What's the best website to book a flight online?

October 5, 2008 7:24 PM

Air travel search engine filter: what's the best website to use to book a flight these days? I know this has surely been asked before, but this is the freaking internet -- things change, rapidly, and I want to know what's "up and coming" and worth checking out or which formerly reliable sites have gone downhill. So -- what do you use and what makes it better than the alternatives? For this upcoming flight, I mostly care about getting cheap tickets, but I'm interested in any info you care to share. Thanks!
posted by odragul to Travel & Transportation (15 answers total)

I find mobissimo.com to be quite good. kayak.com is nice in that it does several sites all at once.
posted by Autarky at 7:38 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

I travel maybe 20 times per year for business stuff and using kayak.com to find tickets -- slightly lamer now that American Airlines isn't included -- and orbitz to actually book them [SMS updates about delays and etc. Kayak.com's sliders allow you to adjust the flight lists in real time when you change stuff like "I don't want to leave home before 10 am" or "what are my options if I choose to look at other nearby airports?" and sort the list by things like total trip length. For the sort of stuff I do, almost all USA travel planning a few weeks in advance, I haven't found anything better.
posted by jessamyn at 7:41 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

I usually search for tickets on kayak, then buy the actual ticket on the airline's site. For the ones with which I have frequent-flyer relationships, I feel like it's a little bit easier to actually get credited for the miles. And I've got a teensy bit more faith, perhaps misplaced, in their data security. Apart from that, what jessamyn said.
posted by box at 7:50 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

another vote for kayak. definitely the best i've used. but i'll be curious to see what else comes up in this thread.
posted by Perplexity at 8:08 PM on October 5, 2008

I've always found Sidestep completely reliable. They search travel sites like Orbitz as well as the carrier sites. The interface is really easy to use and modify, and you don't need to sign up for an account or divulge any personal info whatsoever.

Once I find a flight I prefer, I book it through the carrier's website or call them. That way if something screws up then it's significantly easier to fix directly instead of having to go through an intermediary. (Customer service kinda stinks both ways, but at least this way I only have to deal with one entity instead of two.)
posted by greenland at 8:14 PM on October 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm curious about this, too but, honestly, when I've used a matrix style site like Orbitz or Kayak, I nearly always find better prices at the carrier's website.

For instance, I may fly to Fort Walton Beach, FL later this year. Kayak quoted me $425/person non-stop on Continental. I went to Continental's site and it was $408. Not a big price difference, admittedly, but every little bit helps, right?
posted by tcv at 8:34 PM on October 5, 2008

I like to start with farecast.com, as I understand it they do a regression analysis on the fare information from previous years to predict when the fare for your trip will be lowest to purchase.
posted by zentrification at 9:04 PM on October 5, 2008 [6 favorites]

TCV: that may be because Kayak includes taxes and fees in their prices, while most carrier's websites won't.

Seconding Farecast.
posted by suedehead at 9:32 PM on October 5, 2008

I also use Farecast, then double check prices on the airline's site.
posted by Joh at 9:57 PM on October 5, 2008

Are these any good to use up in Canada, flying out of Ottawa?
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:48 PM on October 5, 2008

I use Kayak, and it's ace. It's a flight search engine, so (as far as I know) there's no way to actually book tickets from Kayak - you search about 140 airlines and ticket aggregators simultaneously, then book the one that best matches your requirements. But there's all sorts of sliders and tickboxes that let you modify your search on the fly to find exactly what you want. It's also worth using for the 'Fare Buzz' feature alone, especially since they went international. You can literally say 'I'd like to go to a European city, from London, on a weekend in the next three months, and I'd like to pay less than £50 return' and BAM, it gives you flights to dozens of different cities.
posted by Happy Dave at 10:59 PM on October 5, 2008

Lately, I've found that Farecast slightly edges out Kayak in terms of lower prices and more thorough results. Granted, this is due in part to American Airlines opting out of Kayak's searches. But, Farecast + the carrier's site, like Joh mentions above, is currently giving me good results.
posted by malaprohibita at 3:56 AM on October 6, 2008

I find Kayak mostly worthless without AA. I have to search again on another site anyways to make sure AA isn't cheaper, so why not start by searching on that other site? YMMV if AA isn't a major carrier out of your local airport.

Another major issue I've had with Kayak lately is that their prices have been stale. If they quote a price, and then I follow the link and it's gone up $50, what good is that?
posted by smackfu at 7:24 AM on October 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

Did I imagine that at one point, Farecast or Kayak also had a grid showing when it is cheapest to buy said tickets? Not just "prices will be going up/down," but "it is cheaper to buy similar tickets on Tuesday afternoons?"

(Currently freaking! out! because prices went up $100+ between Friday and yesterday for the tix I need to purchase for Thanksgiving. Watching Farecast, but the waiting is killin' me.)
posted by desuetude at 8:39 AM on October 7, 2008

Response by poster: Somebody else ended up doing the ticket shopping so I can't select a best answer. Thanks for all the tips though!
posted by odragul at 1:34 PM on November 5, 2008