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View Full Version : Best place to book a flight


B & B
09-28-2005, 10:06 AM
Heading out to Vegas next month for a wedding. (No, not mine)

I usually book my LV trips as a package deal with the hotel, but the wedding party has everyone staying at the same hotel and thats taken care of separately already. Checked out Orbitz, Hotel.com and Cheaptickets.com so far. Any other sites worth looking into. $450 roundtrip flight only is what Im looking at right now and thats booking 6+ weeks in advance.

cartman
09-28-2005, 10:09 AM
You might also check on the direct sites of the airlines. I know that United and Continental often have web specials that the usual discount sites can't match.

BTW, where in the country are you flying from? If you can get a flight on them, Southwest usually has some good deals as well.

digamma
09-28-2005, 10:10 AM
Try sidestep.com, which is a meta-search engine for a number of travel sites.

mrsimperless
09-28-2005, 10:21 AM
I just spent a week in NYC and I booked my flight through Orbitz. One very nice thing they did for me was to call me on my cell phone (with a recorded message) and let me know my flight was delayed. They did this probably 15 minutes before I was about to walk out the door to go to the airport. My flight ended up being delayed for about 2 hours when all was said and done. I only ended up hanging around at the airport for like an extra 45 minutes rahter than the likely 3 hours I would have spent without them calling me.

B & B
09-28-2005, 10:39 AM
Used sidestep some years ago and had forgotten, thanks for the tip.
Cant believe I forgot travelocity. Still seems that almost everyone is within a few bucks of each other. Continental is by far the most expensive and United was over a nickel based on their website pricing. OTOH - You can grab roundtrip tix out of Philly or Indy for 200 or less b/c its a straight shot.

Southwest usually has some great deals but they dont come down my way. Ill be coming off the east coast flying out of HHH, so I have to take a turboprop for the first leg unless I want to drive and mess around with 2+ hours estimated traffic.

WrongWay
09-28-2005, 10:52 AM
If you do go with an online site always check and see how much it would cost to book with the airline directly. I save about $20.00 a ticket when I do this with Frontier.

Oops, I forgot the extra, extra handling fee.

Crapshoot
09-28-2005, 10:55 AM
hotwire is sometimes better- but they don't give exact times. if you aren't hard core on that - its an option.

bob
09-28-2005, 10:59 AM
Not exactly on topic, but I'd avoid flying Delta if you are picky about exactly what time you arrive at a destination. I've flown Delta twice in the past week, and both times they cancelled my flight the day before without bothering to tell me about it.

Apparantly they are cancelling most flights that are not 95% filled and rebooking the passengers on later flights. Most times you don't find out until you get to the airport (unless you check online a lot). Both times, the flight I was rebooked on was 2 + hours later.

WSUCougar
09-28-2005, 11:45 AM
Priceline has some good rates (you can do the "name your own price" thing, but they also have regular rates).

Check Southwest's site directly, since they are a Vegas mainstay and don't participate in the searchable sites like Orbitz.

Bee
09-28-2005, 11:47 AM
I use sidestep and then after finding the best deal, I'll go directly to the airline and price it out. Usually it's a couple dollars cheaper and most airlines give bonus miles for booking direct.

Chubby
09-28-2005, 11:49 AM
like everyone else said, check the airlines websites (JetBlue, Southwest). I like travelocity as well...

Raiders Army
09-28-2005, 12:02 PM
In addition to the other advice, I'd try calling the airlines directly as well. Nobody is doing that anymore, but sometimes it's the only way to get some deals.