Any luck getting cheap airplane tickets?
 

Has anybody used travel sites like expedia.com, travelocity.com, priceline.com etc. etc.? As far as price for tickets to Paris, they're great. But how are they on reliability? Not screwing everything up? etc. etc.

Any personal experience would be great. Thanks!

I used expedia and travelocity and orbitz with no problems a few years ago and got the best prices. When are you going? That will make a big difference in the prices.

sites that I recommend at least looking at (they should compare other sites prices):
http://www.kayak.com/
http://www.sidestep.com/

I like this one but have never used it for purchase:
http://www.cheapflights.com/flights-...ake-city-intl/

I've used travelocity and orbitz a few times. The only time we had an issue is when Delta changed the flight times and we weren't notified. My wife ended up staying at the OKC airport for 4 hours with all the kids while they arranged new flights.

Yikes. That's like purgatory right there.

I have used priceline for air tickets but it was a trip for which I didn't particularly care about the specific itinerary. Because you can't pick your times (at least not back when I used them) I generally avoid them. You might get a weird connection hundreds of miles out of your way or a very long layover, etc. Often, time is money.

Usually I use Orbitz to scout out the pricing. Usually I then go to the airline's site, particularly if its one that I have Freq Flier Miles on. Also check Southwest because they don't participate in Orbitz. Also by using the airline directly you can leave more contact info -- once a flight was cancelled on us and Mrs hyrum and I almost were stuck overnight at the Albucracky airport. Delta left us a message on our home phone, now they have space for up to 4 phones.

For hotels and cars I often use HotWire. If you are not choosey on the brand of hotel or car rental firm, you can often get some great deals. Its one of those things where you pick the area (or car size) and they show the deals without naming the firm. You see that when you buy -- and you pay in advance, no refunds. So be sure you are actually going! I book cars this way 2-3 days ahead. Hotel no more than a week or so.

One of my colleagues is a very big fan of Expedia for hotels -- one good thing that they have on their site is an area for costumer reviews and comments. Beware, though, people are more likely to post comments if something went wrong -- if there is one post saying the staff was rude, it wouldn't stop me from booking there.

If you see the price on one of those sites
 

that you like take that and go to the actual airline website. Usually you'll save a few dollars. I think Orbitz charges like $5 each leg. It's not a big savings, but you'll be able to pick what you want and the big thing, get the miles.

Good advice. It's dumb they can get a cut if you can get the exact same price from the airline, so I'll probably check it out. Is it Priceline that doesn't have an online booking fee?

kayak.com, baby. It searches all of hte sites mentioned here, it is very flexible, and I find it to be very user friendly. Try it. It is the way to go, IMO.

It is not its own booking site, btw, it searches all the other sites, let's you choose how to display the results, then when you pick, it connects you to the actualk site and you book it there. It is great.

I use Priceline for hotels and car rentals. I've got some incredible deals over the years. I once rented a Jag from Hertz for $14 a day. When it comes to flights I don't think you get their best deal unless you are willing to bid without picking times and connections. You could get stuck with a four connection flight. That's why I never use them for flights. If not picking your times isn't important, check Hotwire also.

I always use Orbitz to price which airline is the least expensive and then go to their website and book it myself.

Priceline lies.

They say on their tv ads that we can pick the price we want to pay, but when I tried to book a flight to Orange County for nothing it was considered an invalid amount.