We're planning a trip to Sicily in May and I want to book open-jaw tickets, flying to Catania and home from Palermo. I see the best flights on Vayama, which I haven't used for awhile, but I'm seeing bad reviews for the site now. I had no trouble when I used them before. On other sites, including Hipmunk, Kayak, Google Travel etc. I'm having trouble finding flights with the right amount of time for layovers - I get a choice of an hour (too short for my taste on an international flight) or EIGHTEEN hours, a tad long for me.

Also, I can't believe the variance I'm seeing when I play around with the dates. I always book airfare first, so I can be flexible, but this is ridiculous. I'm seeing more reasonable layovers (on non-Vayama flights) on Fridays, and I've always thought booking mid-week was better. Have things changed? Any other sites I should be checking out?

Thanks as always for your expert help,
Alice

I use kayak to search routes, but personally I always prefer to book directly with the airline I am flying.

I use ITAsoftware to search which is what powers the searches on many of the sites you listed (Hipmunk, Google, Kayak, etc.). You can't book on them so you find your flights and then book directly with the airline.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

Yes, I use ITAsoftware the same way, to help inform me where to look - their interface is very good. J62, sometimes with open-jaw that requires multiple airlines, it's hard to book directly, but I also look at that.

Alice

Bookmark

This is the risk and gamble involved in booking from websites other than the airline itself:

Whatever search engine you use, consider this: You book with one of those many middleman aggregators rather than on the airline site, and you get to the airport and something is wrong with your booking, and the airline agent says "you didn't buy this from us, you need to call the people you bought this from".

How do you know those people will be able to help, right then and there, within minutes, before the boarding gate closes, to solve whatever the problem is?

To me, that's the gamble I'm usually not willing to make.

But you may have greater tolerance for risk-taking, so if you see a deal that's much better than on the airline's own website, go ahead an book it. Fingers crossed.

I don't like booking airline tickets third party. I always book directly through airlines.

I use google to search flights then when I see what I like I book directly through the airline.

P.S. As for the day of the week......It doesn't always matter what day of week you are booking. It's all about supply and demand for the destination, peak travel time, etc.

Open-jaw and multi-flight itineraries practically require an on-line agency when the airlines involved don't sell each other's tickets. There are lots more than the ones originally mentioned and some, like Expedia, have become huge factors in the industry. I've used Cheapoair.com several times (despite its name) because it is easy and quick. You can double-check ahead of time with the airlines to be sure the reservations are in place. I don't try to select my seat through the agencies; better to go to the airlines themselves once the tickets are purchased.

As many have stated before on this post, search with Kayak or Google Flights but book DIRECTLY with the airline.

That's my method as well, search on the search engines, then book with the individual airline directly.

My method is to book where ever it makes sense to. If there is no price difference between an online agent and the airline website, I would use the airline website. If the price difference is significantly lower with an online agent (ie they have deals with the airline I want to fly on), I'll book through the online agent. If I have a mixed airline itinerary with multiple destinations, there is no choice but to book with an agent.

Maybe I've just been lucky but I've not encountered the issues that are supposed to happen if you use an OTA and I travel on OTA bookings every month/6 weeks.

I'm with Odin's approach, but I also use Travel Agents which I find to be the cheapest option especially with international multi-city bookings.

I have found search engines such as Kayak and Skyscanner, to be pretty much a waste of time, in addition I find booking direct with the airlines to be the most expensive option, for example a few weeks ago via a TA I booked 3 x tickets for $1720 each, the same tickets, using the same airline were $2240 per ticket, a significant difference.

As with Odin I have booked hundreds of tickets through Online and bricks and mortar TA's and never had a problem and will continue to do so

ttt