<p>I’d like to visit family in Rome this spring if I can find a good deal, but I have never booked an international flight online and it makes me a little nervous. Does anyone have suggestions of a reliable website? Thank you!</p>
<p>I use kayak quite a lot. It searches most of the different airlines sites for prices. You have to go to the actual site to buy. Make sure you check the details of any prices that look good. You don’t want to save $50 but take 30 hours to get there.</p>
<p>We use kayak to search for flights also, but we book directly through the airline website.</p>
<p>I booked our flights to Saint Petersburg and Paris through (now Delta) Northwest Air. Of course, I bought the cheapest tickets. A few days later I got an e-mail saying that there was a problem with the itinerary and it was cancelled :eek: A call to the airline got everything straightened out, and we even got a much better itinerary without paying a penny more. I also bought tickets to Stockholm directly from SAS. The airlines offered much better deals compared to the travel sites - it pays to shop around.</p>
<p>Farecast is also pretty good at finding good prices - it also has a thing that shows you the price history for the route you’re searching.</p>
<p>Thank you, this is all very helpful (I feel funny taking flight advice from someone named Icarus, though!)</p>
<p>I use Orbitz to guide me to the lower fares, then go directly to the airline’s website to book it. </p>
<p>I did this to book son’s study abroad trip to Spain, and our trip to visit him. I didn’t do my research before I booked his flight, though. I put him on British Airways thru Heathrow, then found out BA was threatening to strike and Heathrow has a reputation as a hard place to change planes. As it turned out, they didn’t strike and S had much less trouble than predicted changing at Heathrow, apparently they built a new terminal and things are better there than in the past. </p>
<p>I learned my lesson and did some research before booking the flights for DH, D and me to visit S in Spain. I put us on Lufthansa and we changed planes in Munich. No language problems at all, even though we don’t speak any German - Munich is very English-friendly. It was snowing in Munich, and our 3 hour layover ended up being 8 hours, so I can testify that Munich is a nice airport! And Lufthansa was a great airline. If you’ve only flown domestically, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by European airlines. </p>
<p>Have a great trip!</p>
<p>I think the problem most of us have is thinking “If I just look one more place or more time , I’ll find that best deal.” Another problem is that we don’t want to be that sucker who pays $100 bucks more than everybody else. </p>
<p>I can’t help with the first but I can with the second. Just say to yourself “Well, that idiot curmudgeon probably paid at least $100 more than this”. Then just chuckle and hit the button.</p>
<p>itasoftware.com is a nice cite that you can use as a guest to compare fares. It doesn’t sell tickets and doesn’t cover ALL airlines, but is pretty easy to use and navigate. It allows you to choose the exact date or one day prior or later. It also allows you to choose nearby airports. I use that to get an idea of fares & then book with the airline directly or every once in a while, Orbitz.</p>
<p>It is important to check out the connections and layovers–too short a layover can be a bad thing too, especially when there are different airlines involved. It’s also good to review baggage policies, as they can vary.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, British Airways is scheduled to have strikes this month over 3 weekends and American Airlines may be striking soon (unions have given notice). We’re risk adverse, so I avoided booking on both airlines.</p>
<p>I use Kayak to look at fares and if Orbitz is the lowest I’ll use them because they actually did send me a fairly large check in the mail because the fare dropped. Make sure you read the fare requirements. The sites have become more honest about telling you which can’t be changed, what costs what, etc. but you have to read.</p>
<p>I like to use expedia to get an idea of the rates. Then, I’ll book it on the actual airline’s website. Unless you are doing a packaged deal, more often than not, it is cheaper to book through the airline’s website.</p>
<p>thank you all, and curmudgeon, I feel better already! (flights to Rome are $$$$, apparently-- this trip may be postponed)</p>
<p>Fly.com is similar to Kayak, but sometimes comes up with other/better deals. </p>
<p>Also, be aware that some airlines do not show up on those sites. For example, Icelandair. Pretty much all of their flights go through Reykjavik, and they do fly to Milan. By purchasing an Icelandair ticket to Boston and flying D home on another airline from there, I will save almost $800 on her study abroad ticket home from Scandinavia in December from any other ticket I found through the search engines. I can’t say that their Milan route appears to be cheap, though. But there may be other airlines like that don’t show up (for example, Sun Country just started flights to London for this summer, and you won’t see them on the search engines, either).</p>
<p>One caveat about buying through Kayak or fly.com. They often link you up with some 3rd party site that is selling the tickets inexpensively. You will want to do a search on the name of that 3rd party company, looking for feedback/comments from users. Some are fairly reputable (eg, Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz). But I was looking at one this week where the comments were so awful that I decided I rather pay more than risk the hassles.</p>
<p>If you’re a student or a teacher try studentuniverse.com. I’ve seen some amazing deals.</p>
<p>Like other posters, we sometimes use sites such as Orbitz to get an idea of prices and flights, but generally have found booking online or even by phone directly through the airlines works surprisingly well in terms of price. In fact, I just did this for a short non-foreign vacation trip and found prices on Continental for the specific nonstop flights we wanted were less than half the price I was finding on orbitz (cheaper even than some of the one-stop/connecting flights I was finding there!). For European travel we’ve found good deals at various times of year via Alitalia, Air France, and Virgin Atlantic–and remember that Delta/Northwest is essentially a partner of many of the foreign carriers. Look on each airline’s site for special deals, and also just they in the dates you want to travel and see what they come up with. (Alitalia flights from New York-area airports are Delta coshares in most if not all cases.)</p>
<p>I use Vayama often.</p>
<p>Realtively new/emerging carriers can offer great deals, so I’ve flown Spirit Air many times from DC to Ft. Lauderdale and Virgin America from DC to LA. And Southwest is great for everywhere else…</p>
<p>Even more important that shopping around it to check over a period of several days/weeks to get an idea of the typical price range (I use expedia). Then when you’re ready to buy, you’ll know if you get a good deal. </p>
<p>I prefer connecting through Madrid or Amsterdam rather then Heatherow or Paris. I’ve never done Munich. And would also avoid Milan.</p>
<p>^^Copenhagen is a nice airport. Amsterdam is OK, too, but Paris and Heathrow are horrilble - huge, hard to navigate, and are swarming with people.</p>
<p>Munich is a nice airport and a good place to make connections. I spent 9 hours there last month when snow caused us to miss a connection and the next couple of flights to our destination were sold out. Not Munich’s fault, or Lufthansa’s. On the return trip we had no complications with our scheduled 3 hour layover in Munich. I had looked online and it was rated the 2nd best airport in Europe, Amsterdam was rated as the best. (some travel website, can’t remember which one) Frankfurt is supposed to be good too but it’s really big.</p>
<p>Multiple people have told me to avoid Paris Charles de Gaulle at all costs. My FIL used to have business in Paris, he would fly into Nice and take a train to Paris rather than fly into Paris CDG. One person I read online said he’d fly 3/4 way around the world in the OPPOSITE direction and take a yak overland rather than fly into Paris CDG - and when I told that story to a businessman I met in the airport, he agreed wholeheartedly.</p>