David CurrieFinding a flight can be a little tricky. Dates, timings, cost, fare class, airline, and many more are all important considerations. But, even if you are confident of the time and location of your flight, where should you seek the lowest price?
Sadly, only some sources regularly offer the best deals. Although most well-known OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) have comparable costs, not all provide the same benefits or search options.
We sifted through many well-known OTAs to assess rates and show you each site’s advantages and disadvantages.
Make a Direct Booking on the Airline’s Website.
Most of the time, booking straight through the airline’s website will result in the best pricing, or at the very least, a price comparable to OTAs.
Because certain airlines, like Southwest, won’t even appear on search sites like Expedia or Orbitz, so you must make direct reservations. Additionally, it might be the most straightforward method of booking. If an issue occurs, you can handle it on your own without using a third party.
Another advantage is that you can purchase flights through an airline’s website using your frequent flyer miles – hooray for award travel!
Before making a reservation through an airline’s website, you must first discover which airline offers the best discounts. To determine which airline’s website to visit, use a range of Online travel agencies and search engines to find the best deals. Some OTAs even provide benefits that can encourage customers to book elsewhere in addition to the airline’s website.
Momondo
A travel metasearch engine like Kayak is Momondo. You can enter your travel information in the simple search box on the homepage.
One of our favorite aspects of this website is the graphic way it illustrates the cost trends for your flight… So you can determine right away if you may save money by changing your travel dates a little bit. On the left side of the screen, it also provides a price tracker and numerous filtering options.
It also provides “Hacker Fares,” which are basically two one-way tickets from several sources combined to give you the best deal. But unlike other services, you must go to 2 different websites to book these tickets.
Momondo’s Benefits and Drawbacks
Benefits:
- Great tools for tracking prices
Drawbacks:
- To take advantage of mix-and-match pricing, you must make two different reservations; on other websites, this is typically done “behind the scenes.”
Kayak
Travel search engine Kayak is not just an online travel agency. It’s also an excellent place to start because it’s a search engine.
The website compiles price comparisons from various websites into one place, allowing you to easily find the most economical options. You’ll often move on to another website to finish your booking.
Utilize Kayak Hacker Fares to find cheap airfare. These itineraries are made by combining two one-way tickets (often on different airlines) rather than one round-trip ticket. These can be excellent offers that only appear in search results on other websites.
Kayak’s Benefits and Drawbacks
Benefits:
- Costs of Kayak Hackers
- Flight price alerts with price notifications
Drawbacks:
- When your travel plans are relatively flexible, Kayak is the best option, but since many of its most useful capabilities allow you to search for savings, this website might not be as enticing when you have a specific flight in mind.
Expedia
People have been utilizing Expedia, another tried-and-true OTA, since the 1990s. Expedia was the go-to resource for discovering and making flight reservations back then. How does it fare now, though?
If you book through Expedia, you won’t necessarily receive a better deal than you would on the airline’s website, but you won’t spend any more either.
Some nice advantages of using Expedia include a rewards program. Sadly, there are fewer opportunities to make money from flights than from travel, hotels, cruises, activities, and vacation packages.
Although you can accrue miles for a flight booked through Expedia, you frequently can’t do so to advance in status. You could also not be eligible for seat upgrades.
Expedia’s Benefits and Drawbacks
Benefits:
- Expedia Bonuses (Even though there is more opportunity for profit on hotels, vehicles, activities, packages, and cruises than there is on flights)
Drawbacks:
- If you book through Expedia, your miles toward elite status can be restricted.
- There might be limitations on your ability to receive upgrades when making a reservation through Expedia.
Priceline
The Name Your Price function and opaque bookings were created by well-known online travel operator Priceline. Discounts might be offered with some reservations, but many details aren’t made public until after the reservation. Priceline currently operates like the rest of other OTAs because it no longer provides the Name Your Price option for flights.
One advantage of utilizing Priceline for airline searches is that it has a fantastic color-coded calendar that makes it easy to identify which days have the best deals.
The search results on Priceline are easy to interpret and browse. However, if you are flexible with your vacation dates, look at the less-priced choices above your search results.
The lowest nonstop flights and choices like early bird flights or flights without change fees are immediately visible by scrolling.
Checking out Priceline’s Express Deals is an additional option to save money. These “opaque bookings” are ones in which particular flight information, such as the time of departure and arrival and even the airline, is concealed until the booking is made.
Priceline’s benefits and drawbacks
Benefits:
- Express Deal flights could be a great deal if you have some flexibility. Many travel details, such as the airline, departure, and arrival timings, are kept a secret until the deal is closed.
- A color-coded calendar with search results that are simple to read
- Free online cancellation up to 24 hours before the reservation
Drawbacks:
- No rewards scheme
- Express Deal flights can offer excellent savings, but they occasionally can cost even more than a regular reservation.
Orbitz
Orbitz is a reliable OTA that has existed since 2001. Because it has its own rewards program, Orbitz Rewards, this website differs somewhat from others. You can gain Orbucks by using Orbitz to book hotels, flights, and vacation packages. But the only way to pay for housing is with Orbucks.
Orbitz is a reliable OTA that has existed since 2001. Because it has its own rewards program, Orbitz Rewards, this website differs somewhat from others. You can gain Orbucks by using Orbitz to book hotels, flights, and vacation packages. But the only way to pay for housing is with Orbucks.
Orbitz regrettably occasionally levies a 1% reservation fee. Before completing your purchase, look for these on your trip summary page and consider them when determining if you’re getting a fair deal. Earning Orbucks is fantastic, but paying a booking fee can eliminate all the advantages.
Orbitz’s Benefits and Drawbacks
Benefits:
- You can earn Orbucks with Orbitz Rewards to pay for hotel reservations.
- 24-hour policy for cancellation
- Low Price Guarantee: If within 24 hours, you discover a lower airfare for your flight on another website, Orbitz will refund the difference.
Drawbacks:
- Booking costs for flights
Agoda
Priceline is the owner of the OTA Agoda. Unfortunately, this website only offers a basic search with a few customizable filters for finding flights. Agoda is worth looking into if you’re seeking unusual lodging options like an apartment or private villa, but it doesn’t have much to offer when looking for flights.
Agoda has the excellent benefit of being bilingual. The language can be changed by choosing the appropriate flag from the top menu bar.
Agoda’s Benefits and Drawbacks
Benefits:
- simple search capabilities
- Optional multilingualism
Drawbacks:
- limited flight filtering choices
Hotwire
Popular OTA Hotwire has been operating for about two decades.
The straightforward home page provides a primary search field where you can enter your chosen departure and arrival cities and your travel dates. The flight search can be accessed by selecting the third tab from the main search box.
When you book a hotel and airfare together on Hotwire, you can get a terrific discount. You’ll frequently encounter pop-ups or prompts while making a reservation promoting significant savings when making a hotel reservation at the same time. When we compared the cost of a Hotwire vacation package offer to book a flight and hotel separately, the package deal was less expensive each time.
You may find a Hot Rate flight while looking for your flight. These are flights for which the precise departure and arrival timings, stopovers, and carriers are not disclosed until after your purchase is complete. These need considerable flexibility, and we discovered that the cost difference could be as little as $20. Although it occasionally provides a terrific deal, there are frequently few savings.
A booking fee may occasionally be assessed while utilizing Hotwire to obtain fantastic airline prices, so keep that in mind.
Hotwire’s benefits and drawbacks
Benefits:
- Package offers that include hotel stays can result in cost savings.
- 24-hour policy for cancellation
- Low Price Promise
Drawbacks:
- Hotwire occasionally levies a booking fee.
- Hot Rate flights only sometimes result in substantial discounts.
Google Flights
An OTA is not Google Flights. It is a metasearch tool similar to Kayak instead. Google Flights will connect you to the airline’s direct website or an OTA to finalize the purchase once you’ve located a flight. It is a powerful search engine built on the ITA Matrix initially designed for travel agents.
This website shows price trends and how the date of your departure may affect the cost of your ticket. Additionally, it enables you to keep tabs on a route’s costs so you may take advantage of low pricing when they appear. These characteristics make Google Flights an excellent tool for ensuring that the price you’re offering is fair.
Google Flights’ benefits and drawbacks
Benefits:
- The price Graph displays the pricing patterns along your journey and enables you to determine when it could be more affordable to travel.
- You will receive an email from price tracking if the cost of your flight rises or falls.
- You have access to a variety of filtering options to customize your search.
Drawbacks:
- It could be difficult for a tourist with little knowledge to navigate this robust search engine because it has many options.
Summary
There isn’t a single location where you can always discover the best flight deals. However, the vast majority of OTAs offer identical prices.
Many of these websites can assist you in locating the most affordable trip dates and locations if you have some flexibility.
If you want to make a more traditional reservation, start by utilizing a travel search engine like Kayak or Google Flights to look up all the other websites. Your ability to save the most money on your forthcoming flight will be determined by the website you choose in light of that information.
David Currie
