Colito04

I recently downloaded the program called Sidestep which claims to search through all the largest travel websites (expedia,hotwire,priceline...) and lines up all the possible flights. I'm sure many of you have heard of it. I've been playing around with it and I'm just curious if anyone has booked flights with it and if so how it went? Are there pitfalls? What makes sidestep so different in comparsion to other travel tools? Is it better than priceline? Basically, What's the deal with Sidestep?!?! Thanks.

WillTravel

I've never found a good deal with Sidestep, but I know others have. It seems to miss a wide selection of airlines, including major ones.

Globaliser

Reportedly, one is that Sidestep loads huge amounts of spyware onto your computer. One defence against that is to go to www.download.com and get both SpyBot and AdAware. Keep them up to date like an antivirus program and run them frequently. Both programs are free to get, free to update and free to use.

MisterNice

I tried sidestep.com but seemed to get unwanted adware etc but nil bargains. T
Most but not all of the adware etc was removed by the two free programs listed. The remainder was removed with difficulty.

Another similar site is travelaxe.com. Some bargains and no adware.

MisterNice

cordelli

I hated it, it was just plain annoying with all it's popups and the rest. That was before pop up blockers actually worked, so it may be different now.

The most annoying thing (and again they may have fixed it) was the clicking sound it made whenever it was thinking.

Click, Click, Click, Click

bigguyinpasadena

Have to agree,the intrusion of having them pop up ANYTIME I accessed an airline website(or orbitz,travelocity,etc)is just not worth it.
Also.don't rely too much on Travelaxe,as much as I like them-they often list non public rates(ie corp.or gov.)as lowest.

Analise

First things first, welcome to Flyertalk Colito04!

I got rid of sidestep as it was as annoying as others have already stated plus it never found me the deals I could find by researching here in Flyertalk or just scanning the internet.

SAT Lawyer

Sidestep is a good auxiliary/supplemental tool which should be used in conjunction with other search engines (e.g. Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, etc.), but never alone. I have been impressed on several occasions with the rental car rates it has unveiled. And I saved a hundreds of dollars on airfare to French Polynesia with Sidestep when it found a much lower fare only available on a somewhat obsure travel booking site. Bottom line: Sidestep is a good search engine to point you in the direction of cheaper options, but is not necessarily a good engine when used by itself.

DallasBill

The fact that it always is sniffing what you are surfing, until you blast it out of there completely, was enough for me to forever ban it from my family and work PCs.

I'm in IT... it's malicious and I would rather find my own deals.

RightD

Agree completely... Excellent summary cAAl.

As far as I am aware Sidestep does NOT check opaque sites such as Priceline or Hotwire, so if you have some travel flexibility you might want to check those separately.

- RightD

Colito04

I've been looking at all of the flights offered by most of the big name websites out there and Sidestep has the cheapest flights availble by a few hundred. I'm a college student trying to visit some family in Argentina for Christmas and the new year. That can get pretty expensive so really every buck counts. $1019 (United Airlines w/Sidestep) and $1280 (AA w/ Expedia and travelocity).

Priceline confuses me because whenever I name my own price it just agrees to whatever price I put into it. But what scares me about Sidestep is that I'll put in the dates and search and then I'll do the same search again but the prices will change but the flights and times remain the same.

Does this ring any bells? Thanks for all of the kind and helpful words.

CApreppie

I thought it was an atrocious and intrusive program and uninstalled it after trying it out.

It never came out with any good deals on airfare or car rentals. I found that ITA for airfares and Orbitz for car rentals were better. I don't usually fly JetBlue or Southwest so it's not a big deal for me that ITA doesn't search them.

The worst thing about Sidestep was that it would pop open anytime I visited a travel site regardless of my intent. Annoying!

You can get better information using a variety of other less intrusive and insidious Websites.

worldtraveler04

It's true. It's very intrusive. I have had friends who've had some luck with it, but in general it seems to miss flights (and airlines) and the fact that it continues to pop up just gets annoying. I'd go to another site for sheer reason of less annoyance!

MSP2000

I actually consider it as a "must" while searching for fares. It has saved us serious dollars on family vacations ( savings multiplies by 4!). Besides Jetblue and Southwest, it also loads up some consolidator fares also. However, I see those vendors go in and out of Sidestep.

seoulmanjr

I've used sidestep to book my last 25 or so international trips and it *always* finds the best fare in the most painless way. I go through the motions of checking for fares in the traditional ways just to be sure, but I've never ever had a problem with the software. Also have never had a problem with their "spyware" and doubt that I ever will. Its a great program and absolutely indispensible to me. Has saved me thousands and thousands.

peace,
~Ben~