February 9
When buying international airfare, I always try to book directly with the airline or a travel agent. This way, when there is some type of disruption (not that this ever happens when travelling by air) I can rely on the airline or travel agent to make any arrangements necessary to get me on my way. My experience with popular online booking engines has been the airline telling me to discuss my issue with the booking company and the booking company telling me to discuss my issue with the airline; hardly worth any savings an online booking engine may provide.
When you start searching, take a look at sites like http://itasoftware.com/ and/or http://www.kayak.com/ to do some comparison shopping. You will get an idea of the schedules and prices that will work for you. These sites will show you just about every airline in the world that flies the routes you are looking for and both sites feature a “flexible travel dates” search option. Unlike Kayak, ITA does not provide a link to book the airfare, it simply shows you an inventory of itineraries.
Book directly with the airline. These days, airlines need all the business they can muster up and because of this, they try extremely hard not be undersold. 9 times out of 10, you will find the cheapest published fares on an airline’s web site.
Ask a travel agent for a quote-great travel agents have access to consolidator airfares-basically, fares that are pre-negotiated with an airline and sold only through travel professionals. These fares are not cheaper every day on every flight, but when they are, you will know. There can be savings of $100 to over $1000 when buying consolidator fares, particularly on last “minute” reservations and when travelling in business or first class.
…happy flying
