i'll let y'all know if this turns out to be a dud, becuase i feel a bit sceptical.

www.airport-travelnet.de

well the fare i wrote about on friday turned out not to be real. if it sounds too good to be true... i got an appology e mail from flug.de today saying their system gets screwed up from time to time, and it confirms the tax incorrectly, so my flight would actually turn out to be around 660€. so i cancelled for now and i'm waiting to find something better.

dodger, that website you posted seems good. when i tried it, it said something about a uni fare. does that mean university student? i couldn't find any more detailed information on it while going through a dummy booking. i'm a little concerned that i'd get a good deal, only to find out upon checking in that i need a student id, which i don't have, and don't get to fly, and lose the entire cost of the ticket.

i've done a bit of research, and as far as i can tell unifares have nothing to do with discounts for students.

flug.de has still been showing rates that are far below any of the competitors today, but my guess is they're all bogus. that airport net site dodger posted is about 100€ higher today for my flights than it was yesterday (€650 vs. €550). i'm going to wait a little, but i'm thinking of getting a ticket soon. of course the price of oil is facoring in to the prices. maybe its on its way down now for a spell. we'll see.

For cheap flights within Europe (and especially for those who are flexible with departure/arrival airports), I have found these sites to be really good

www.skyscanner.net

www.dohop.com

Can't book from them directly but they give you an idea of where to go

i just bought a ticket directly from northwest airlines on nwa.com going from hannover germany to portland oregon and back september 10th to october 4th for 940 usd (~610€). that's with all the taxes and fees. a few weeks ago i was still seeing fares in the 500 to 600€ range for similar flights, but now it's like alsmost everything has shot up to at least 750€. must be the oil prices.

this may have been mentioned before, but i guess it really can pay to also check local websites from other countries. i got this fare for around 600€, but i had to use a u.s. credit card, which was somewhat inconvenient. they wouldn't let me use my german credit card. when i went to the northwest airlines germany web site to try using the german card there, it's actually a klm web site in german, the price for exactly the same flight connections on the same dates was like 760€! i'm not sure whether some sites like orbitz.com will accept a german or non u.s. credit card, they were only slightly more expensive than booking directly with northwest when i checked yesterday.

the latest update from bloomberg.com ... oil is back around $138. i had a talk with this guy from flug.de when i kept trying to book cheap fares through them, but could never get the fare that they posted. he said the fuel surcharges the airlines calcualte change very fast, and that's the reason they weren't able to secure my fare between the time i placed the order and the time they tried to make the final confirmation with the airline. it's still a lame ass excuse when your spending an enormous chunk of your salary trying not to go broke, but i guess there's some truth behind it. anyway, i think if we see oil come back down into the $130 or below range we might see some cheaper airfares like we did a few weeks ago. it might be worth waiting if nothing's available at good price now. then agian it may be better not to wait too long.

On Orbitz and CheapTickets.com (must be the same company, as they have exactly the same webpage layout...) you can cancel your flights within 24 hours with a "courtesy cancel" for no charge, other than the nominal charges from the website. You do it after booking by going to "My Trips", then "Change/Cancel Ticket". If it is within the 24 hour limit, you have a choice of "Courtesy Cancel."

I also had to cancel some tickets once a few years ago with Travel Overland online, and they let me do it without charge within 24 hours. Don't know how the other websites stack up on this.

Yes, you can use a non-US credit card to book flights on these websites. I book the bulk of my flights through these two websites plus Expedia.com since they are generally cheaper than booking through European websites. I'm talking here about flights within Europe as well as flights to North America. My Munich-London flights are now all booked through an American website, and I generally save around 20%.

Yes to what STB said. I also booking on Orbitz.com with my German credit card. BEWARE of the fee the credit card tacks on for using your cc internationally and also, Orbitz' own fee for booking with them.