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Help Needed: Using discount travel sites to purchase airline tickets

We are heading to the UK this summer and will be buying airfare tonight. 2 years ago when we went to London I tracked fares using kayak and then bought our tickets directly from British Airways after the airfare got to where I was happy. Using Kayak again to track fares but this time the cheapest fares seem to be coming from sites such as Cheapoair and Justfly.com. I'd never bought airfare from these places. Its tempting because fares are $50 or so bucks cheaper on these websites than buying directly from Aer Lingus and BA. However, when I did some research on Justfly.com I found some bad reviews which is concerning.

I've historically used Kayak to track the fares but then just book directly with the airline so this is my first time seeing the lowest be those discount places. Anyone use these types of sites for airfare?

We usually fly Jetblue domestically I just haven't come across these discount sites much.... until now!

Worth it for the savings or better to just pay a little more and go straight through the airline?

Thoughts?
 
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santacruz skier

Angel Diva
We are heading to the UK this summer and will be buying airfare tonight. 2 years ago when we went to London I tracked fares using kayak and then bought our tickets directly from British Airways after the airfare got to where I was happy. Using Kayak again to track fares but this time the cheapest fares seem to be coming from sites such as Cheapoair and Justfly.com. I'd never bought airfare from these places. Its tempting because fares are $50 or so bucks cheaper on these websites than buying directly from Aer Lingus and BA. However, when I did some research on Justfly.com I found some bad reviews which is concerning.

I've historically used Kayak to track the fares but then just book directly with the airline so this is my first time seeing the lowest be those discount places. Anyone use these types of sites for airfare?

We usually fly Jetblue domestically I just haven't come across these discount sites much.... until now!

Worth it for the savings or better to just pay a little more and go straight through the airline?

Thoughts?
I've used cheapoair , cheapair, bt travel before and all kinds of "different" websites for international fares. That being said, if you book through BA and have an issue, they take care of it immediately.
What I found is when booking through an external website with connections, they don't leave you a lot of time between flights. That happened to me on Air France with 45 minutes connecting in Paris and I didn't have enough time.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I've done it both ways and haven't seen any difference as the customer. Really any issues I've had seemed to come down to airline and not who I booked through..
 

NewEnglandSkier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I always book direct with the airline. If there is ever a problem or issue that arises you are less likely to get into a he said/she said when dealing direct. Sometimes when dealing with an online travel agency (or any travel agency really) the agency then "owns" your booking so you are unable to make any changes without them doing it.
I just don't like middlemen, but obviously other people use these agencies everyday and don't seem to mind so probably personal preference.
 

ling

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I happened to run into this very same issue just now.

The difference for me was only $25 so I decided I'll book directly with the airline. Just to be on the safe side. One less layer to deal with IF ever there's a problem.
 
Thanks everyone.

I think I am more inclined to book directly with the airline, just in case there are any issues. Right now I'm finding Aer Lingus on kayak via cheap o air to be just a few dollars cheaper. I'd rather pay just a tad more and book directly with Aer Lingus.

British airways is the same expensive fare whether I buy from them or a third party site. However, I am tempted to pay more to go with them as I LOVE this airline. You pay more however, you also get fed like a queen and have free adult beverages, they also give you pillows and blankets.

We flew BA to London 2 years ago and I've been a fan ever since. I am normally pretty frugal but I might just say screw it and go with BA.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Virgin Atlantic is even better than BA... not cheaper.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Thanks everyone.

I think I am more inclined to book directly with the airline, just in case there are any issues. Right now I'm finding Aer Lingus on kayak via cheap o air to be just a few dollars cheaper. I'd rather pay just a tad more and book directly with Aer Lingus.

British airways is the same expensive fare whether I buy from them or a third party site. However, I am tempted to pay more to go with them as I LOVE this airline. You pay more however, you also get fed like a queen and have free adult beverages, they also give you pillows and blankets.

We flew BA to London 2 years ago and I've been a fan ever since. I am normally pretty frugal but I might just say screw it and go with BA.
From the west coast the polar route is really cool. And we always get blankets, pillows, toothbrush, eye mask, etc....
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I've only used Travelocity and never had a problem. In fact, when I've had problems - usually with hotels, they took care of it lickety split. The year my brother was so ill, I had all kinds of flight changes, and travelocity took care of it with no increase in cost. I'm cheap, but I do like good customer service.
 
Virgin Atlantic is even better than BA... not cheaper.

I flew Virgin America from New York to LA once and that was lovely. I order whatever i want to eat or drink from the screen in front of me and poof 5 minutes later a very nice flight attendant brings it to me.
 

sibhusky

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
In 2012, I booked our trip to Austria through Expedia. Not again. I landed in the hospital and could not board the plane for the trip home. That flight was on a German airline, who refused to change the date because I had booked through Expedia and they told me if I had booked through them directly they would have. I contacted them directly and called and emailed Expedia. I had to book an additional ticket to go home, losing the missed flight. Fortunately I had trip insurance, but if I hadn't it would have been an $1800 loss, because of no lead time, etc.

And Expedia at least is not one of the real off book places.
 
I looked up virgin Atlantic but they don't fly to Dublin. Decided to go with an aer lingus flight via cheapoair. Flight times were perfect. Was getting same price on aerlingus.com but every time we tried to book it the screen showed an error. Called them but on phone price was higher and she wasn't helpful when i told her web fare was cheaper but system timed out whenever we tried to book. Almost paid $100 more for a British airways flight but flight times werent as ideal and it was going to be serviced by American Airlines and not even BA so decided to go with the cheaper fare.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
I booked a hotel through expedia several years ago for a work trip and when I checked in, the room wasn't what I requested (I had requested a suite with a kitchenette and had just stopped at the grocery store so had groceries in addition to my bags as I was checking in. So it was kind of a big deal to me... I said fine, please cancel the reservation and I'll go somewhere else and they flat out refused. They said I could go wherever I wanted, but I was paying them full price regardless for not canceling in time. And because I booked on Expedia, they couldn't be held responsible for how the rooms were described. (which makes no sense) The manager said the same thing, but I just feel like this could potentially be a lazy excuse used by hotel staff for a lot of stuff. It probably is something most people won't bother to confirm, and there's not really any consequence to lying about.

Anyway, after all my complaining, all they did was discount the room rate. (Lot of good that does me on a room that my company was paying for...)

Interestingly - my current company requires us to use the corporate version of Orbitz for booking travel.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
For what it's worth, my friend who is an American who lives in Switzerland always books directly with an airline.

I'll use a comparison website when considering options while planning but much prefer booking directly with an airline for domestic and international travel. The longer flights add up after a while in terms of frequent flyer miles, assuming you don't let the miles expire.
 
I always use booking.com for hotels as they almost always let you hold the room with your card and then pay with whatever card you want when you get there.

I usually prefer to book directly with the airline and this is the first time I've used a third party service. However, we kept having problems with the Aer Lingus website and when we called them the fare they were quoting was so much higher. I am not a layover person and prefer to fly direct and got a great flight on Aer Lingus via Cheapoair. Immediately got a confirmation, credit card was charged and all seems to be well.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
I guess the difference is if you have a connecting flight and miss it and your connecting flight is with a different airlines. That's what you need to watch out for when booking through third party. For non stop flights if cheaper I always go the Cheapair, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz route. Otherwise prefer to book straight through the airlines.

For hotels I usually book through a third party site but will book through hotel if I want half board (European hotels). It's easier and they usually will offer some sort of discount.

Think you'll be fine on Aer Lingus. Re lost luggage you're always dealing with the airlines no matter how you booked. And believe me, it's happened.
 

ling

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
For airline tickets, I've only done it directly with the airlines. Part of the reason was there's no additional discount going through 3rd party so why let a 3rd party get inserted between me and the airline?

This time, there's a small discount. But still not large enough to motivate me to let the middleman in.

For hotels though, the discount can be substantial some times. And the risk side is also lower. A night's hotel lose isn't quite as bad as a full price airline ticket.

HOWEVER, I've gotten burned recently. A hotel booking site confirmed my booking and charged my card. But on the confirmation e-mail sent to both me and the hotel, it was marked as pay at check in! It wasn't until I got back home that I saw the double charge on my credit card. What follows was a protracted dispute process for me to get the booking site's charges removed.

These days, I use 3rd party sites to compare prices. But I also double checked the hotel's direct booking price. Half the times I got better prices directly from the hotel too! (did just that last night, the hotel offers AAA discount, 10% off a substantial sum)
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Agree but there used to be substantial discounts for air booking through 3rd party.. Savings of $500 once.
 
I just wanted to say we have 0 trouble with our aer lingus tickets purchased on Cheapoair. I even got text messages from them alerting us of our flight status prior to checking in. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Great experience. We even somehow scored these emergency exit row seats so tons of leg room.

Aer Lingus was fabulous. The only difference between them and British Airways was I had to buy my bloody mary, aside from that we were fed from the beginning of the flight to the end. I love international flying :smile:
 

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