ElkeNorEast

Title says it all, really. What search engine do you prefer? Do you have any "loyalty" to one over the other? Which sites do you dislike and why?

I'm not writing a paper or anything, I'm just curious and want to know if I'm missing something and could be using a better tool.

For some reason I default to Expedia, no idea why I do it, I just do. It's not like I need to book a tremendous number of rooms, but when I am looking to get away I always look there. Sometimes I'll Kayak, but usually not.

darben

i prefer to use an all in one search engine. Kayak used to be good but after improvements it now sucks so I am looking for a new all in one. I prefer to use all in one to compare costs. It is surprising the difference in price for some hotels.

WillTravel

I use whatever gives me the cheapest price for what I want.
Hotelscombined.com is a reasonably good all-in-one engine for hotels.

cbn42

For hotels I use hotels.com due to their loyalty program, which gets me a free night every so often. I like this better than sticking with one chain. For flights I am not loyal to any one site, I will usually book on Orbitz or Yahoo Travel, or directly with the airline.

shocky

I use the cheapest one, usually hotels.com has a 10% off coupon going around so it tends to be a bit cheaper+loyalty program. I found all to have about the same customer support level. I use Orbitz primarily for looking for airfare if I have flexible dates with their very handy flexible flight search tool.

missbeana

I prefer Expedia. But I'll run all 3 sites with the same info to see if the prices match up. With my latest trip, Orbitz had a coupon so my trip ended up being almost $80 cheaper than Expedia and Travelocity (which I find to be more expensive). YMMV

GadgetKen

Expedia is good when I need to do a more complicated booking or when they have a nice package deal. For instance trying to do end-to-end ticketing through LAS on HA to Hawaii but staying over only one or two nights in LAS to make a connection. Am trying Hotels.com (owned by Expedia) that another poster mentioned for a trip to Bermuda next summer...they had a short-term deal on Expedia and Hotels.com for the Coco Reef for far less than any other website had.

Orbitz sometimes has good deals on hotels by themselves. Got a deal for Channel Inn during Cherry Blossom Festival time in DC this year...plus didn't have to pay in advance (a rarity these days). Also the automatic money back on flights that somebody else buys for less on Orbitz policy is nice...although I've never collected on it myself with some of the more odd itineraries I've traveled on.

Travelocity has some good tie-ins with Amex or AAA for discounts. Also once got a deal for USAirways with first class on a couple of the flights for less than all-coach on other websites.

All are very useful if you are doing an odd flight pairing with airlines that don't have code-shares with each other. Has been useful when connecting to regional Caribbean carriers such as Cayman Air, LIAT, etc.

BuildingMyBento

I know quite a number of airport codes, and kayak continues to disappoint on this end. For example, I type in CAN (Guangzhou Baiyun), expecting it to search that airport, yet instead it follows the beat of its own drum, searching Cancun (CUN) or even Akron/Canton (CAK). Same instance with wanting to search Guatemala City (GUA)-it brings up Guadalajara (GDL). In other words, that flight from CAN to Bangkok just got much more expensive.

Similarly, the atavists over at expedia decided to employ this method. As late as last year, I could type in an airport code and it wouldn't immediately show up as I am typing it-now, I have to confirm it first. That's inconvenient. Also, at least on Travelocity you can scroll down and very easily change dates and airport codes/point A& point B. Expedia, you have to go back to the home page. It still ceases to get my vote. Orbitz, that's a sleeper hit.

mediator

It seems Travelocity has fewer coupon codes flying around than Orbitz.

magsmeplease

Travelocity is very inflexible when it comes to refunding bookings made with an error, take that into account when you choose.

xmlsoa

Any updated views on this now? Especially for FLIGHTS?

tatterdema

When using a hotels.com coupon code, it invalidates the loyalty program.

I have found Trivago to be very helpful lately. I use it to find the cheapest OTA, and then search for a coupon code for that OTA to bring the price down even farther. They pretty much all sell the same product, so I go with the least expensive.

garyschmitt

Expedia is the only online agency that will book for free over the phone (800-expedia).

And that's important, because no site can electronically book a flight for a buyer who knows precisely what legs they want assembled. That always takes a human. The downside is that Expedia's phone operators do not have visibility on all inventory that itasoftware.com has.

*edit* apparently hipmonk is able to book flights with precise routing instructions (ref: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21433885-post18.html)

alphaod

Expedia online, or I call the airline directly.

Dieuwer

I like Travelocity and Orbitz best as they usually have decent coupon codes for 10~20% off and are cheaper than Expedia. However everything else equal, I prefer Travelocity as booking through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall gives me 2 points per dollar spend compared to just 1 point per dollar spend for Orbitz and Expedia.