What is the best website to use to book the cheapest flights?

There is no single website that has the cheapest flights all of the time. Most of the travel search engines and online travel agencies all have similar pricing, however you can find some really nice deals when looking at opaque (hidden) bookings or vacation packages.

What is an opaque booking?

An opaque booking hides many of the flight details, including arrival and departure times and the operating airline, until your booking is complete. Many sites including Hotwire, Orbitz, and Travelocity offer these types of bookings.

Will I earn frequent flyer miles when I book through an online travel agency?

Generally, yes, you will still be able to earn frequent flyer miles on flights booked through an online travel agency. However, miles earned to qualify for elite status may be not be awarded unless you book directly through the airline’s website.

Is it cheaper to book directly on the airline's website?

Often, an airline will offer the lowest prices through its own website. However, you can often save money booking through an online travel agency (OTA) that has the ability to combine flights from more than 1 airline into a single itinerary.

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The 12 Best Websites for Booking Flights at the Cheapest Prices [July 2023]

Katie SeemannUpdated: July 12, 2023, 2:36pm CDT

Edited by: Stella Shon

& Juan Ruiz

The 12 Best Websites for Booking Flights at the Cheapest Prices [July 2023]

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Searching for a flight can be a bit overwhelming. There are so many factors: dates, times, price, fare class, airline, and more. Even when you know exactly when and where you want to fly, where should you look for the absolute best price?

Unfortunately, no website consistently has the lowest prices. Most of the popular OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) are usually in the same ballpark for the price, but not all offer the same benefits or search functionality.

We’ve combed through many popular OTAs to compare prices and show you the benefits and drawbacks of each site.

Book Direct Through the Airline’s Website

More often than not, booking directly through the airline’s website will give you the best price, or will at least be the same as the OTAs.

Some airlines, like Southwest, won’t even show up on sites like Expedia or Orbitz, so you have to book direct. It can also be the most simple way to book. If a problem arises, you don’t have to deal with a third party to get it resolved.

Another reason to book directly through an airline’s website is to use those frequent flyer miles — hooray for award flights!

Of course, to book through the airline’s website, you first need to know which airline has the best prices. There are lots of travel search engines and OTAs that can help you find the best deals so you know which airline’s website to visit. Some OTAs even offer perks that might make it worth booking someplace other than the airline’s site.

Hot Tip: A card such as The Platinum Card^® from American Express earns an impressive 5x Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year.

1. Momondo

Momondo is a travel metasearch engine similar to Kayak. The home page displays a simple search box where you can plug in your travel details.

One of the things we love about this site is the visual way it shows you the price trends for your flight. At first glance, you can tell if you could save some money by shifting around your travel dates a bit. It also offers a price tracker and lots of filtering options on the left-hand side of the screen.

You can quickly see how the prices for your travel dates compared to others. Oftentimes, you can save some money if you have a bit of flexibility. Image Credit: Momondo

It also offers Mix & Match fares (formerly Hacker Fares) which are simply 2 one-way tickets from different airlines packaged together to get you the best deal. However, unlike other sites, to book these types of tickets you do have to go to 2 separate websites to book.

Pros and Cons of Momondo

Pros:

Great price tracking tools

Cons:

Mix & Match fares require you to make 2 separate reservations; this is usually handled “behind the scenes” on other websites

Hot Tip: We cover the ins and outs of finding cheap airfare with this website in our guide to using Momondo.

2. Kayak

Kayak is not an OTA. Rather, it’s a travel search engine — making it a great place to start your flight search.

The site compares prices from many different websites all in a single spot so you can easily see where the cheapest options are. Most of the time, you’ll end up clicking through to a different site to complete your booking.

Kayak offers the ability to combine 2 one-way tickets (usually on different airlines) in 1 itinerary, which is a great way to save money on your flight. These itineraries can be pretty good deals and something that doesn’t always appear in search results of other websites.

Pros and Cons of Kayak

Pros:

Ability to combine 2 one-way flights on a single itinerary
Price Alerts to keep an eye on flight prices

Cons:

Kayak offers the most benefit when your travel plans are very flexible; many of its most valuable tools help you search for deals, so this site might be less appealing when you have a specific flight in mind

Bottom Line: For more information about Kayak’s travel search tools, check out the complete guide to booking travel with Kayak.

3. Expedia

Daily Deals Special: Click here for up to 40% off at Expedia

Expedia is another tried-and-true OTA that people have been using since the 1990s. Back then, Expedia was a go-to source for searching and booking flights. But how does it stack up now?

As far as price goes, you aren’t necessarily getting a better deal booking through Expedia, but you aren’t paying any more than you might on the airline’s website.

A nice perk of using Expedia is that it offers a rewards program called Expedia Rewards. This program offers Member Prices that can save 10% or more on travel plus the ability to earn points for flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, activities, and vacation packages.

Hot Tip: Expedia will introduce a new loyalty program called One Key in mid-2023 that will combine the ability to earn and redeem rewards across Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo.

If you’re a member of an airline’s frequent flyer program, you’ll be happy to know that you can still earn airline miles on a flight booked through Expedia. However, you often won’t be able to earn miles toward status or be eligible for seat upgrades.

Pros and Cons of Expedia

Pros:

Earn and redeem points through the Expedia Rewards program (although the earning potential is better on hotels, cars, packages, activities, and cruises than it is on flights)

Cons:

Booking through Expedia may limit your mileage earned toward elite status
Your ability to be eligible for upgrades can be limited when you book through Expedia

Hot Tip: For more information, check out our post about how to use Expedia to find great deals on flights, hotels, vacation packages (and more).

4. Priceline

Priceline is a popular OTA that introduced the Name Your Own Price tool and opaque bookings. These types of bookings can offer discounts, but many of the details are hidden until after the booking. The Name Your Own Price tool was discontinued for flights in 2016, so now Priceline operates like most other OTAs out there.

One of the nice things about searching for flights on Priceline is that it has a nice color-coded calendar so you can easily see which days offer the lowest prices.

You can see at a glance which days offer the best prices for your flights. Image Credit: Priceline

The search results on Priceline are clear and easy to navigate. As you scroll through your search results, you can easily see the cheapest nonstop options and things like flights with no change fees or early bird flights.

Priceline search results are labeled so you can easily find what you’re looking for. Image Credit: Priceline

Another way to save money is by looking at Priceline’s Express Deals. These “opaque bookings” are ones where select details of the flight (like the departure, arrival times, or even the airline) are hidden until the booking is complete.

Pros and Cons of Priceline

Pros:

Express Deal flights can offer a good discount if you have some flexibility; many of the details of the flight, including airline and arrival and departure times, are hidden until the booking is complete
Color-coded calendar and easy-to-read search results
Price Match Guarantee
Free online cancellation within 24 hours of booking (except for Express Deal flights)

Cons:

No rewards program
Express Deal flights can be good deals, but they can sometimes be even more expensive than a standard booking

Bottom Line: For more information, check out the complete guide to booking travel with Priceline.

5. Orbitz

Daily Deals Special: Check out Orbitz’s Daily Deals

Orbitz is another reliable OTA that has been around since 2001. One thing that makes this site a little different is that it offers its own rewards program called Orbitz Rewards. You can earn Orbucks when you book hotels, flights, and vacation packages through Orbitz. However, you can only redeem Orbucks for hotels.

When booking a flight through Orbitz, you’ll earn 1% of your purchase price back as Orbucks (or 2% if you use the Orbitz mobile app). If you book a $500 flight, you will earn 5 Orbucks, which is worth $5 toward a hotel booking. Joining the Orbitz Rewards program is free.

You can earn Orbucks on every flight you purchase through Orbitz. Image Credit: Orbitz

Unfortunately, Orbitz sometimes charges a 1% booking fee. Keep an eye out for these on your trip summary page before finalizing your purchase and factor them into your calculations to see if you’re getting a good deal or not. While earning Orbucks is great, paying a booking fee could wipe out all of the benefits.

Watch out for booking fees on your flight purchase from Orbitz. Image Credit: Orbitz

Pros and Cons of Orbitz

Pros:

Orbitz Rewards lets you earn Orbucks that can be applied to hotel bookings
24-hour cancellation policy
Low Price Guarantee: if you find a lower price for your flight on another website within 24 hours, Orbitz will refund the difference

Cons:

Flight booking fees

Bottom Line: For more information check out our guide to booking travel with Orbitz.

6. Agoda

Agoda is an OTA owned by Priceline. This website doesn’t offer much more than a simple search with limited filter options when looking for flights. If you’re looking for unique accommodations such as an apartment or private villa, Agoda is worth checking out, but it doesn’t offer much when searching for flights.

One cool thing about Agoda is that the site is multilingual. You can select your language by clicking on the flag in the top menu bar.

You can easily change the language on Agoda by clicking on the flag icon in the top menu bar. Image Credit: Agoda

Pros and Cons of Agoda

Pros:

Simple search functionality
Multilingual option

Cons:

Limited filtering options for flights

Hot Tip: Agoda has a loyalty program called VIP, but it only applies to hotel stays. For more information, check out our guide to booking travel through Agoda.

7. Hotwire

Special: See these Hotwire Flight Deals

Hotwire is a popular OTA that has been around for almost 20 years.

The simple home page offers the main search box to input your departure and arrival cities as well as your desired dates of travel.

Hotwire can offer a great deal when booking a hotel along with your flight. Many times during the booking process, you’ll see pop-ups or prompts advertising great savings when booking a hotel at the same time. We tested it, and every time we priced out a Hotwire vacation package deal against purchasing a flight and hotel separately, the package deal was cheaper.

You can often save money by booking a hotel and flight together on Hotwire. Image Credit: Hotwire

Bottom Line: If you need a hotel in addition to your flight, booking both together through Hotwire can save you money.

One other thing to keep in mind when using Hotwire to find great flight deals is that sometimes a booking fee will be charged.

Pros and Cons of Hotwire

Pros:

Package deals that include a hotel stay can save money
24-hour cancellation policy
Low Price Guarantee

Cons:

Hotwire can sometimes charge a booking fee

Bottom Line: For more details about finding great deals, check out our complete guide to booking travel through Hotwire.

8. Skyscanner

Skyscanner is another travel search engine that does not sell flights directly. It shows you a list of flights and links to the airline’s website or OTA to complete the purchase.

This site excels for travelers with flexibility. In the search box, you can select Explore everywhere to search for the cheapest destinations on your chosen dates.

If you’ve got flexibility, you can use Skyscanner’s “Explore Everywhere” feature to save money. Image Credit: Skyscanner

If you have a set destination with specific dates, Skyscanner operates like most other travel search sites.

Pros and Cons of Skyscanner

Pros:

Flexible searches including Explore everywhere and Multi-city search
Easy to change language and currency
Price alerts

Cons:

No rewards program

Hot Tip: For more information, check out our in-depth piece on Skyscanner.

9. Travelocity

Travelocity is yet another OTA that has been around for a while and is very similar to the other websites we’ve been looking at.

On the plus side, there are some nice filtering options to help you find the best flight for your needs. On the downside, prices can change between selection and booking. We did a dummy booking and by the time we got to the payment section, the flight price had gone up from $157 to $338!

Watch out for flight price changes when booking through Travelocity. Image Credit: Travelocity

Much like other online travel agencies, Travelocity can also charge booking fees, so keep an eye out for those in the payment section of the booking process.

Travelocity may charge a booking fee on your flight. Image Credit: Travelocity

Pros and Cons of Travelocity

Pros:

Price Guarantee: If you find a lower price on an identical itinerary within 24 hours, Travelocity will refund the difference in price
Free cancellation on flights within 24 hours of booking (on most airlines)

Cons:

Travelocity sometimes charges a booking fee
Prices can change between flight selection and payment

Bottom Line: For more information check out our guide to booking travel with Travelocity.

10. Google Flights

Google Flights is not an OTA. Rather, it’s a metasearch engine similar to Kayak. Once you find a flight, Google Flights will link you to the airline’s direct website or an OTA to complete the purchase. It is a powerful search engine built on the ITA Matrix, which was originally developed for travel agents.

This site shows you price trends and how your date of travel could affect the cost of your ticket. Plus, it allows you to track the prices of a route, so you can jump on low prices when they pop up. These features make Google Flights a great tool to help you feel confident that the price you’re getting is a good deal.

Google Flight’s price graph allows you to see price trends so you can choose the best time to fly. Image Credit: Google Flights

Google Flights is beginning to roll out a new price guarantee feature on select flights departing from the U.S. If you book a flight with the price guarantee badge and the price drops, you’ll get a refund of the difference (with a maximum of $500 per calendar year) from Google Flights via Google Pay. However, you can only receive up to 3 price guaranteed refunds at any one time.

Google Flight’s new price guarantee feature will refund the difference if your flight’s price drops on select flights. Image Credit: Google Flights

Pros and Cons of Google Flights

Pros:

Price graph shows you the pricing trends for your route and allows you to see what days might be cheaper to fly
Price tracking will send you an email when your flight’s price increases or decreases
Automatic price guarantee on select flights

Cons:

Since this search engine is so powerful with lots of options, it could get complicated for a novice traveler

Hot Tip: You can earn frequent flyer miles on flights booked through an OTA, but you might not earn miles toward elite status.

11. CheapOair

CheapOair is an OTA that offers its own credit card. Before you go apply for the card, we recommend considering choosing a better travel rewards credit card for more lucrative and flexible travel rewards.

This site might not be as cheap as you would think. That’s because it can charge expensive “agency fees.” For most flights, the fees can be up to $35, however, once you read the fine print, you’ll see they can actually be as high as $200 per ticket!

CheapOair can charge fees of up to $200 per ticket! Image Credit: CheapOair

In addition, CheapOair charges a fee to change or cancel any ticket, including within 24 hours, which is free on many other sites.

Pros and Cons of CheapOair

Pros:

Price Match Promise: CheapOair will refund the difference in price if you find a lower price on the same itinerary on a major OTA within 24 hours of booking

Cons:

CheapOair charges hefty booking fees in addition to fees to cancel or change your flight
Price Match Promise is very limited; the guarantee is only good for identical flights on Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and Travelocity

Bottom Line: CheapOair might not be cheap after all. It advertises low base fares, but it charges booking fees which usually result in a higher price than the airline’s website. For more information, check out our guide to CheapOair.

12. Hopper

Hopper is an app that tries to predict the right time to buy a flight. It claims that using its app can save you up to 40% on flights. The simple interface and color-coded map show you the cheapest and most expensive times to fly to your chosen destination.

Hopper offers a great visual calendar to quickly search for the cheapest days to fly to a particular destination. Image Credit: Hopper

You can also set up alerts to watch the prices for your specific dates or watch a whole month if you have flexible travel plans.

Pros and Cons of Hopper

Pros:

Easy to use
Choose to watch prices for a specific trip or choose to watch prices over a whole month

Cons:

No ability to search on a desktop
Few filtering options

Hot Tip: There are many credit cards with travel insurance and extra protections like trip interruption and cancellation protection and baggage delay coverage. We suggest looking at Chase credit cards or Amex credit cards for great insurance coverage.

Price Comparisons

We searched for a flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York City (JFK) across different travel booking websites to compare pricing head-to-head. Below is the cheapest ticket each website offered.

In this search, we weren’t taking anything other than price into consideration. When you are actually booking a flight, there will most likely be more factors that go into your decision of which flight to book.

Website	Lowest Cost Flight (With Taxes and Fees) Available for LAX>JFK
Agoda	$438 (Delta)
CheapOair	$595 (American)
Expedia	$401 (American/Delta)
Google Flights	$398 (American/Delta)
Hopper	$398 (American/Delta)
Hotwire	$401 (American/Delta)
Kayak	$438 (Delta)
Momondo	$438 (Delta)
Orbitz	$401 (American/Delta)
Priceline	$398 (American/Delta)
Skyscanner	$438 (Delta)
Travelocity	$401 (American/Delta)

In this example, Google Flights, Hopper, and Priceline tied for the cheapest flight cost with Expedia, Hotwire, Orbitz, and Travelocity coming in just $3 more expensive. CheapOair was by far the most expensive option.

Final Thoughts

There is no one-stop shop to find the lowest prices on a flight every time. Most OTAs are in the same ballpark when it comes to price.

If you’ve got some flexibility, many of these sites can help you find the lowest-priced travel dates and destinations.

If you prefer a more traditional booking, start out with a travel search engine like Kayak or Google Flights to search all of the other sites. That will give you a good idea of the best website to use to save the most money on your next flight.

Are you a student? Don’t miss our guide to the best websites for cheap, discount student flights.

Like this post? Pin it on Pinterest!

For rates and fees of The Platinum Card^® from American Express, click here.

Featured Image Credit: muratart via Shutterstock

Frequently Asked Questions

Your best bet would be to start with a travel search engine like Kayak or Google Flights. You will be able to see prices from many different websites in one place and you can track flight prices to help determine the best time to purchase tickets. Be sure to check out our guide to the best websites to book European vacation packages if you want to bundle your flight with a hotel and/or rental car.

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About Katie Seemann

Katie has been in the points and miles game since 2015 and started her own blog in 2016. She’s been freelance writing since then and her work has been featured in publications like Travel + Leisure and Forbes Advisor.

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73 comments

Alph Lukau

October 14, 2018

Great Update …… i love your website

Stephen Au

October 14, 2018

Thanks Alph!

Dinesh

October 27, 2018

There are many websites which offers information regarding the travel deals and related information ,but in that list these websites are best among them and this article is very helpful.

Katie Seemann

October 27, 2018

Thanks, Dinesh. I’m glad you found the article helpful!

salvish

November 29, 2018

You should also try Farenexus (www.farenexus.com) for easy fare comparisons. I found the airfares relatively cheaper that most of the above mentioned websites on any given day.

Katie Seemann

November 29, 2018

Hi Salvish,

Thanks for the suggestion. We will check it out!

joseph

January 11, 2019

There are many websites which offers information regarding the air travel deals up to 40% off, but this site is very helpful.

Stephen Au

January 11, 2019

Hey Joseph! We appreciate the great feedback. Thank you for your support! We hope to keep publishing material that you find useful and helpful.

Komal Shirke

January 22, 2019

Hello guys, I have booked my ticket on cheaptickets.com. Don’t ever book tickets on their website. They cheat a lot on the cancellation charges. Actual Cancellation of ticket is 5000 but this particular website charging me 11500. I have booked 2 tickets. Imagine 22000 for 2 for person who wants to save money for booking tickets & end up loosing on cancellation. Imagine their charges are almost more than double. What shall i do about that? A person like me is totally against this. Kindly help guys. Where can I launch a complaint?

Alex Miller

January 23, 2019

Hi Komal,

I’m sorry to hear about this. You mentioned “5000” and “11500” – what currency is this in and what flights were you booking? This will help figure out which department of CheapTickets.com might be the best to contact. Cancellation fees can be complicated so there could have been a misunderstanding there, too. Lots of different factors involved here. I would definitely get in contact with CheapTickets.com first and speak to multiple agents if the 1st isn’t helpful (a good rule in general).

Mahie

January 31, 2019

Great article,

Expedia is really nice. Last time I booked my tickets from Expedia using discount coupons from Couponsji and it really cost me low then the usual fair.

I loved the experience of saving on air tickets.

Katie Seemann

January 31, 2019

Hi Mahie, We are glad you found the article useful!

Najitha

March 13, 2019

Thanks for providing this article.

Christine Krzyszton

March 13, 2019

Thank you for your comment, Najitha.

flipfares

March 21, 2019

Good article and so many good portals are there.

Sanj

April 02, 2019

I like the information but how about Justfly.com? I want some information also.

Ramzin Dilshan

May 19, 2019

I would like to go to Sri lanka from Bodo(Norway) in October. This is not a common month to fly there but it’s still too expensive in this month. Hey guys, any suggestion for me?

Christine Krzyszton

May 21, 2019

Hello Ramzin. You might try setting up a price alert for your desired dates. Do a flight search on sites like Kayak, Google Flights, and Monondo. Then set up the price tracker for those itineraries on each of those sites. You will get updates when pricing changes.

Haider Mashkoor

June 13, 2019

What about Travofy?

Katie Seemann

June 13, 2019

Hi Haider,
This list is definitely not exhaustive, it just includes the sites we found to be beneficial. However, we will be sure to look into Travofy to see if it should be added to the list. Thanks!

Jeff P

July 16, 2019

Hi Katie – what about Trip.com? I’m seeing them at the top of the Skyscanner results page more and more frequently

Stephen Au

July 17, 2019

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for reading and offering your feedback. We will look into it and make a determination of whether it’s a great contender. In the meantime, please remember that this is not an all-encompassing piece and it’s only designed to provide an idea of how to find cheap flights.

Venkat

July 19, 2019

Nice post. We are thinking in the same way. I also book tickets in same way. First check the cheap flight and then go to that airline website to book tickets.
However, you are not polite. I accidentally not entered my name, you set an error message “go away SPAMMER!” How polite is that?? What if a spammer post comment with fake name?? Edit the error message to request the person to enter his/her name. Stupid settings.

Stephen Au

July 21, 2019

Hi Venkat! Thanks for reading. We appreciate your feedback, and we apologize if you’re offended due to the security preferences designed to enhance and maximize your experience on our website.

Billy Omar

August 12, 2019

Thank you
Very Interesting Article
Cheers

Katie Seemann

August 12, 2019

Hi Billy,
Thanks for reading!

Judith And Stewart Epstein

November 13, 2019

Trying to find a site that someone told me was really cheap. She booked RT LAX -EWR for $200! One word, think it started with an “S.” Downside is that if airline cancels flight there is no refund!

Anyone know it???

زيد الكناني

May 23, 2023

مرحبا انا من العراق لا أعرف ماذا افعل

jijj416

August 15, 2019

Beware of FlightNetwork. It is a scam!!

Stay far far away from them. I booked a flight from Toronto to Mumbai. As per their website, it had a transit flight in Chicago. They never mentioned that I needed a transit visa for a having an international transit (as we don’t need a visa for transiting in other countries with exception of US). As soon as I booked the ticket, I noticed this visa requirement in their confirmation email and contacted them within 30 minutes of booking. They said they will charge me $600 (negotiating down from $750!) for cancellation as I don’t have transit visa in the US. They said they will deduct this charge ($600) for paying penalty to airlines, from ticket charge and refund remaining money. Now is the fun part- The airline, AIR CANADA refunded the full money to my credit card (charge and reversal from AIR CANADA) as it was cancellation within 24 hours. AFTER 2 days, these scammers charged my credit card with $600 (this time a charge from FLIGHT NETWORK). Their agents who run this scam is in India and talk to you rudely and hang up on you after all this cheating.

Update: Currently I am proceeding with suing this scam Canadian company for full refund PLUS compensation for my lost time, stress and shock. In fact, they are a namesake Canadian company. They are actually run from India by a bunch of scammers with help/registration in Canada (these cheaters are a disgrace to truthful Indians). Canadian consumers fell prey in their trap (traps on their website when booking, unauthorized charges, etc) and deceitful business practices, can take legal action against them through Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (province of Ontario). In Ontario, consumers are protected under the Consumer Protection Act, 2002. Also, file complaint with BBB. File a complaint with the airline as well. These are scammers and protect our fellow consumers from scammers like this one. I used to live in the US before moving to Canada, This type of scamming never happened to me with US companies there.

John Smith

September 17, 2019

You are missing another best flight comparing and searching website FlightsChannel.com which provide the best and cheapest air fare flight tickets.

Katie Seemann

September 17, 2019

Hi John,

This list is not exhaustive so not every single option was included. We’ll take a look at this site and if it offers some good benefits, we’ll add it to our list. Thanks for reading!

Thomas Philip

January 23, 2020

Yes, I also booked a flight with FlightsChannel. I found it great and I think it offers cheap air tickets on national and international routes. I got a flat reduction of $ 300 on my flight reservation. I look forward to their hotel reservations. I think I will try this the next time on my trip.

benny@gmail.com

June 07, 2022

thats good

Mariana

October 31, 2019

https://book.laddybird.com/

This website is great as well and you can compare prices per month from a lot of companies.

Jarrod West

November 01, 2019

Hi Mariana,

Thank you for the suggestion, we will keep that in mind.

Thanks for reading!

Sithik Raja

November 18, 2019

Mr.Jeff, Just now I tried to book at trip.com on the Skyscanner page. They showed a very low price compared with others, but when I went to the final booking stage to pay, they said it was no longer available at this price. Fake one.

Christine Krzyszton

November 18, 2019

Hello Sithik. This situation can happen on any booking website. Airfares change by the hour, even by the minute, so fares can expire quickly. Sorry you missed the very low price but I wouldn’t quit using Skyscanner because of this one incident as it can happen on any airfare booking site or search engine. Thanks for reading.

Praty PP

November 28, 2019

I usually stick with one site (ticket booking website, e.g. Trip.com). You might feel like it is a loss in the short term as you can’t compare all the prices across all the possible sites. But in the long run, having all your travel points, hotel stays benefits, etc, on one platform is beneficial.

If you book directly from Trip.com, the prices are always the latest updated ones.

I’m also a fan of Skyscanner. But I, personally prefer to stay with one site! 🙂

Ray

December 03, 2019

WOW. Most of these are complete trash. Over and over and over again I find the best deals on Trip.com. The fact that you don’t even mention this app makes me think you’re totally uninformed. Just a click-bait article with all the usual suspects. And they all SUCK. Orbitz?! KAYAK?! Expedia?! Priceline!? BAHAHAHA.
Trip.com app people. It blows these giant crap-hole sites out of the water.

Christine Krzyszton

December 04, 2019

Hi Ray. This is not an exhaustive list of all booking websites, just some of the most popular. We included Skyscanner in the article which is operated by the same giant Hong Kong-based company (Trip.com Group Limited) as Trip.com. No one site works for everyone so it’s good to review several of the available options. And that is what was accomplished here.

Vaclav F

December 22, 2019

You forgot to mention Kiwi.com.

Jarrod West

December 23, 2019

Hi Vaclav,

This is a list of the 14 websites that we deem are the best for finding cheap flight prices, and our authors did not feel that Kiwi was better than the other 14 mentioned. I’m glad to hear you’ve had a great experience with Kiwi though!

Thanks for reading!

Claudia

March 13, 2021

Kiwi has numerous bad reviews (please check trustpilot.com) and I would like to add my personal experience: I have booked an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with Kiwi.com. To my surprise when I arrived at the airport in Rio I discovered that Kiwi had booked a ticket that included the following legs: Rio-Paris, Paris-Amsterdam, and Amsterdam-Alicante. My attempt to prove to Air France staff that I was not flying to Amsterdam and Alicante had no effect and I was obliged to do a last-minute antigen Covid-19 test at the airport, which was required to take a flight to the Netherlands. So even with a PCR test in hand, that was required by France (my final destination), I had to suffer again this uncomfortable test and pay an expensive amount at the airport. At no point during my reservation neither in my check-in email reminder did Kiwi mention that I was booked on a trip to Amsterdam and Alicante. I wonder if my Air France flight to Paris had been canceled and Air France had decided to put me on a KLM flight from Rio to Amsterdam, or if I had brought extra luggage to check-in and I discovered at the airport it would be sent directly to Alicante, my situation would have become very complicated with no support what so ever from Kiwi. I will not buy a ticket through Kiwi again. Too risky!

Mark Rejhon

May 27, 2023

That’s why I doublecheck the “Details” section of kiwi. Kiwi has been great for me when booking itineraries that involved two unrelated ultra-low airfare airlines to get me to a location that was more expensive via more familiar airlines (e.g. Canada-Mexico might use a combination of Swoop + Volaris/Aerobus — one Canadian ultralow-airfare airline, followed by a Mexican ultralow-airfare airline). Most other travel booking sites don’t let you do that, but Kiwi does.

Try it. Expedia will never let you do this, unless you make four different one-way bookings! (Canadian ultralow airfare incoming leg, Mexican ultralow airfare incoming-connect leg, Mexican ultralow airfare return-home-connect leg, and finally Canadian ultralow airfare return-home leg). But Kiwi makes these multiple-ultralow-airfare itineraries very easy!

So, Kiwi is fantastic for those people “who know what they are doing” — as long as you doublechecking DIY itineraries via expanding those collapsible “Details” boxes. Kiwi will often do byzantine itineraries to save you money, but you have to really doublecheck everything. You can disable these features (e.g. set a maximum number of stops), but doublechecking is VERY important to do for Kiwi bookings.

Ramsey

January 01, 2020

Those 14 are useless without kiwi.com. Go check for yourself and correct your boring authority.

Jarrod West

January 02, 2020

Hi Ramsey,

Thanks for sharing your opinion on Kiwi and thanks for reading!

Salvish

January 15, 2020

Thank you for sharing such a details version of all these websites – everyone has their own share of experiences with online flight booking websites and just to add one more in your list – I would like to mention Farenexus (travel metasearch from Montreal).
Relatively new yet effective. I must say you should add this one to your list as well.

Vishal

January 15, 2020

It’s just an incredible and beautiful piece of information.
Thank you and keep going 🙂

Jarrod West

January 15, 2020

We appreciate the kind words, Vishal! Thanks for reading!

Tacoma TR

January 21, 2020

Thanks for the article. Curious if you looked at other, exclusive membership sites/programs like AARP, AAA or Costco? I realize these require membership but still decent options.

Christine Krzyszton

January 21, 2020

Thanks for your input, those sites can offer good discounts and if you’re a member they’re worth checking. I received a nice British Airways discount on a flight via AARP.

sana

January 22, 2020

I use the Saveplus website while shopping online for my daily needs. It provides genuine coupons on all brands with validity dates.

Paul

February 09, 2020

I found Google flights to be expensive than most sites. I found one site that beats most of the above. I use it for my own travel. its http://www.cheapflyme.com it is a booking search engine similar to Kayak Flighthub etc but all the networks are found on cheapflyme.com and provide you the lowest prices similar to Expedia. I always find their prices to be the lowest.

Chrish

February 26, 2020

Thanks for sharing, it is very helpful for us! Keep it up!

Frederick

March 09, 2020

Which site works best when you know the country to which you want to travel and are open regarding the dates? e.g. you want to go to England in 2020, or maybe a bit broader, Europe in 2020. The “everywhere” function listed for one of the sites is too broad.

Christine Krzyszton

March 09, 2020

Hi Frederick. I know that Google Flights allows you to put in “Europe” or any other area, country, etc. as a destination. You can also select flexible dates for an option to search for a one week trip duration to any of those destinations within the next 6 months. Or click on the little calendar to select specific dates. I’m sure some of these other sites allow similar searches but this is the one I use the most.

Cindy

March 12, 2020

Can I ask a question to a Hopper customer service person?

Christine Krzyszton

March 13, 2020

Hi Cindy. The best way to do this right now would be through their “Chat with Us” feature on their app.

Angela Berryman

March 14, 2020

Hi there. Not sure if this is the right place to be putting this but I am wanting help to find an agency called Gullivers Unijet. I am in NZ and booked tickets through them. Now I can’t get ahold of them, so any help would be appreciated.

Christine Krzyszton

March 15, 2020

Hi Angela. I don’t know if this helps but here is the information I found online: Gullivers Unijet
Address: 1/55 Kilmore St, Christchurch 8013 Telephone:03 379 1248 FAX: 03 379 6134

Rajkotti

December 21, 2020

I like the flight journey. Last week we planned a holiday trip to Bangalore. We booked a hotel room on the makeMy Trip site and used a coupon from saveplus which gives $1,500 off.

Akmal Vokhidov

June 23, 2021

Guys, please check your list. Vayama is not working!

Jarrod West

June 23, 2021

Hi Akmal,

Thank you for pointing that out! I’ve removed Vayama from the piece.

Sam

July 26, 2021

I would also add to the list Momondo and Aviaeasy.

Kate

August 12, 2021

I would like to add two more websites skyscanner.com and aviaeasy.com.

brent hughes

September 10, 2021

For several years I found kiwi.com to be by far the least expensive online booking agency but my last 3 bookings through them have been absolute nightmares — in every case I have had to have my credit card company refund all or part of the ticket price because of kiwi.com’s massive “screwups” leaving me abandoned in airports. They never have refunded me for their spectacular screwups and they don’t “throw” their customers under the bus — they catapult their customers under the bus, then “afterburner” in the opposite direction. Steer clear of kiwi.com!! You will never get them on a phone unless you are within 14 days of departure, no matter how many months in advance you purchase your ticket. I will never use this grossly negligent company again.

Khushbo

December 04, 2021

Hi admin,

This is a great list last time I was booked tickets to Dubai from momondo and using pakkaoffer discount coupons and get great deal.
thank you.

John

March 23, 2022

You mentioned all good websites. In terms of UI/UX, I like Momondo and Priceline among these the most. However, the cheapest tickets are offered by one website which is not mentioned herein- that’s Cheap Flights Fares.

Johan

October 02, 2022

You fortunately did not mention E-Dreams – the worst company, let alone travel agent, that I ever dealt with. Please just stay away! Many of the searches on Cheap Flights take you to the E Dreams site so be aware. Rather use a search engine like Kayak instead of a OTA and make sure the flight your booking is directly with the airline. When flight cancellations e.g occurs you will be glad you do not have to deal with a third party in India.

JaCindy

January 05, 2023

Kiwi dot com is my go-to. I can set alert for ANYTIME; range of dates/anytime MIX, range of departing airports; set of arrival airports; map-based depart/arrive radius. Etc. I noticed they recently return results that might include charter flights, too, if you choose FIRST CLASS. But I am looking for month-rentals in Europe, and this is the best easiest. they lack accurate results, though. But I never book with any of these, because covid cancellations made my SAS flights NOT get refunded due to me using Priceline. I ate the $900 for 3 tickets as I can’t get either one to refund.

Raja Naveed

February 03, 2023

Reading this information will help you find a better travel agency.

Thank you for sharing this amazing article.

GS Kooner

February 05, 2023

Thanks, Katie, I find your article very beneficial. Great comparison of various travel websites to come to a final conclusion. In fact, I learned about websites that I never knew about before.

Dipin

March 22, 2023

I dont book from a website if that does not show the Fare class like Economy(T), Economy(U), Business(Z). 99% of the websites basically hide that fare code but Expedia has it. Its a super important info to know the amount of miles I earn from flights before I book it to maintain the Gold status by earning the 50K miles every year.

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The 12 Best Websites for Booking Flights at the Cheapest Prices [July 2023]

Book Direct Through the Airline’s Website

1. Momondo

Pros and Cons of Momondo

2. Kayak

Pros and Cons of Kayak

3. Expedia

Pros and Cons of Expedia

4. Priceline

Pros and Cons of Priceline

5. Orbitz

Pros and Cons of Orbitz

6. Agoda

Pros and Cons of Agoda

7. Hotwire

Pros and Cons of Hotwire

8. Skyscanner

Pros and Cons of Skyscanner

9. Travelocity

Pros and Cons of Travelocity

10. Google Flights

Pros and Cons of Google Flights

11. CheapOair

Pros and Cons of CheapOair

12. Hopper

Pros and Cons of Hopper

Price Comparisons

Final Thoughts

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