What’s the number one thing that I consider when searching for online airfare? Sure, I like early flights and non-stop travel is great, but the number one thing is usually cost. I think that any moderate traveler will agree that the most cost-efficient airlines to fly are Southwest, AirTran, and JetBlue. I don’t really have a strong loyalty toward any particular airline, so I usually search around for the cheapest ticket when making travel arrangements. Since the emergence of Web 2.0 websites have been created to assist the customer in finding the cheapest airline tickets online. Websites such as Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity were designed to search airline ticket prices, and return the available tickets given the customers flying criteria.
Sites like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity seem to provide the customer with an added convenience by taking all of the leg work out of finding the lowest-priced ticket. However, I have recently discovered that this convenience comes at a price. A ticket price for Southwest quoted on the “travel” site was actually higher than the ticket price on Southwest.com. This circumstance was a little perplexing since I always imagined if there was a price difference between the travel site and the actual airline site, the travel site would be lower. Not the case. From this experience, I would warn other consumers not to be fooled when travel sites claim that the airline and hotel industries give them a discounted rate for any vacancy.
It has been my experience that if you want to find the lowest-price ticket to travel, you are safest to book directly from the airline or hotel provider. This is not to say that Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity are completely useless. In fact, it makes sense to begin your travel research with one of these travel sites. At the very least, they will provide you with a list of the cheapest airline companies from which to begin your search. I would just recommend using caution when booking through a travel site because they may inflate the prices that are quoted, or include an additional “processing fee”. Plus, it is usually worth checking the individual airline websites as they frequently run promotions that are only available when booked through their site.
Sites like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity seem to provide the customer with an added convenience by taking all of the leg work out of finding the lowest-priced ticket. However, I have recently discovered that this convenience comes at a price. A ticket price for Southwest quoted on the “travel” site was actually higher than the ticket price on Southwest.com. This circumstance was a little perplexing since I always imagined if there was a price difference between the travel site and the actual airline site, the travel site would be lower. Not the case. From this experience, I would warn other consumers not to be fooled when travel sites claim that the airline and hotel industries give them a discounted rate for any vacancy.
It has been my experience that if you want to find the lowest-price ticket to travel, you are safest to book directly from the airline or hotel provider. This is not to say that Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity are completely useless. In fact, it makes sense to begin your travel research with one of these travel sites. At the very least, they will provide you with a list of the cheapest airline companies from which to begin your search. I would just recommend using caution when booking through a travel site because they may inflate the prices that are quoted, or include an additional “processing fee”. Plus, it is usually worth checking the individual airline websites as they frequently run promotions that are only available when booked through their site.
I typically use the travel site search engines to find the cheapest flights, and the book the flight directly through the airline's website to avoid the extra processing fees.
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