I am often asked – whats the best way (meaning schedule and cost) to book flights online. The field is crowded with Meta-search (Kayak, farecast), Online Travel Agents (Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity) and the Airline sites.
The answer is usually a combination of all three. Todays post is about debugging a high priced domestic ticket.
STEP 1: Use the OTA (online travel agent) site to find the best fare and airline. The OTA sites work on round trip pricing.
STEP 2: Go to the airline site and find the same flight. The airline breaks the cost down per segment. You may find out that one leg is disproportionately more than then others.
STEP 3: Search for alternatives (different dates of airports) for the expensive leg.
STEP 4: Book the fixed itinerary at OTA site or airline site.
Case study: New York to Los Angeles Round trip Dec 17-> Dec 24
- Cost on Expedia $350 to $400
- Cost on Airline site is the same, broken down to $125 NY to LA and $250 L A to NY. It turns out that Dec 24 is an expensive day to fly out of LA.
- A few minutes of research on the airline site showed that flights on Dec 24 from Las Vegas were $125. So, we save $150/ticket = over $1000 overall and get to spend time in Las Vegas as well. We were able to find a one car rental from LA to Las Vegas with no extra fees. But that is a different post.
The lesson is again in knowing how to combine the information from the OTAs (cheapest airline, even nearby airports) with the airline site info (fare classes for certain dates)… Stay tuned for next post and an eventual PhD thesis on this.
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- Skiing in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado
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What does OTA mean? which one do you think is the best? How come they all have similar prices??
I agree that you need to use a combination of all of the sites listed. I think there is a misconception out there that kayak scans all sites, when in fact i rarely find the best suited flight for me there. I use bookingbuddy as I’m between the us and uk a lot and here i can put my requirements in once and search all of these sites and more. searching for uk cheap flights http://www.bookingbuddy.co.uk or us http://www.bookingbuddy.com
Debbi –
OTA’s – are online travel agents – Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline are the main ones. Priceline does not add a booking fee. There is not a big difference.
If you use them a lot – I guess its good to get some sort of elite status, which might give you access to someone who can help in case of trouble.
In general – booking at the airline site is better (in my opinion).
-elliot
Elliot,
I have Elite status on Expedia and you are correct. The absolute only benefit is the toll-free line for elite members. Other than that, I have found no good deals, no special upgrades or anything else that I would expect to see for someone who books over $10K in travel every year.
Jacob
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