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comparing air fare

H

happybaby

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Location
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checking for air fare to MCO this coming May..........

Air Tran 188.10 v Travelocity (Air Tran) 218.10

same exact flight

For all experienced travellers, is it best to book direct with the airline or use other sources? Or shop and compare? I assume booking thru travelocity they are getting a kick back.

Is this the norm to see the difference in the fares?

Still hoping for a cheaper flight when SW opens dates beyond May 10.
 
Sometimes an announced airfare sale is actually available only a few hours--4 or so. Sometimes when that happens, the re-sellers (Expedia and Travelocity) have the sale fare available longer than the airline itself does. I would suspect that's what you saw.

Check out www.farecompare.com
 
If the airline website shows a cheaper or the same fare, I would book throught the airline. That way, if there are any problems, the airline must rectify it. Also, the airline will give you FF miles to book through their site. Further, I'm not convinced that Travelocity or Expedia have better Customer Service, although I confess that I have not booked flights through them. Perhaps someone who has can post a reply.
 
America West Air???

sorry, meant to start a new post.
 
Last edited:
Am West is a dependable air line..but if South West Flys the same route, my choice would be SW.
 
happybaby said:
For all experienced travellers, is it best to book direct with the airline or use other sources? Or shop and compare? I assume booking thru travelocity they are getting a kick back.
Click to expand...
I do best with "shop and compare". As I recall, the airlines no longer pay commissions to travel agents including online sites such as travelocity. It's common for agents/sites to add a fee onto the fare.
 
Generally, the airlines have low-price promises if you book through their site. Not always the case, but in my experience it usually is true. The DOT website can show you flight performance/reliability of any flight you would want to check.
 
Ditto on..

Fare Compare!! I got a great deal on an Orlando flight in April. Next thing ya know POOF the price was gone.
 
Sometimes if you go to an alternative airport the prices could be cheaper. Take for example Tampa instead of Orlando. Not always but a few times that has happened to me.

Another example is using Dulles instead of Washington Reagan (National). I saved $400/rt.

Worth a try, if it can work for you.
 
Airfare

I will find at times that the published airfares on sites are higher than you can get by phone. Eg. There are times that I will find most sites have similar prices for a route but if I call the consolidator (instead of booking on their site) they will sometimes beat that web airfare by a significant amount. This doesn;t always happen, but it has happened often enough to me that I will also call around if I don;t like the fares that I see.
 
I use FareCompare and Seatcounter and subscribe to ExpertFlyer for GDS access.

Fare mistakes and good deals are best accessed IMO by using FC's alerts matrix. SMS, RSS and e-mail is possible.

I only book through an online TA if it is a mistake fare that has zeroed but hasn't expired from their GDS access. YMMV, but ticketing sometimes does go through ;). Otherwise, always the airline web site.

Pat
 
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