Cheap Airfare: Does it pay to book online?
I’m a little cranky this morning. I just got socked with hundreds of dollars in fees from an online “discount” travel site and there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. Trust me, there are better ways to get cheap airline tickets.
I ‘m going out of town for a conference next month. I booked my flight using a popular online discount airfare website. On the whole the process was easy and the rate wasn’t bad. The trip including aifare and hotel was about $650, which isn’t too bad for flying across the country and spending three nights in a popular tourist destination.
I found out yesterday that a new day of classes was added to the conference. Since I have a press pass to cover the entire event, I felt it in my best interest to change my flight to depart a day earlier. I knew I would be socked with a penalty for changing the flight, but I didn’t realize how much additional it would cost! I just paid an additional $518 on top of the original $650 to change my airfare and hotel!
While this website might offer great travel discounts, they don’t make it easy for you to change your flight - and if you do you’re socked with hefty fees. I think it’s for this reason alone I might stick with making reservations directly through the airline and cutting out the middleman. I’m never going to use this service again. I’m not one who changes my plans often, when I do I don’t want to be penalized.
This was an important lesson to me. Places offering discounts have lots of small print. Read it before booking!
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POSTED IN: Thrifty Travel, Web Resources
4 opinions for Cheap Airfare: Does it pay to book online?
qztown » Cheap Airfare: Does it pay to book online?
Oct 22, 2007 at 8:19 am
[…] sourced here […]
the aesthetic onion
Oct 22, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I use the discount travel websites to search, but then visit the airline website to actually book the tickets. They actual airline websites are much clearer about flight change/cancellation policies and usually offer the same or lower price options than the discount website. But the discount website gives me an idea of which airline will probably offer the lowest rates at the time for the location I am traveling to.
(army)wife
Oct 24, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I’ve found that it can go either way as to whether the discount travel site is cheaper or purchasing through the airline is cheaper. It really is the luck of the draw especially since airfares change as often as every few hours. However, you can book on a discount travel site, but then change your tickets directly with the airline. Changing through the airline is usually cheaper because both places will charge a change fee plus the difference in the tickets. The discount travel site will also charge their service fee, while the airline will not.
Tink
Oct 28, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I book through the discount sites, BUT, I pay the few extra bux each time for the travel insurance that allows you to change your flights.
I’ve had to use it twice now and had no troubles.
I just returned from a cross country trip to visit “home”. Unfortunately, “home’ is also a very popular tourist destination. Since other members of my family were coming in from all over the country (I was concerned I’d have to change my plans to match their schedules), the peace of mind I received from the 13 dollars I paid for the insurance was well worth it.
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