Tonights 'I'm bored' job is looking ate flights to Aus and trying to commence Mrs B to come and coming home via 10 days in Goa or similar. Buying flights is a minefield!! Using opodo, same product, same airline, yet £400 one way on one (Fly Sharp) and £737 direct with airline. WTF?! First thing, click thru and its straight to booking, so doesn't say baggage allowances etc. Secondly, can these people be trusted?! Reading on ATOL site, if its being sold to commence in UK, seems covered, but not keen to piss a couple of grand up the wall with fly by night (pun intended) outfit. Any advice or good resources for booking? TIA
Mrs always books with sky scanner https://www.skyscanner.net There's also another one called https://www.jacksflightclub.co.uk which if you sign up for free he emails your every week with cheap flights, price errors etc or if you sign up to premium he will look for certain flights for you. We've just returned from a South African safari and our flights were only £790 for 2 return with selected seats. Might be worth noting just make sure you clear your cookies once your finished searching for the night and make sure the rest of the group don't look also as they put the flights up due to searches received. Don't sign up for automatic notices on price changes as they only go up as they know you want them flights. Stu.
I go on sky scanner, then I get the cheapest company that has good reviews oberallnon trustpilot. Sometimes the cheapest ones have 1 star with reviews that would make you turn down a free steak and dick suck from them. Places like opodo, lastminute, STA, agoda have been good for me. Stay away from kiwi from my experience.
When we booked dad into a trip to see his brother near Adelaide after all the faffing we ended up booking direct with Qatar airways. Sometimes the cheapest flights cost the most in add ones but booking with the airlines direct was quick, painless and confident no silly bugger was taking the P
Thats my worry, we choose one that (to be frank) no one has ever heard of but with 3k good reviews, then get shafted. Get money back maybe from ATOl or credit card but good luck fining a flight at short notice! If you search thru opodo, and then buy thru the connected agent site (say its a Singapore Airlines flight) do you get all the confirmations etc from SA or the agent? And when?
Always try to buy on a Tuesday. https://www.skyscanner.net/news/7-secrets-finding-best-low-cost-flights
i don't know if it will help but.. A few years ago i went through "e shores" for a trip to New York , Miami and I drive in Florida. I tried sorting the flights myself but found that as they were not "return to and from the same airport" the prices were stupid for the holiday. I found "e shores" on the web and rang them with approximate dates and the number of days we wanted to stay in each city as they specialise in multi centre holidays. They came back with a choice of hotels and flights in the areas we wanted for about £1500 less than i could manage to get. Might be worth a try.
Always book direct with the airline usually virgin, emeritus or BA never had any problems no sneeky extra charges cheapest isn't always best once went with Brittania to Florida what a nightmare
You could even try an old fashioned travel agent. There is a good small local independent one I have used a couple of times recently and they have been cheaper than the best I could find online about half the time. Saves a lot of hassle and they have added nice things like local agent collection at the other end which is great when you stagger off the plane after a very long flight.
I Do a lot of long haul as am originally from NZ and always book direct with airline. I always shop around and check the comparison sites first to see what times/routes and airlines have offers. It may cost a little extra but there is the peace of mind when things go wrong or plans change, and they can. For example I was due to fly out to Auckland with air New Zealand and my dad died suddenly a month before I was due to go. One call and they booked me on next flight and upgrade at no extra charge. I checked and it would have been an extra £300 to fly at the different time and route.
when i first tried booking my long haul flights to the far east i gave up. my wife knew a woman ran a teavel firm. i believe its a Franchise thing i just give her dates and locations and she gets back with a wide range of choices. includes flights hotels and transfers. it is not worth the effort to try and do it myself. Used her for the past 6 years. Travel Counsellors its called
I tend to use Skyscanner when booking all flights. However if the itinerary is complicated and I have to fly to different places/cities and time needs to be factored in then I get a business travel agent to do all the leg work. the additional cost of £30 for their time, if and when I book it, is worth it.
