cwmatthes

Hey everybody! Friends have always asked me how I book cheap tickets for flights, so I decided to put together a blog post for them! I included 9 sites and thought I would share it with you all! The 9 I would try include: Secret Flying, Momondo, The flight deal, Skiplagged, sky scanner, fareboom, Yapta, Adioso, and STA Travel. Any other sites you have found for cheap flights?

suze

I most often book directly with the airline.

sparkchaser

Suggesting that someone use skiplagged without the also stating the caveats of using skipplagged is a bad, bad, bad idea.

I use kayak or hipmunk (suspicious that neither is on your list) to find the flights and then book directly with the airline.

needmorevacation

Yes, I use Kayak to find flights and then book directly with the airlines- much less hassle!

thursdaysd

@sparkchaser - never heard of skiplagged, what are the caveats.

Personally, I check onetravel and kayak and skyscanner and usually wind up booking with the airline. With the micromanagement of airline pricing going on now, these comparison sites can't guarantee anything.

sparkchaser

Skiplagged takes advantage of hidden city ticketing.

Say you want to fly from Denver to London and a DEN-LHR ticket costs $1500 but a DEN-FRA with a stopover at LHR is $1000. Skiplagged sells you the cheaper DEN-FRA ticket and when you arrive in LHR for your connection, you don't take it and instead stay in London.

Problem with this is:

1. Because you don't continue your journey, the airline will cancel the rest of your trip. I hope you didn't buy a round-trip ticket.

2. You have to go carry-on only because you won't be able to get your luggage. Well, you probably can but it will be a headache.

3. Airlines view this hidden city ticketing as fraud since they see it as lost revenue. Now, I don't buy that since you did pay for the entire ticket but doing it is clearly against their Contract of Carriage and if you get caught, you can be looking at some very hefty fines and revocation of your FF card, if you are a member of their program.

United Airline's Contract of Carriage on the topic:

<i>K) UA’s Remedies for Violation(s) of Rules - Where a Ticket is purchased and used in violation of the law, these rules or
any fare rule (including Hidden Cities Ticketing, Point Beyond Ticketing, Throwaway Ticketing, or Back-to-Back
Ticketing), UA, without notice to the passenger, has the right in its sole discretion to take all actions permitted by law,
including but not limited to, the following:
1) Invalidate the Ticket(s);
2) Cancel any remaining portion of the Passenger’s itinerary;
3) Confiscate any unused Flight Coupons;
4) Refuse to board the Passenger and to carry the Passenger’s baggage, unless the difference between the fare paid
and the fare for transportation used is collected prior to boarding;
5) Assess the Passenger for the actual value of the Ticket which shall be the difference between the lowest fare
applicable to the Passenger’s actual itinerary and the fare actually paid;
6) Delete miles in the Passenger’s frequent flyer account (UA’s MileagePlus Program), revoke the Passenger’s Elite
status, if any, in the MileagePlus Program, terminate the Passenger’s participation in the MileagePlus Program, or
take any other action permitted by the MileagePlus Program Rules in UA’s “MileagePlus Rules;” and
7) Take legal action with respect to the Passenger.</i>

sparkchaser

Here's a good article on the topic: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulli...city-ticketing

thursdaysd

Ah, thanks, just never heard it called that. I always check a bag, so it wouldn't work for me even if I were willing to try it, which I'm not.

jeanhoward97

Hey,

I use kayak or cheapflights for flight booking. I found them cheaper and they are having offers more frequently.

paulomar

There are the best Flight Deals on these Sites
GetGoing
Flightfox
FlyinAway
Hipmunk
Geneo
Momondo
Bing Travel

sparkchaser

<i>There are the best Flight Deals on these Sites</i>

Did you google for a list or did you just pick some random sites?

GetGoing is a B2B service that offers travel solutions to companies. They do not deal with individuals.

Flightfox is basically a personalized travel agent that charges at least $49 ($147 if you want to earn FF miles). Interesting option if you don't have time to research yourself and have money to spend

FlyinAway uses an app to tell you whether to buy now or wait. They also offer a Priceline like site where you bid for your seat.

Hipmunk. This is a solid suggestion. Bonus points because it can use some of the ITA Matrix syntax.

Geneo loks to be an iPhone specific clone of kayak that holds your hand through the process. protip: kayak is also avaialble as an app and is more versatile.

Momondo. It looks very pretty. It'll do the job but I think it uses the same search engine that hipmunk and kayak use.

Bing Travel - Seems to be a US only product. I'd be interestd to see how its fares compare to the bigger OTAs.