Fly the Cheap Skies

What was once a cut-and-dried process, is now an art, and frequent travelers have learned to shop around for the best deals. How? By keeping an eye on industry trends, as well as travel agency and airline deals. Here's how they stack up:

Direct purchasing from airlines:

Each airline has it's own website with a searchable database.

Advantages: You can book your seats when you place your reservations and there's no middle man. Except where stated, frequent flyer miles usually apply.

Disadvantages: The tickets can be pricier than going through a discount agency.

Online travel agencies:

There are a number of agencies currently on the web, but the biggest are:

Travelocity: (www.travelocity.com)

Orbitz: (www.orbitz.com)

Expedia: (www.expedia.com)

Bestfares: (www.bestfares.com)

Priceline: (www.priceline.com)

Hotwire: (www.hotwire.com)

In order to purchase discounted flights, you have to join most of them. Joining simply requires registration and an email address. Bestfares also requires members pay a rather hefty fee in order to access special low fares. The fee also entitles the member to a subscription to Bestfares magazine.

 So – what are the differences between the services? While the others allow the traveler to shop around, Priceline tickets are purchased by making an offer on how much you are willing to pay for tickets. Then the offer to fanned out to various carriers. If one accepts your offer, then you are committed to pay for it.

 Hotwire is also different from the other services in that they do not tell you which airlines you are flying with until you make your purchase. Once they locate a ticket, the purchaser has one hour in which to accept or decline the reservations.

 And the agencies have very different search results, too. Recently one Jacksonville resident used Expedia and Orbitz to look for a flight that sold on Bestfares for $515. The airline itself offered the same flight for $650. Expedia could not find the same flight, but did find a similar one for around $450. Orbitz, however, was able to book the passenger on the same flight as Bestfares for just under $400.

 Travelers also need to watch the bottom line. Bestfares may appear to offer the best deal, but their advertised price doesn't include taxes and other fees that are routinely added in to the ticket price. Orbitz and Expedia, on the other hand, do.

 The best advice for anyone considering purchasing an airline ticket is to shop around and be ready to buy when the price you want to pay matches the itinerary you've chosen. But remember: These tickets are not refundable and, in many cases, cannot be changed. If they are subject to change, then there's a $75 to $150 extra fee tacked on. And they're not transferable, either. You can't book a trip for Dad and let Junior take his place.

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