Flight bookings, what do you use?

[Matchstix]

Curious on what the rest of the hubbers use for local and/or international flights. Maybe expand if you a nice site or which ones to avoid.

Online: travelstart

Lekkevlieg

Skyskanner

Kayak

Or do use travel agent?

Or direct through the airline website?

[geomark]

Local direct to the airlines

 

Personal international skyscanner and travelstart to get multiple options then direct or not depending if can get a better deal.  It can be worth using a VPN to check the prices from various different origins as some will adjust the price depending on where you ask from!

 

Travel agent for international work bookings or very complex routings

[Shebeen]

what's a travel agent?

 

something you use to adjust your suspension settings?

Edited February 25, 2020 by Shebeen

[Kranswurm]

Book my own direct

[HeyYou]

I use them all, to find the best deal - shortest air time, best luggage allowance etc.

 

If you check, you'll find that most of them are owned by the same company and will offer Virgin, or Air France, or whatever, depending on from which they get the best deal, they mostly don't give a sh.... about you (notice I didn't say kickback)!!!

 

So, essentially I check them all, all have phone apps these days (all the ones mentioned above and cheapOair, eDreams, Vayama). I then find the flight I want to take, check on the app of that airline and buy whichever is the better deal.

 

Just bought a UK ticket to Gatwick via Qatar. Of all the apps, only Vayama offered Qatar air and was R1k cheaper that the Qatar app. Air France and Alitalia were cheaper by 15%, but who on earth wants to spend 30 hours in airports, and, or aircraft?

 

AND AIR FRANCE WAS HAND LUGGAGE ONLY!!!!!!

EXTRA FOR LOAD ON BAGS.

 

It's wise to check baggage allowance, airports and travel times to choose what you want.

Edited February 25, 2020 by HeyYou

[IceCreamMan]

Skyscanner or KLM.com. I have found that KLM tends to have the cheapest fares down to ZA albeit with longish layovers in either Schiphol or De Gaulle. 

[Chris_]

Expedia, with some direct airline checks just to compare.

[Stretch]

I check the lot.. Unless it's know route that only had two carriers.. Then I check each individual carriers price

 

 

Got a flight for my daughter through Skyscanner recently that was significantly cheaper than direct through the airline

Edited February 25, 2020 by Stretch

[Matchstix]

Checking flights to canada . . Cheapest by 5k is via bookingair.com and cathay pacific.

With 18hrs layover in hong kong . . . . With corona going not sure if thats wise

[SwissVan]

Skyscanner to see what flights are available and then book direct with the airline

[Matchstix]

Skyscanner to see what flights are available and then book direct with the airline

Whats the reason for booking direct?

[Jase619]

Curious on what the rest of the hubbers use for local and/or international flights. Maybe expand if you a nice site or which ones to avoid.

Online: travelstart

Lekkevlieg

Skyskanner

Kayak

Or do use travel agent?

Or direct through the airline website?

 

In this day and age I can't fathom a reason to use one of these unless the deal really is worthwhile. I booked our honeymoon to Thailand direct with the hotel in Thailand and direct with Emirates, and made all activity bookings either online, per email or per whatsapp(No jokes, our Longtail boat was booked via Whatsapp with the owner - Mr. Chet, check him out) and I NEVER saw a reason to make use of a travel agent.

 

Last year we went cruising as a massive family group, and the supposed discount we got from the travel agent for the big block booking was the same as when I confirmed the price direct with MSC.

 

That said they do have some deals that I can't seem to beat, like some packages to Zanzibar I can't beat the hotel discount they get

[Letum911]

Just a heads-up, when booking a holiday to specific islands or resorts it is worthwhile checking travel agents. They get some exclusive deals which you cannot beat. 

[shahilj]

In SOUTH AFRICA specifically,

 

There is no need to use a VPN to get better fares for local flights. These tricks are used by much more higher volume countries and these don't effect the local prices.

 

In terms of booking local flights, this is usually the long route I will take if I don't have time constraints:

 

1. Search for flights on Computicket Travel and Travelstart
2. Get a general idea of what the ticket prices are and then look at Kulula, Mango, FlySafair directly (SAA usually do not have the cheapest flights so I don't usually go to their site.)
3. THERE WILL BE A PRICE DIFFERENTIAL! Take note of this. Sometimes, the aggregation sites can be cheaper!
4. Additionally, Travelstart have a booking fee but this is offset by the vouchers they send to you via email every so often. So this could give you a R50 saving. Search your mail.
5. If you do have Discovery, Momentum, or Investec, check these sites as well as these can give you further discounts.
6. There is a newsletter I also get called southafrica.to which is always on the ball with regards to specials from all the sites. They recently even had a guide to flying with your bicycle AND had some pricing for CTCT flights!

 

For international, I find that travel agents usually give really good deals and this also gets rid of the hassle! Honestly, do not discount this method. Moreover, it might be a bit cheaper booking everything yourself but unless you get thrilled by organising things and striking deals, it really is best to go with a travel agent.

 

Some destinations don't really need you to go through an agent. Think London, New York, Thailand. In this case, do this:

 

1. Search on Kayak or Skyscanner to get an idea of the price of the flights.
2. Then go directly to the airline site and book there.

For travel within a different country, this gets a bit trickier. Before you go there, find out about the Low Cost Carriers that operate in the country and check on their sites. I've booked some super cheap flights with Vueling, and AirAsia before. Anyway, travelling in high volume markets like EU or US means you can also use highly specialised apps that look for error fares, which basically are fares that were incorrectly listed by the carrier due to a glitch and can be super low, or do analysis of routes that could get you to the destination with weird layovers that save you money. I think going this route is worth the effort unless you have a super tight budget.

Edited February 28, 2020 by shahilj

[Amberdrake]

For local do check Ebucks travel, depending on your ebucks level you can save quite a bit and you can spend ebucks on the trip.

[mecheng89]

Thread revive, lol.

Anyone waiting in the queue for the R8 flysafair tickets?