Where do you get your US flights from?

Whenever I get flight tickets, or enquire about them, I always seem to get a price more than everyone else.

I've tried PriceLine...never won though!.  My Mum did once but I think the price she paid was about the going rate anyway.

I have used TravelBag before.  They're not the cheapest, but easy to deal with.

Lastminute/ Expedia and all that seem to have ridiculous rates .

Any tips or hints on getting those seats for a reasonable price?

I'm curious about this as well.  I normally go through student travel agencies as they do deals for anyone under 26, but I'll no longer qualify in a few months.  I've only ever had so-so luck with price-line, though I did one get a ticket to Chicago from Cedar Rapids for about 80 dollars (the going rate was over 300).

My main problem is that I am flying into a small air port.  I think it is considered international, but probably only to Canada.  :-/  That usually tacks at least another hundred onto the bill.

I would love to go home this Christmas, but if the rates stay the same there won't be any chance of that happening.

David & I have always purchased our tickets through expedia.com - they've got great customer service, and so far it's been the cheapest place to get them each and every time. Never won a priceline bid, but it's worth a shot, I know peedal uses that.

We;ve tried travelsecrets.com, cheaptickets.com, travelocity,com, orbitz.com, hotwire.com - endless others, and expedia has alwas been the best. For us, anyway. Always been a bit cheaper than going through the actual airline.  

ah, a travel question! i used to work in travel, i LOVE planning trips!

i normally go through ebookers.  it also helps to know when the peak seasons are, namely july, august and beginning of september, and avoid them as much as possible.

luckily for me, we always travel to hawaii in winter (nov-beg. march, except the holiday season) so we get tickets at a reasonable rate.  i usually fly united (goes direct from heathrow to honolulu) and they sometimes have special deals that make it the same as a travel agent.

other than that, i usually check www.fodors.com/forums every so often, someone usually posts an airfare sale notice there.  got tickets from los angeles to las vegas (roundtrip, southwest) for $30 each way.  pretty good when it's normally like $50 o/w.

you can also try www.hotwire.com, although i personally find better deals elsewhere.  i found ebookers the best from travel from london to the US, then once you hit the US it's cheaper to find a US site. also, i have aol and they have 'keyword: bargainbox' and that'll list travel company sales, as well, though mainly US domestic or US-originating.

lastly, if you don't mind regional/budget airlines go directly to their website (like ryanair, southwest, jet blue, etc) as when they run specials you can only get 'em from the company direct.  SOME (not all) travel agents don't bother  with those fares because no commission (although i don't know how much things have changed since 9/11).

can you tell i book a lot of flights for my family and some friends?    

Last time I flew I booked through Ebookers, my ticket, round trip was $450.00.  That was from Manchester, london, then to houston, on British Airways.  I've tried cheaptickets, but never find them all the "cheap".  When my husband and I flew last Christmas it was much cheaper calling the airline direct, I don't know if it had anything to do with it being fairly last minute, but it was about £100.00 cheaper than any place on the web.  

I have gone through a travel agent here aswell and that was a fairly good rate, the best place we found was Holiday Hypermarket...they gave us the best flight prices as well as very cheap insurance.  

If you fly around Christmas you will get a much better fare if you travel before the 14th of December, after that the prices shoot back up again.

Ok so here's another question..

There are 50 million holiday bookers around, but I am assuming that you can't go to them to book just a fight and espically one to a podunk airport.  So what is the equilivant to our US travel agents over here?  I almost never have any luck with the internet.

There's a few out there but I've had pretty good luck with http://www.netflights.com/f_con.htm for flights only.

There's a couple more but I'll have to get back to ya' on that as I'm not on my laptop at the moment.

we have used priceline every time we have gone to the states and saved loads every time.
I would recomend them


Kind regards

Keith

Expedia usually has the cheapest.  As for this year, I was looking for a ticket to the UK in September and all of the cheap seats are sold out until the end of October.  We usually fly in Feburary or May for about $450.  

Hi all

I have used priceline, on booking i always get a great deal, the last 6 tickets i have bought haven't been over £240.00,(including tax and airport charges) and i think that is great considering we are leaving from a small airport and don't have to travel to london or manchester. we leave from humberside which is about an hour away from our home...it takes a bit of trying, you have to keep putting your bid in after its not accepted start out low and bid up as you go, try to start in advance as possible that helps with getting your tickets in time.  and i get great deals on cars as well, last car we had for 16 days in houston was only £245.00 all inclusive. had a good upgrade at alamo after i moaned to them about being on a 10 hour flight then having to wait for their shuttle...and just last week i booked a 4 star hotel in london (mayfair) on priceline for £50.00 per night which includes breakfast and all tax.. and for london to me thats great...i don't think i would use any other form of ticket booking after getting such great deals with priceline..

sung my praises hope it helps .

regards,

debbie

I've spent hours digging through various airfare sites to find the best deals, and www.ebookers.com has done us a big favor by letting you enter origin and destination and giving you a list of the best fares and when they're available. It's a godsend when you waste hours entering in different dates on other sites. (For some reason their site is not working at this moment though.)

I've always had great luck with  http://www.cheaptickets.com. And not just with flights, but with hotel rooms too.

And you get to see what you're buying unlike priceline.

But if you're getting flights from the US to the UK, be prepared to pay twice as much. Jon called up BMI to ask why the price was twice as much and they simply replied that Americans are willing to pay. Bah!

I have to rave about skyauction.com.  They're US-based so only good for flights within or from the US.  But they do have hotel packages as well, and those are international.  (Like, they almost always seem to have a deal with the Thistle Hotel ? in Islington, London.)

It's exactly what it says - an auction.  But UNLIKE priceline, they don't charge your credit card until you're booked for the date YOU want.  If they can't for whatever reason book your requested date within the restrictions (which are stated in the auction package up front), they don't book you and there's no charge!  Most of the packages state the airline and what airports are applicable, with extra fees for weekend travel, different airport departure, extension of length of stay.  But, again, it's all right up front.  I got both sets of one-way tickets to London on it, through Virgin, the first from MIA and the second from JFK.  And the first time, even though there were only two tickets available in the auction package, they were able to "offer" me a third ticket for only about $50 more than what I had bid and won with.

A tip, though.  Check out the going prices on the other sites first - some people are kind of stupid and I've seen auctions go up to OVER what you could book direct through the airline itself for.  You can set yourself a limit you'll bid up to, and it will automatically keep bidding for you until you're outbid at that limit.  And then it will e-mail you to let you know so you can continue bidding if you wish.

Really is a great site.  And I have to say that they were wonderful about being flexible when we had our little Visa adventure in NYC - helped that their offices were located about 5 blocks from the hotel we were staying at!!

Okay - enough plugging!!