Buying airline tickets?

[Rogar]

I have not travelled by air for a very long time, and will be going across country to visit a friend soon. Do you use a travel agent, an online travel site, or go directly through the airlines? I'm not especially looking for huge deals, just wanting to do it with little hassle. I won't be needing a package with car rental and motels, just plane tickets. Any help or suggestions appreciated. Air travel seems like an ordeal and want it to go smoothly.

[catherine]

I'm a Continental frequent flier (I fly about 60k miles a year), so I use their website most of the time. But when I need to check out all the airlines' deals, I use Expedia.

I don't see any real need to go through a travel agent. I think corporations are still using them, but there's not real benefit for individuals going on an occasional trip, IMHO.

[jennipurrr]

www.kayak.com is a very good search for flights. It searches all the major carriers...you can sort by price and filter by time of day, number of stops, etc.

[screamingflea]

Sometimes the airport itself has a website where you can buy tickets. I used to use that with great success. Now, since sexual assault seems to be a pre-requisite for travel, I simply refuse to fly. But that's me.

[freein05]

I have fond going to the airline sight is the best.

[Bastelmutti]

I like CheapTickets.com or going straight to the airline. If you haven't done this in a while, note that in the process of paying for your ticket online, you will be offered all kinds of add-ons and upgrades - read carefully to make sure you're not signing up for something you don't want.

[pinkytoe]

This is what I use at work to book travel or just to check best prices:
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
Looking at this website, you can figure out too which airlines fly to your destinations. I also find that airline sites themselves are often the best price.

[kib]

What I usually do is go to hotwire.com and get an idea of what a good discounted price for my itinerary is. I agree that it's less hassle to deal with the airline directly, but an extra 5 minutes can give you a good price target to shoot for. They also have a flexible date option so you can get a better idea of what days are less expensive to fly.

ETA: I only actually booked with hotwire once, it was fine but I don't like the idea of not being able to cancel or adjust the flight.

[lhamo]

I use kayak.com to check fares (though do be aware that some airlines -- like southwest and now some of the majors, too, do not use the aggregators), then generally go to the airline website to book directly.

Be careful with Orbitz. My DH just booked a ticket through them recently and missed ticking a box somewhere and they added a trip insurance policy without him noticing it. He was able to cancel eventually, but they made it VERY difficult -- information on the ticket said to use the website, but the website didn't work. Eventually called and after several tries got through, was on hold for ages, and when he finally spoke to someone they basically said, "oh yeah, the website doesn't work you're supposed to call." So why tell people to use the website?!?!?! Basically I think they had done their marketing studies and learned exactly the right strategy for getting/keeping money from people -- make your service opt out, instead of opt in, and then put up invisible barriers to cancelling. Many people will not go to the trouble to make it all the way through the maze.

We will not be buying tickets via orbitz again.

lhamo

[bae]

I call around to see if there are any charter/private flights I can bum a ride on, to avoid the whole body-cavity-search experience at the airport. If that fails to yield a flight, I drive.

[DonkaDoo]

I am a travel agent -so I book them myself through my airline system. With the exception of Southwest and other "exceptional" carriers, Allegiant, etc. I have never seen a better rate online than what i can get in my system (and I always check). Of course most agencies will charge a booking fee.

The other benefit to using a travel agent is if things go wrong mid journey. Over Christmas, Continental cancelled my bros' flight and rebooked him 3 days later. I was able to rebook him on American leaving in a few hours and get the CO agent to endorse the ticket to AA. My bro didnt' have to pay a cent for what would have been a 1200 non-stop flight on AA.