CaliforniaGuy

This is a follow-up to my question about travelling to Europe, but I think it got lost in the debate about luggage weight, hehe.

What is best: Book directly with the airline, or booking with one of the travel sites such as Expedia or Kayak? If you book with one of the travel sites, is it "one" ticket (connecting flights), or does that site pick it for you, is it the same as the "one ticket" purchased directly with the airline. I had the question about connecting flights from LAX to Helsinki.

Thanks so much for info on this one.

IaninDC

In the "old" days, you could get a FF mile bonus for purchasing on an airline's website and around 5% cheaper airfare. Nowadays, it's better to book with the travel sites which can compile multi-carrier airfares unlike the single airlines which will force you to stay within their network.

adamak

I always book through airline site. You'll have to pay Expedia a fee to change the ticket even if it's full fare.

cbn42

Benefits of airline website:

Better assistance if flight canceled/delayed (no third party to deal with)
Know what booking class you are getting (for mileage and upgrades)


Benefits of online travel sites:

More choices in flights, can combine various airlines from different alliances into one itinerary
Don't have to worry about credit card policies (some people have reported problems if the credit card they used is not in the name of the passenger or is not available at check-in)

clacko

i book w/the carrier if possible....better chance getting help, & less finger pointing....

MoreMilesPlease

Ditto!

All things being equal I book directly with the airline. That way if a problem arises I can deal directly with the airline.

Ancien Maestro

Booking on Expedia.ca .. lets me pay prices in cdn. The flights that I've booked with Expedia has never been a problem, although I've read some horror stories..

deirdre

Try pricing both. I saved several hundred on my upcoming trip because Expedia gave me airfare prices $700 lower than KLM's did. Kind of weird routing, but not especially complex.

Upstate

Search on the travel sites and then book on the airlines site if possible.

chimphappyhour

I do something like this. I'll use the travel sites to get a rough idea of who is offering what then I'll check the carrier's site of the carriers I prefer to use. I often find better flights for a better price if I use the carrier's site.

It has made me wonder if the carriers dictate what the travel sites get to see. For instance, this last trip I booked. All of the travel sites were coming up with routing that had me flying east before flying west where I needed to go. Went to the carrier's site and they had a routing for roughly the same price that went directly west.

I would start going directly to the carrier's site but I really like sites like Kayak where you can narrow results by plane type. Since I have to carry-on photo gear, this allows me to filter out airlines that will only fly RJs into certain airports.

stifle

I'm almost certain they do. EI, for example, normally only publishes availability in its top four or five fare classes to many comparison sites.