i recently needed to change a flight, and it was awesome working with the frontier airlines agent on the phone.

i bought the ticket on orbitz, so at first i thought i had to call orbitz to make a change. couldn't do it on their website. after spending 20 min with two overseas orbitz agents, i hung up without making the change. orbitz was telling me that i would lose the entire fare difference on the cheaper new ticket, AND pay a $50 change fee to frontier. they claimed it was frontier's policy that the fare difference cannot be credited toward the change fee.

but that's not what the frontier agent said. so i think orbitz was trying to pocket the $50.

the frontier agent even realized that the fare difference was big enough that my new ticket could be Classic instead of Economy. i didn't even think of that !! and there's no way orbitz would have ever bothered.

also the frontier agent was happy to help me, even though i had purchased through orbitz. i'm pretty sure if i was in the same situation with united, they would have refused to help me and said to call orbitz. i don't even remember why i went through orbitz in the first place at this point.

Never buy tickets through an online travel agency. You will never get a lower price than you can get on the airlines own website, and if they screw up (which they do) trying to get them to fix it is often futile. Also, the benefit of booking on Frontier's website gives you the option of buying tickets that include free bags & TV, or free bags, TV, plus free stretch seating. The online agencies will display ONLY the cheapest fare.

Agreed. I'll use Amex/Travelocity to comparison shop, but I always book directly at the airline's site.

I like kayak myself for comparison shopping. I've been using it for years. They send you to the right place to book (usually, that's the airline's own web site).
For US domestic, I've always found it cheaper to just go to the airline's own website.

For international flights, it's a completely different ball game. I've found much cheaper prices on travel sites than on the airline's own web site.

yeah... i agree that it was a mistake to use an online agency. i usually don't, and i can't remember why i did it.

but the point is, here's another reason NOT to. they lie about policies like the fare difference being applied toward the change fee.

Kayak is fine for comparison shopping. When you see something you like, leave Kayak and go directly to the airline website.

The airlines view the click through from Kayak as a third party purchase.