Well vacation time is coming up in a about 4 weeks for me at work. I decided I was going to fly up and visit my parents for a few days. I went to some of the online sites to buy tickets. These sites have to be the biggest scams on the net.

I was looking for a ticket from Fort Lauderdale to Buffalo and I went from one extreme to another with these sites. They all had very different pricing and many had confusing interfaces. Yahoo Travel was the worst one. They had a ticket listed for $135 roundtrip where everyone else was around $200. I went through their whole process of buying the ticket including putting in my credit card number. After I was done, they came back and said the flight wasn't available. Why would they even show it to me if it wasn't there? I went to the airline sites themselves and they were more expensive then the ticket sites. Here's basically my worst to best list, Expedia being the best who I bought from.

Worst to Best

Yahoo Travel - Promised me a flight they didn't have and put me through the whole process of getting it.
Orbitz - Also promised me a flight they didn't have but let me out a little earlier
Airline Sites - confusing and for the most part more expensive then the reseller sites
Travelocity.com - Ok but slightly expensive
CheapTickets.com - Good prices. Interface was pretty good but not the easiest to use
Expedia.com - Good prices. Good Interface. Bought from them because they were all and all the best I found.

I left Priceline.com out because I got burned from them years ago and won't shop with them anymore. I heard they have changed their practices since I shopped with them but they put me through too much trouble to go back. At that time they didn't tell you about Fuel and other Taxes. After you had already agreed to take the flight, they would add the taxes on and they would charge it to your credit card. They made you give them the credit card number at the very beginning.

Well basically that was my experiences with online ticket sales. Hopefully it will help someone else that's looking to fly soon.

All and all I guess I should of just drove my Ford!!!

 

I can't help you with a flight but I wou;d LOVE to get to mett you when you get here! I'm in Cheektowaga - I'm sure you've heard of it! LOL!
Please email me so we can plan to get together for coffee & chat ok? I love meeting people from Online! You're all so nice!

 

i just used expedia.com myself for my trip to calif. it went fairly smoothly. no complaints.