Anyone have any experience using this travel company? They are charging $59.90 for the annual membership and offer significant discounts on all sorts of travel. Are there any "gotcha's' that I should be aware of in determining if the membership is worth it? Any input would be appreciated. TIA

In the past people asked about bestfares and I did a search in Fodors for postings in the past about that travel company. My results indicated that almost no one thought that bestfares was any good.

Many of the fares that are listed are before the about 25% taxes and surcharges you will have to pay. So the figures are misleading.

I've been a member for several years. I'm wavering on whether to continue being a member. The discounts don't seem to be substantial anymore, in most cases--with Priceline, Orbitz, Hotwire, CheapTickets, and other such Web sites around, you can almost always find fares that are close to BestFares.

I recently booked an airfare via a Members Only deal on BestFares. The savings over the best price I could find via other sites was about $13/apiece for two tickets--$189 versus $202 apiece. Not a huge amount, but it covers about half my annual subscription fee.

The major nice thing I like about BestFares is that it's pretty much a one-stop site where you can find info on the best deals that are currently available--in many cases, they list fares that are the result of sales I haven't heard about. You don't always have to search the airlines' sites, the various travel sites, etc. to ferret out this info.

BestFares also seems to have better deals on flights to Europe than I see elsewhere. If you do a lot of foreign travel, BestFares might be worth it.

Seems the biggest complaint I hear from people (other than being able to find comparable airfares elsewhere) is that when the great deals come along, you have to sit on hold when you call to try to buy your tickets. I've had to wait for more than half an hour in a couple of cases. If you're only saving a few bucks, it's not worth it for a lot of people. I've also heard people complain about their customer support, but I haven't had occasion to use customer support.

Years ago (before all these other travel Web sites were available), BestFares was very worthwhile. BestFares once saved me more than $1200 on some last-minute tickets I had to buy. Had Priceline or Orbitz been available then, I probably wouldn't have had to rely on BestFares alone.

Anyway, that's my experience. Hope this info helps you make a decision.

I joined on Friday so I could take advantage of their cheap advertised fares to Zurich. There wasn't one seat available between June 1st and July 18.
Now I wish I didn't join.

You can un-join and get a refund.

Thanks everyone for your input. Sounds to me like there isn't enough of an advantage to offset the cost. I'll pass on a membership. Quite frankly I've had fantastic results with http://www.1877femtrip.com/ on several trips, so I guess I just stick with them.

Dan - check again Monday morning. I heard Tom Parsons this morning on a local radio show and he said that there was a new deal coming out then.

I have had good luck with them, have never been on hold over 5 minutes. Booked my family to england with savings of over $1,000. Booked a friend and myself to England with savings over $400. Booked employees on 3 flights with savings well over $300. Booked a cruise for my family with savings of at least $200.

As Jack mentioned, it is a good place to get an idea of what a good fare is, wheter you book thru them or try another service. It used to be rather difficult to find a specific fare, but now is much easier.

I don't have alot of faith in some of the other websites. I went to one a couple of years ago for London to Dublin and their first fare went London-Amsterdam - Glasgow - Dublin for $1500. Ended up booking Ryanair direct for under $50.

Steve,

Thanks for the heads up. I won't need to use best fares this year. Last Friday a major airlines employee made a data entry error and posted fares from $260 to $330 rt to Switzerland for summer travel. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. When I purchased my ticket on the phone I was informed that the erroneous fare would be honored. Came in the mail yesterday.
I've since cancelled my bestfare subscription. However I'll give it a try next year. Thanks for your info.

Dan -- what a deal! I am never in the right place at the right time!