Flights Best airfare sites

[Sojourner]

Many people have a favourite third party site they use to find airfares. Many of them believe that their favourite gets them the 'best' price. The question is, when they say they get you the 'best price', are they telling the truth or are they just telling you the best price THEY have for a flight on a given day and if you book it TODAY?

I'm thinking it might be interesting to do a little experiment to see what your favourites come up with and compare them.

So here is a scenario. You wan to fly from Phoenix, USA to Edinburgh, Scotland. You want to depart on July 16 of this year. One passenger, one way. You are not flexible on the date but are willing to put up with up to 2 stops of any duration if necessary. You are willing to fly cattle class. You want the fare quoted in US Dollars.

On one well known site I see prices in the $1200 range. On another booking site, I see a price of $642. Both suggest they find the 'best' price deals. At least one isn't obviously.

Here is where I found $642.
https://www.justfly.com/flight/sear...7-07-16&seg0_from=PHX&seg0_to=EDI&type=oneway

What does YOUR favourite site offer you for this scenario? Let's see if they are as good as you think they are. My belief is if we compare sites and some people post on different days, the best deal we can find will move from site to site, from day to day. Meaning, no one site gets you the 'best price'. It's a moving target.

 

[aap519]

What is a "Phone-Only Fare" airline?

 

[Sojourner]

Just another third party ploy aap519. It's like package holidays where they show a price but won't name a hotel etc. because it would supposedly upset other people who have paid that hotel or airline or whatever a higher price than you are getting.

So in this case, they don't name the airline/s involved until you phone to book. If you don't like what you hear, you don't book.

Hope that clarifies it for you. Now what price does YOUR favourite booking site offer you?

 

[Sojourner]

Huh, no one wants to see what their favourite flight booking site comes up with? Thirty viewings but only one comment?

 

[aap519]

While price is important, nonstop from Chicago to Paris is also important. We normally always fly Air France nonstop from Chicago to Paris. It's 8 hours to Paris and a 9 hour return flight. That's enough flying for one day.

I can always find cheaper flight, like on Turkish Air, but you end up with a 12 to 18 hour layover in Istanbul. I've also found state side airlines cheaper, but we fly from Chicago to Detroit, then Detroit to New York and then New York to Paris

 

[joe]

I don't have a "favorite" or "best" airfare site, but I checked three for the sake of the experiment. The cheapest I found was 683 $US :
https://www.kayak.com/flightreserva...mInfantsLap=0&Cabin=Economy&_kw_pbranded=true

FWIW, "cheapest" is not always top priority. My wife is scared of flying, so any flight we make has to be direct.

 

[Chris]

Best is not just a matter of price when you're thinking about flights from the west coast of the U.S. to Europe, so this exercise doesn't mean much to me. Number of stops, layover lengths, overall time in the air and whether or not I can start and end in Sacramento rather than SFO all factor into my decisions. (Being able to take a quick cab ride home at the end of a trip instead of train/rental car/other alternative from SFO is worth a lot.) When I have enough miles, I just skip Kayak and the rest and go directly to the AA site and do the best I can with them. If I'm just browsing, I tend to use Kayak.

 

[Sojourner]

I'm glad to see people are taking into account other factors in what makes up a 'best' flight. I'm in agreement with all the factors mentioned.

However, the exercise was intended to show that what third party sites claim to do in their terms (meaning price defines 'best') and what they actually do are not one and the same thing. We could do the same type of exercise for hotels for example and find that the 'best' price is never found consistently by any third party site.

Thanks for giving it a try joe. So Kayak and 2 others did not find the lowest price. I wonder what people who say, 'I always use Kayak to find flights' would say to that? That's what gets me. People do say, 'I always use X' and seem to actually believe that makes sense. They give loyalty to a company that doesn't deliver what they claim to deliver. How does that make any sense?

 

[Andrew]

"Phone-only fare": could that be something like a "hacker fare" on some sites, where segments can't be booked together?

Knowing that Norwegian offers low fares to Edinburgh, and I don't think they offer tickets interlining with other airlines, I established an available fare from Providence to EDI on their site, but it also shows on Kayak. Doing separate Kayak searches, I get:

Phoenix-Providence via Charlotte on American, leaving at 1.15 a.m. but meeting the rule of being on 7/16, arriving 1.45 p.m.: $284

Providence-EDI, departing 9.25 p.m.: $139

Total $423, with a comfortable connecting time. Still, expect no help if you miss the flight out of Providence because of a missed connection or cancelled flight.

I also searched Phoenix-Providence on Southwest, which doesn't interline or show on sites other than their own, but their fares are higher that day.

 

[Roz]

Best is not just a matter of price when you're thinking about flights from the west coast of the U.S. to Europe, so this exercise doesn't mean much to me. Number of stops, layover lengths, overall time in the air and whether or not I can start and end in Sacramento rather than SFO all factor into my decisions. (Being able to take a quick cab ride home at the end of a trip instead of train/rental car/other alternative from SFO is worth a lot.)

Chris, out of curiosity, how do you fly from Sacramento to France? Obviously, you can't go nonstop, but what route do you use? Like Augie, we prefer direct flights, and always fly Air France from SFO -- although we HATE the trip to and from SFO, which gets worse all the time.

Now that our son lives in Santa Fe, we have started flying there (well, to ABQ), and we are leaving from Sacramento. It's not really closer to us than San Francisco, but the drive is so much less stressful and usually shorter time-wise.

 

[Andrew]

Not to pre-empt Chris, but when Margaret lived in Sacramento I booked her to Europe via Chicago. From Sac., you can generally get non-stops to the major airlines' hubs with service in turn to Paris or wherever. Because of travel by people in government, I think Washington Dulles is the top East Coast destination from Sac.

 

[Chris]

It depends. I'm usually flying with AA miles, so it depends on what I can get. I really like to fly through Portland or Seattle because it's the shortest time in the air (over the pole is a lot shorter, usually at least an hour). In May I connected in Chicago and returned through Dallas. The trip before that was through LA both coming and going. In October I'll fly through LA going and come home through Seattle. Since it's AA, all of these involve a stop in LHR, which I'd like to avoid (unless that's where I'm going). I just read that AA is starting to include flights through Madrid in its FF searches.

 

[Andrew]

Since it's AA, all of these involve a stop in LHR

I'm not sure if that just meant the LA and Seattle flights; maybe the award availability is easier to find going via LHR, but AA goes to Paris non-stop from most hubs: from Sacramento you could connect at DFW, Chicago, or Charlotte (some of those are seasonal). Also I see that from LAX there's a codeshare operated by Air Tahiti Nui.

 

[Sojourner]

Everything has a price. FF points don't always get you the shortest travel times. What cost can be put on that?

We try to follow a couple of rules.

1. Direct, non-stop (those two terms are not one and the same although some people think they are).
2. Convenient departure/arrival times.
3. Decent legroom.

Price only applies after those are met. So obviously, we rarely fly at the lowest price that can be found but we do try to fly at the lowest price that meets those criteria. We are very reluctant to give up any of our criteria.

Another factor that we have added in more recent years is flying from our nearest airport (just under 1 hour drive) vs. our nearest major airport (3 hours). We will accept a short hop to the major airport to then catch a non-stop direct to our destination. Since there are about 12 of those short hops per day, there is no problem with making a connection in a leisurely fashion.

Our last such trip left our local airport at 11 am. So no rush to get up early (no more getting up at 4 or 5am to head to an airport). Then our non-stop to Europe left our major airport at 2.30 pm. Bags were checked through from the local airport so no need to deal with them twice. The same airline for the local and internationl flights, so no need to change terminals or anything. Security screening at the local airport, so no need to do anything but walk from our arrival gate to the next departure gate. Plenty of time for lunch at one of the restaurants before boarding our flight to Europe.

We do find a huge difference in using our local airport and 'shuttling' to the major airport. First, parking is easy and cheap in comparison. Second, there are basically no line ups to deal with. On our last trip, I forgot to take my little 2 inch Swiss Army Knife off my keychain. At security, the guy said to me, 'We have to confiscate that. Do you have a car parked outside?' I said I did and he said, 'OK, go put it in your car'. I was back in front of him in under 10 minutes. That is never going to happen at a major airport.

We have also found that if we are flying with one airline, when we add on the short hop to our international flight, they do not use the same price as the standard short hop price. So where the short hop return alone might be $250, the adder return onto our international fare is only around $150. It costs us that much to park a car at the major airport for 1 week. Parking at our local airport is $50 per week. You can work out what that does to overall cost for a 1,2,3, etc. week trip. At 2 weeks we end up spending less overall flying from our local airport.

What I have noticed in the last few years on many travel forums is an almost obsessive focus on price and little or no regard for any other factors. I think that focus is being fed by the third party websites and their constant, 'we get you the best price' marketing. Something that in fact, they rarely even actually do. There is almost always some cheaper way to do it if someone doesn't care how long it takes or how inconvenient it may be.

 

[Chris]

You're right about that too, Andrew, but award availability is another matter.

 

[Chris]

I agree with most of what you say, Sojourner. Comfort is a big criteria for me as well. I've come to the conclusion that I never want to do another transatlantic flight in coach, so business class is required, at least for the transatlantic leg. The taxes and fees for flying through Heathrow are often about the same or more than a coach ticket to my destination. On the other hand, I'd rather collect and use those miles for money I'm spending anyway than pay full fare for business class. You may see that as an obsessive focus on price. I don't.

 

[Pauline]

In the US we did not live near a major airport so had to fly to one and then continue on. Since we moved to the UK we drive to either Heathrow or Gatwick. I will look to see if we can fly BA from our local airport to Heathrow or Gatwick. That would make a big difference. Other airlines fly from smaller airports near us, but they never seem to fly where we are going!

From the US to Europe, for the last 10 years we lived there, I used miles to upgrade to Business or bought Business on the sales. We felt it was worth it for us.

 

[aap519]

Glad to see legroom was brought up. It's something I forgot to mention. I normally always pay the extra to get seats next to the emergency exit since it gives you a lot of extra legroom.

 

[Roz]

Another reason we usually fly Air France, besides nonstop to Paris from SFO, is that they offer Premium Economy. That has the extra legroom and priority boarding for a much lower price than business class. I couldn't find any other airlines offering that class from SFO, at least not to Paris.

From SFO Air France flies the Airbus 380, whose Premium Economy seats are larger and more comfortable than those on Boeings. We flew PE on a Boeing once from the East Coast, and found the seats much less comfortable.

 

[Jan55612]

We take many of the factors mentioned into account when booking flights. We currently live in a remote northern Minnesota area, so the closest airports are more than two hours away. That also means we have more connections and longer travel days. On my last three transatlantic flights I have chosen to fly from a small airport in Ontario on Air Canada. We are able to purchase Premium Economy seats, which are in a small separate cabin on certain routes. The cost has been less than I would have paid for Delta's Comfort Economy and the amenities are better: wider seats, more legroom, foot rests, upgraded service, etc. Also, you can purchase Maple Leaf Lounge access for $25 each way, which makes the layovers in Toronto (and other cities) much more tolerable. I could have found cheaper flights, but these flights worked better for us.