Flight search sites

[Sbbruin 21,900]

Probably addressed in other threads, but didn't find it.  What does everyone use to search  flights?  I'm an old so I still use Expedia, but I'm guessing others may be better?  Expedia has a clean result table.  

[Shaddie 1,651]

Honestly only use them to get an idea of cost and then book with actual airline. Cost will be basically the same and if you have problems you deal with airline and not a company that doesn’t care about after the sale. 
 

Not that airlines care but at least their people have power to make changes. 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Shaddie

[Sbbruin 21,900]

^^

[Telegraph_it 3,359]

https://www.google.com/flights

[tigol 2,410]

https://www.google.com/flights

This.

[Sbbruin 21,900]

20 minutes ago, Telegraph_it said:

https://www.google.com/flights

Google?  Never heard of it.  Is that like Ask Jeeves?

[Telegraph_it 3,359]

1 hour ago, Sbbruin said:

Google?  Never heard of it.  Is that like Ask Jeeves?

Yes but it’s more like google asks you. 

[Post Oak 20,295]

EscapeATx

 

[Viking 301]

Ditto flights.google.com. It's great if you have flexibility in dates and destinations.

[HenryJames 66,191]

Wish flights.google.com had a way to filter out all the bullshit fares that charge you for seat selection.

[midtown 3,348]

Google flights unless you are a SWA person

If Im on my phone and don't have a computer near by I check Kayak

Edited January 22, 2023 by midtown

[kevwun 15,936]

Google Flights will still show you the Southwest flights, just no prices.  It is stupid that SWA still won't let them.

[Spankytoes 1,743]

Nothing to add. If I’m paying for a flight, I use Google flights as well.

[Guest]

Kayak.

Will check out Google flights.

[CooterBrown 18,034]

Google Flights will still show you the Southwest flights, just no prices.  It is stupid that SWA still won't let them.

They don’t want you to see out uncompetitive their prices now are compared to other airlines.

[Telegraph_it 3,359]

5 hours ago, HenryJames said:

Wish flights.google.com had a way to filter out all the bullshit fares that charge you for seat selection.

There is a way. Change carry on bag to one and it will filter out the basic fares. Filter works on the fare calendar too. 
 

Edited January 22, 2023 by Telegraph_it

[Chopper 17,297]

Google flights for basic. Their 'explore' option is valuable if you are flexible on when and where you want to travel to.

If I'm trying to find international nonstop availability, or compare fares on flights from different cities, I'll start with matrix.itasoftware.com  you can't book there but it has unsurpassed flexibility and options to find what you're looking for and then book directly on an airline's site

[Sam Lin 3,564]

If you want to get really serious with specific routing codes and tricks, Google still maintains ITA Matrix:

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search

It's supposed to be getting shut down as everything moves to Flights, but Flights has so much less functionality that they haven't killed ITA yet.

 

Oops, Chopper mentioned it in the previous post, I just totally glossed over the address as it didn't URL.

[Sam Lin 3,564]

I understand and agree with the general message above to always book with the airline, as it does give you the most chance of getting a rebook or change if something goes wrong. However:

Sometimes resale agents will buy up a block of seats at a specific fare. There are cases where you can get a much lower fare if you find one of the resale agents trying to sell their seat, esp if you book last-minute and they either sell it or lose it. This is a case where Skyscanner, Priceline, Kayak, etc sometimes can find oddball listings that you won't get on the airline's own site.

The other reason to use an agent (that I've personally run into): many airlines require showing the credit card used to purchase at check in, if you are in a higher-fraud-risk country. If you are buying a ticket for someone else and won't be at the airport with them, it may be inconvenient to do whatever alternate authentication the airline requests (for example, I've had to go to the airline ticket office and sign docs and have them check my ID). If you book through a booking site/agent, the site/agent takes the fraud risk and the airline won't need to check anything. As most of you are US-based, probably not a big issue. This card verification can be very common in Asia.