Lesson learned: Go beyond expedia and/or Orbitz

[Fargoman2]

This week I learned an important lesson about the airfare search engines--don't assume they produce the lowest fares, and I'm not just talking about saving on the $5 booking fee.

Case in point. Today I search Expedia for the lowest fare between MSP and MCO for July 21-30. The best rate found is $251.
I go to continental.com and find the fare offered for $168.50 (it was even $148.30 earlier this week)--even though on the Expedia search Continental came up as $289.

Perhaps I'm a late learner on this curve. But this lesson will definitely aid me in the future.

 

[DebbieB]

I always go back to the airline's website and have been able to match the orbitz or expedia fare, and save on the booking fee. One time orbitz was much lower, I tried to book it and it then said unavailable.

 

[luvmk]

The only time I book airfare with expedia is when I am doing a package. I was just looking at Aruba and expedia was much cheaper when booking air with hotel. However, if I'm doing Orlando or Vegas, I always go to the airlines website. It has always been cheaper. Also, Southwest fares aren't on expedia. I know some people don't like Southwest, but sometimes their flight times and fares are too good to pass up. Thanks for giving others the heads up on buying airfare!


Rachel