<p>We have various family members (students and otherwise) coming and going from both directions between here (NYC-EWR) and Germany for the summer. Flight rates are awful. I found various discounter sites, but do not want to willy-nilly hand out my credit card, even though the air-lines are known. Does anyone know anything about <a href=“http://airfare.ultimatefares.com/air/ui/search.aspx?[/url]”>http://airfare.ultimatefares.com/air/ui/search.aspx?</a> Any other suggestions? Thanks.</p>
<p>Lorelei, I’ve been looking for fares for my daughter’s study abroad in Zimbabwe next fall and have found economytravel.com and airlineconsolidator.com. Their fares are generally cheaper than STA, but I haven’t been able to find any reviews-bad or good-about them. If I end up using either of them, I will be calling them rather than booking online, so I can ask questions upfront.</p>
<p>With my oldest going to school in Wales, we have looked at tons of discount sites for plane tickets – and I haven’t had any luck! The few times I found tickets that were a bit cheaper, by the time I got to the point of paying (after filling out screen after screen of info) they added fees back in that made the cost pretty much the same as if I bought it directly from the airline. Fees included: credit card charge fee (if I wasn’t paying in cash – how do you do that on an internet site?), “local city” fee, luggage fee, registration fee, etc. </p>
<p>I was also warned about using the super cheap inter-European flights like RyanAir. Very cheap, but they don’t always work out and they usually fly to airports quite a distance from the actual destination city. We chose not to use them since my son tends to fly during holiday times – which is probably when they have the most problems.</p>
<p>My understanding is that airlines in Europe do not have to provide customers that are delayed or “bumped” with any type of compensation – so major discounters (like Ryanair) routinely overbook all flights. If you don’t get a seat – too bad. </p>
<p>We stick with major airlines (British Airways for the most part for him) and find that we are paying about $20 more than if we book through a discounter (after all the fees are added on) and it has worked out well so far. KLM would be another major airline, particularly to Germany.</p>
<p>I would also recommend STA travel – they may not be the absolute cheapest, but they know what airlines not to sell to students because of the dependability.</p>
<p>I am an international student from Germany and <a href=“http://www.checkfelix.de%5B/url%5D”>www.checkfelix.de</a> has been serving me well for the last three years.</p>