I've read plenty of unflattering things about all 3 sites, and generally always book directly with the airline whenever possible. However, there's a fare on a combination of Aer Lingus/Alaska Airlines metal that is ~$420 on the above sites, and ~$630 on Aer Lingus site or with other OTAs (i.e. Priceline, Expedia). It looks like a lot of the complaints have been regarding changes or cancellations. In my case, I'd be looking at flights with the outbound about 2 months out and the return about 7 months out - so there are *very* likely schedule and/or routing changes to be anticipated. The savings, however, is significant. Any thoughts or anecdotes? If I accept that the tickets are 100% not changeable, and that if a schedule change occurs, I'm most likely just going to have to accept whatever the agency give me, and forget about the possibility of elective changes or cancellations, wondering if the savings is worth considering? If so, does anyone have recommendations for which of the above sites might be "less bad" than the others? Lastly, is there any risk that the ticket wouldn't be honored at all by the airline, or I could get stuck after booking having to pay some crazy fee or something? Unfortunately, the fare class isn't disclosed with the booking, but the OTAs all indicate that checked and carry-on bags are included in the fare, so presumably this is a main cabin fare (and Aer Lingus doesn't seem to offer basic economy fares on the route I'm considering, at least not in the searches I have done).

Thanks for any insights.