What sights do you use for Air Fare searches?
 

I use to LOVE orbitz but it has fallen out of favor with me because it seems to now offer the least desirable seats.

LOVE KAYAK.Com too but not so good on multiple city searches.

What do you use to monitor THE BEST AIRFARE OPTIONS?

Wasn't this just posted on here?

thanks I looked at that link but not so many responses.

expedia.com

I look for fares and info on
sidestep.com
http://www.mobissimo.com/travel/search_airfare.php
http://airtravelcenter.com/onetrav.htm

I then try to buy the tickets direct from the airline.

I usually check expedia, then american airlines on line; then I call my travel agent; without fail, she is able to save me $$ and I feel better allowing her to do this for me!

beth must have a far better travel agent than the one my husband's employer uses - since I can almost always find a better route and fare than they can - and then they charge a fee on top of that. In their defense, they also provide 24-hour service if a flight is cancelled, etc - he just calls them and they rebook - so sometimes you get what you pay for. For lesiure travel, I would rather do it myself.

I use ITA software as a search engine.You cannot book directly with them,but after I find a fare I like I just go directly to the airlines website and book directly with them.
It has a nice tool where you can look at fares available over a months time frame to find the lowest fare on any particular date.
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego

another one not mentioned is Qixo. Also, ITA software.

this is really helpful everyone, thread links included. I just like to survey this from time to time.

One issue I am having is that multicity options on different websites either lead you to yucky options (orbitz)or simply don't work (AA tells you that you can't list one airport more than once). I suspect this is by design but I can't understand why. AA use to work.

If you know a websites where the multicity options work well and don't offer you undesirable options by design let me know.

ttt for self, easy access

Sarah, what do you mean that Orbitz gives you yucky options for multicity searches? I have always had great luck because they come up with combinations I wouldn't have thought of. Like flying rountrip to Philly nonstop, using different airlines for each leg - saved me lots of $$, yet no other website would offer this combo.

Did you know that you can choose options for each city, like time of departure or arrival, include outlying airports, etc?

it was great in the past Joan, check it out lately. These things always change once people are comfortable getting deals in one spot. If you check Orbitz now it gives you the least desirable options when using multicity option. This is new in the past you are right Orbitz was the best. I can also remember when cheap tickets was the best and that was before orbitz.

ps Joan I think something is going on with AA in particular. Even when you use their website they want you to take the worst leg. You have to hunt for a comfortable option. I like to fly out to the west coast on a Friday night (from NYC), into honolulu the following morning on the return break on west coast return for a few days and than morning return in NYC. It sounds complicated, it is not so complicated. Never use to be anyway!

But I started to notice poor options on Orbitz during searches for a November (05) trip to Paris that I took. I was as shocked as you are Joan but maybe it was just my destinations, Paris and Honolulu.

Compared them with better options on Kayak and orbitz lost out. Since Paris AA has trimmed back what they offered on Kayak.

You might be right, especially where AA is concerned. Recently traveled to Nevis in the Caribbean using FF miles for one ticket, but paying for the second ticket. I found the best fare on Travelocity, but darned if it wasn't nearly impossible to find the same flight on AA's website. I ended up using my cc travel agent to book both flights. I just assumed that Travelocity was the only site with "access" to the sale fare/flight I wanted.

P.S. I like kayak - thanks!

MOBISSIMO.COM. It's THE best! Then I go to the airline directly (if airline is listed).

gottarun.....no multicity search on MOBISSIMO.COM???

Ichecked mobissimo too afterseeing the suggestions here. Love that it checks so many different sites but couldn't figure out how to do multi cities on it either.

I had better cast a vote for the basic, most popular way to use the net for airfare searches.

Go to Expedia and take advantage of their all-inclusive schedules and trip-planning and then when you figure out which airline is most convenient for you, duck out of Expedia and go directly to that airline and save a few bucks!