<p>Just booked a ticked for my D to come home from the UK in September. I found something curious in the ticket pricing:</p>
<ul>
<li> Delta was the cheapest by a good margin. Good news.</li>
<li> Delta charges $50 for the first checked bag each way. Not so good news.</li>
</ul>
<p>For her itinerary, the Delta ticket was still the best option, but its true cost will be $100 more than what we paid for the ticket.</p>
<p>Another interesting note is that we found very different pricing among Kayak, Orbitz, travelocity and the airline websites. </p>
<p>We booked two tickets - a summer trip from London to Kenya that we found with Kayak and booked through Air France, and the end of summer visit through Orbitz. Orbitz was much cheaper than the same itinerary through Delta’s website itself or Kayak.</p>
<p>We also found costs changed by the minute. Some things would not complete online. We also found that prices shown by Kayak and Orbitz initially were not what came up when we went to book. In one case (Kenya/Air France) it was a bit cheaper. In the case of Orbitz/Delta, it was about $40 more. Not huge, but concerning. </p>
<p>We did not find a big difference between UK prices (after accounting for exchange rate differences) and US prices. We ultimately went with US purchases because the dollar/pound rate is getting worse, and I did not want to be a victim of exchange rate volatility. </p>
<p>To summarize:</p>
<ul>
<li> read the “fine print”</li>
<li>comparison shop</li>
</ul>
<p>Whenever I personally travel I begin checking on air fares and car rentals months in advance and continue to check regularly thereafter. You would be amazed(maybe not) on how much the cheapest fares fluctuate. The really hard part was to determine on when to finally pull the trigger and buy.</p>
<p>The whole airfare thing can drive ya nuts. Last winter, my D went to Cambodia and Laos. The fares not only differed from site to site but also by the minute things would change. We’d comparison shop online and print out options and then go back online and it would all change. It’s nuts. She did get a good fare in the end though. I may be forgetting but I think it was on Cheaptickets.com. </p>
<p>She is flying out in ten days to work in the French Alps for the summer and flying into Geneva. This wasn’t as nutty as looking into flights which were also more costly to Asia. I think she got a good rate but also did not do as intense of a search over time as her graduate school will fund her flights for her to take this job in her field overseas. 
(she’s also going to Morocco afterwards but it is a separate booking)</p>
<p>I don’t think Delta charges for the first checked bag on International flights. Does charge $50 for the second. On domestic flights they charge $15 for the 1st bag and $25 for the second.</p>
<p>I am kicking myself right now. I have been checking flights to the UK and Delta had an excellent price. I put off buying the ticket because I needed to check something out schedule wise and the ticket has gone up hundreds of dollars. Grr. Guess I’ll be using by FF miles I was saving for emergencies after all.</p>
<p>My daughter had decided to go to Hawaii to visit a friend over the summer and found a great deal for $350 round trip from NYC. I told her to book it right away but she dawdled and the price went up to $650 and then to $750! She kept checking and finally last Saturday it went down to $450 so she booked it. Good thing - flights are back to over $600 again.</p>
<p>newmassdad, My daughter did a trip a few years ago to Kenya via England on British Airways and was able to get a one week lay-over in England without an extra charge. I suggested she try that after reading somewhere (here? tripadvisor) that it might be possible.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, </p>
<p>Orbitz says $50/bag. Delta says $50 for the second bag. So who knows?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Don’t forget to check consolidator air fares when traveling overseas.</p>
<p>D just flew Delta to Europe a couple of weeks ago and wasn’t charged for one checked bag.</p>
<p>The first luggage checked with Delta on any international flight is free. Or was a month ago 
Interesting though, some european airlines will check two suitcases for free.</p>
<p>3 years ago my D and I travelled to Rome on American. I had one free ticket so booked it as soon as it was available. I had to book her paid ticket to ensure we would travel together. When the fare dropped by $350 dollars I called and got a complete refund on the difference because at that time, for international travel, American did not charge a fee to to this. I don’t know if any airlines still do this, but it is worth asking to see if you can book an international fare and then see if the fare goes down.</p>