Booking flights

[Discuss Thrower]

What's the advantage in using Kayak/Orbitz/Priceline versus simply booking through an airline's website?

Any advice is welcomed.

Discus.

[MIAdragon]

it saves time.

[CrazyPhuD]

Only very occasionally they will have a better price. Often it's better to search there and then go to the airlines direct site.

[Rain Man]

The main advantage is storing all of your preferences and frequent flyer numbers on those sites so that they're automatically included. Another minor advantage is that when you use them to compare prices, it then saves five minutes to do it there instead of going to the web site.

The disadvantage is that the airlines won't do a dadgummed thing to help you if there's a problem. They'll just say to call expedia or orbitz or whatever, and those sites have absolutely no desire or capacity to help you, so you're screwed. I've had this happen a couple of times.

[Renegade]

I find the airlines sites are 20-25% cheaper than using the other sites. This has been my experience as of late.

[Discuss Thrower]

Addendum: Is it a bad idea to book two different airlines on an international trip? As in USAir one way and American the way back.

[Rain Man]

Addendum: Is it a bad idea to book two different airlines on an international trip? As in USAir one way and American the way back.

Nah, not when one's out and the other one is back. It makes no difference at all.

If you do two legs of the same trip, e.g., American to Warsaw and then United from Warsaw to Tehran, it might increase your chance of missing the connection or losing your luggage, but you often have no choice but to do that if the connection is overseas.

[doomy3]

Addendum: Is it a bad idea to book two different airlines on an international trip? As in USAir one way and American the way back.

Just plan on spending extra time in the security line. One way international flights set off some red flags.

[Bwana]

The disadvantage is that the airlines won't do a dadgummed thing to help you if there's a problem. They'll just say to call expedia or orbitz or whatever, and those sites have absolutely no desire or capacity to help you, so you're screwed. I've had this happen a couple of times.

Likewise

[blaise]

I usually check both. It seems like they flip-flop between which is cheaper.

[luv]

I always use sites like this to locate which airlines will have the cheaper price, then check out the individual airlines' sites. One advantage of this is that it will mix airlines (fly out, have a layover, catch a connecting flight on a different airline) if it gets you there faster the airline you're flying out of doesn't go to your destination. Disadvantage is that they don't list every airline. Always check Southwest.