What site do you use for travel plans?

krate24 · March 2010

We are flying out to CO and renting a car, so round trip flight + rental car for a week (full-size). I've never used Hotwire before, but I found what I want for $770 for two tickets and car. That seems crazy cheap to me! Like too good to be true cheap.

Anyone used Hotwire? Good, bad, other? Is there another site where I might possibly find an even cheaper price? (Seems unlikely to me).

greenclown · March 2010

I use Kayak to find flights and book directly on the airline's website. I always book my cars directly, too. I don't trust middle men not to screw stuff up.

krate24 · March 2010

greenclown:
I use Kayak to find flights and book directly on the airline's website. I always book my cars directly, too. I don't trust middle men not to screw stuff up.

This was me, but booking the rental car directly is like twice as expensive. Not sure about flights.

crownedbee · March 2010

Normally I search on Orbitz and if I book through them I make sure to print all of the confirmation stuff and have it with me. I have never had a problem with them, but I've always checked in online before a flight and I also call the hotel to make sure they have my reservation in advance.

I also check prices on Southwest and Jetblue because sometimes they're much cheaper than anything on Orbitz.

kate930 · March 2010

greenclown:
I use Kayak to find flights and book directly on the airline's website. I always book my cars directly, too. I don't trust middle men not to screw stuff up.

Exactly this. Airlines will give you the same price quoted on the intermediary websites, so it is not worth it. If a flight gets canceled it is much easier to deal with the company than one of the websites.

I haven't dealt with much car rentals, but my H says he always gets his off the company sites as well. A word of warning - I have had it happen where I rent off an intermediary site and then show up and there is no rental booth at that airport (even though Orbitz claimed otherwise.) So definitely double check your reservations.

TessCPDF · March 2010

I recently used Orbitz for hotel reservations. But, the best deals I've gotten have been on cheaptickets.com. A few years back, we booked super low airfares to Aruba and a rental car. And it was all hassle free.