<p>I am trying to book D2s flight to San Jose( Costa Rica) for a summer program she is doing through her Univ (flights are arranged separately)</p>
<p>I have read warnings not to book through Expedia or Orbitz- Has anyone booked through STA travel?</p>
<p>^ what’s wrong with Expedia or Orbitz?</p>
<p>I did a few years ago when my oldest son went to England for a study abroad. I actually found the flight I wanted and then did it through them because they had a low cost option for changing the date. However, I usually prefer to use a search engine like Orbitz or tripadvisor and then book directly with the airline.</p>
<p>I think why the reviews were warning against booking through Expedia etal was because you couldn’t change the booking if needed.
I found an airline ( Continental) and am just deciding if I want her to have to transfer once or twice.</p>
<p>I do all my flights through Expedia (2-4 international flights a year, and have never had a problem. Of course, I have never had to change a flight, nor do I anticipate that when making arrangements.</p>
<p>STA travel is great for student flights. To Europe, is far easier to change, and prices were very good. However that didn’t hold true for my D on her semester in the Caribbean.
We did have a bad experience with a messed up flight booked on Expedia that a D took. But just returned from an international trip with them, and decided to get insurance in case of problems. No problems and the $38 for insurance still made the ticket much cheaper on my mixed airline ticket than if I’d booked on an airline site. And better airlines, for this particular trip.</p>
<p>I prefer to book directly with the airlines because they seem more accommodating if there are glitches with your travel arrangements and you have to make changes. I’ve been told in the past that any changes would have to be made through the booking agency, which seems sort of silly when you’re standing in the airport on a Saturday afternoon in front of the airline’s counter. Maybe things have changed but I just don’t like dealing with a middle man.</p>
<p>Having said that I have found some of the foreign airlines to be very hard to deal with even when booking with them directly. I had a heck of a time last summer changing plans with Royal Thai when civil unrest broke out in Bangkok and we decided to forgo our trip there.</p>
<p>Today I was trying to get some information from Olympic Air (son leaves for Greece in the morning) and discovered they don’t have a US phone # and I really didn’t want to pay a fortune to speak to someone who doesn’t speak English. This was a trip booked through a local travel agency by his college. Unfortunately, international travel is never easy (but it is always interesting.)</p>
<p>I use kayak.com to compare prices, but I generally end up booking directly with the airline itself. For big messy expensive trips, I get travel insurance that has “cancel for any reason” coverage.</p>
<p>She booked her trip herself since she doesnt trust me- I take too long comparing apparently.
She has to transfer twice each way & I was trying to save her some time.
Oh well if she wants to sit in the airport it is up to her.</p>
<p>Yeah I do with Happymomof1 does. Kayak to search, book through airline directly. Had terrible issues with expedia in the past…would never ever use them again. You get the bounce around- they say you have to deal with the airline if you have a problem, the airline refers you back to expedia saying they are the travel agent. Who needs that nonsense?</p>
<p>Another airline that flies to San Jose is Spirit Airlines. They are fairly reliable and tend to have lower fares. I’m trying to book flights to Spain and everything is outrageously expensive. Any suggestions? Even Kayak gives me $1300 fares, so I may just have to bite the bullet.</p>
<p>Toledo – We are going to Europe this summer. $1600 a piece, round trip, direct from Charlotte. It’s just hard to find anything inexpensive with the price of gas so high (and AV-Gas is more expensive still). $1300 sounds pretty good – try to get as direct a flight as possible. Sitting around Newark or Frankfurt for 8-9 hours is not worth it, even if you save $200 bucks. And if they try to route you going into La Guardia from home and leaving for Europe from JFK (or vice versa coming or going) DO NOT do it. Sounds easy, but it is not.</p>
<p>I have booked international flights on both Expedia and Orbitz as well directly with the airlines.The only flight problem we ever had was with STA Travel. My daughter spent several summers at a program in France as both student and staff and needed to be at CDG airport by a specific time. The one problem we had with STA Travel after booking months in advance was that they automatically booked her on a flight that would arrive about six hours after she needed to be there, after her initial flight had been cancelled without checking or any communication with her… They were not that happy to rebook her although they ultimately agreed to do so even though it meant transfer at the dreaded Heathrow. They never reconfirmed her return leg from CDG to London, but given that she arrived at CDG in plenty of time with the printed confirmation, BA accomodated her although on both ends of these flights, to and from, her luggage did not make the flights and had to be delivered several days late. Not a problem on coming home, but was a problem as she did have to buy some things initially because she only had the one extra set of clothes and it took almost a week for the luggage to arrive, around six hours outside of Paris.</p>
<p>I check itasoftware.com as a guest to figure out the best prices on MOST airlines (some of the budget carriers like Southwest are NOT listed). If I can find anything that is ALL on one airline, I then go to the airline website & book directly. If they are NOT all on the same airline, I generally end up having to use Expedia or some similar airline to get what I need. I did book S’s ticket on Expedia & then a few hours later noticed that the priced dropped on the SAME itinerary on their website by $24. I called & asked them to reduce my price & give me a $50 credit on Expedia. I had to walk the agent thru the process to find the fare at the lower price on their website but ultimately, I DID get the adjustment and am waiting to also get the credit on the Expedia account she created for me so it can be applied to our future travel.</p>
<p>They gave us confirmation numbers for EACH leg of the flight (as each is on a different airlne). They also gave us an Expedia confirmation # & toll-free # to call if there are any problems along the way for the trip. We are crossing our fingers that S will not have to mnake any changes along the way & he should be fine.</p>
<p>I generally really MUCH prefer all travel on the same airline, booked directly with that airline on-line, but in this case, I could NOT get the times & decent fares except using different airlines. :(</p>