Many of my friends want to think of me as a travel agent, which I am not. They hear about my incredible deals when I travel and in turn ask me to find them a cheap ticket from Point A to Point B. Usually my incredible deals are to places that were not pre-planned trips. I travel to the location simply because it is such a great deal. Last year I traveled to Miami from Los Angeles because I saw a fare for $59 each way. I had not planned a trip to Miami but for that price I could not pass up the deal. I earned 4860 miles on this trip, which is approximately 1/4 of a free ticket, and as you can see from the paddle boarding picture, at the bottom of the blog, I had a great time with great weather. But for those of you who do most of your traveling from point A to point B, I will explain to you the difference in websites you can search and will ultimately tell you which website I use to start all my searches.
There are 3 categories of travel websites:
- Airline websites: These are the websites that belong to the airlines (e.g. AA.com is American Airlines). These sites occasionally have promotions or deals that the customer will not find on other travel sites.
- Travel websites: These are essentially travel agencies on the web (e.g. Expedia). Usually, they buy tickets from consolidators (third parties that buy tickets in bulk but are not allowed to sell directly to the public) and resell them to the public. These sites have deals that combine tickets from more than one airline (e.g. for a trip from Austin to Singapore: Austin to Houston with Continental and Houston to Singapore with Singapore Airlines) that the customer will not find on airline websites.
- Agreggator websites: These are search engines that search both airline and travel websites. Instead of booking you tickets at these websites, the site will redirect you to the seller (the travel site or airline site). These sites are very useful. However, it is important to remember that no aggregator website searches every travel and airline website. In addition, these sites must collect data from the other websites therefore they do not always have the most up-to-date airfares. You CANNOT rely on a single search at an aggregator site to find to cheapest ticket every time.
The Search Strategy:
- Kayak: The initial search with Kayak will give you a clear idea of the possibilities for your airline ticket. However, Kayak does not work with many low-cost airlines and does not always provide the cheapest airfares.
- Momondo: Momondo works with most low-cost airlines, but still misses some good deals because it does not work with some good travel websites (e.g. Travelocity).
- Skyscanner: This site is especially useful for trips in Europe because its search results include combinations of low-cost airline tickets.
There are many other aggregator sites. However, I believe that these three are the best to start with.
- Expedia: Good for combining hotels and airfare.
- Travelocity: Sometimes this site lists good combinations of flights (like 3 stop-overs) that makes the airfare significantly cheaper than the options in other sites. Travelocity has the option to search with flexible travel dates, but this option is only available for flights from the US or Canada.
- Orbitz and Cheaptickets: These sites give very similar search results. They both allow you to search with flexible travel dates for flights from the US and Canada. They are usually very good sites to check if you are flying from North America, Europe and Asia.
- Priceline: This site only has flights departing from US airports. It usually has the same options as the airline websites. However, check this site because sometimes it has the best deals. Moreover, if you are flexible about your travel dates and the airline you fly with, this site lets you bid a the price for the ticket. Therefore, you can get a much cheaper price than on any other travel websites. Priceline.com does not show low-cost airline tickets.
- Hotwire: This site only has flights departing from US airports. It allows you to search with flexible travel dates for flights. Sometimes this site offers deals in which you find out the airlines, hours, and number of stops right after you book. These deals are usually cheaper than other options. Hotwire.com does not show low-cost airline tickets.
- Cheapair: This is usually has good prices and allows you to search with flexible dates. In addition, it will automatically lists flights to airports near your destination airport if they are cheaper. It works worldwide as long as your flight is from, to or through the United States. It accepts credit cards from many countries. However, they charge a $9.95 processing fee that may sometimes make the final price more expensive than a different site.
- CheapOair: If you have more time (and patience!), you can check this site also. They usually do not have the cheapest flights, and they list airfares without the tax and fees (which I find very irritating as the final price is always considerably more expensive than what they listed in the search result). However, these sites occasionally have good deals, especially for international tickets. These websites let you look for flights departing from any airport in the world. CheapOair.com does not show low-cost airline tickets.
None of the websites listed check SouthWest so you will need to do that as a separate search. For a great comparison of some of the websites I listed above click on this Airline search comparison link.
By now you are probably thinking that all sounds like a lot of work and "I don't have the time to do all that searching." So here is where I start all my searches and you can end your search if you want just one link to keep handy. Start at Matrix. Many of you are probably saying, "I have never heard of this site." Matrix is the backbone of many online travel agencies and airline websites. Matrix searches a wide variety of airlines and has a one month calendar for low prices. You can not book at this site though. After you have found the flight you want you can then book directly through the airline website. The next time you are looking to fly try using Matix then come back to this blog and comment on your experience.
By now you are probably thinking that all sounds like a lot of work and "I don't have the time to do all that searching." So here is where I start all my searches and you can end your search if you want just one link to keep handy. Start at Matrix. Many of you are probably saying, "I have never heard of this site." Matrix is the backbone of many online travel agencies and airline websites. Matrix searches a wide variety of airlines and has a one month calendar for low prices. You can not book at this site though. After you have found the flight you want you can then book directly through the airline website. The next time you are looking to fly try using Matix then come back to this blog and comment on your experience.
Tomorrow we will discuss when is generally the best time and day to fly.
Try http://bookit.com/, sometimes they have great deals for all in one packages also. Let me know what you think.
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