What are some good websites you book your travel through (hotel, hotels)

[NJ Brazen_3133]

What are some good websites you book your travel through? I like to use Cheap Caribbean for my beach vacations because I dont know of any others that. When I travel in USA, or to Canada, I just use the priceline/expedia/orbitz. Many of you like to travel abroad. Do you use websites to book it? Which ones?

[otterprods]

kayak.com… always start there first, at least for airfare, then book direct through the airlines, resorts, etc and avoid online agents, especially the big name ones.

[WannabeCPA]

I've compared a lot of sites and I find, at least for airfare, Tripadvisor seems to have the lowest prices more often than not. One time I even booked using Orbitz through the Tripadvisor website and just out of curiosity went to the Orbitz website directly and looked up the exact same trip and it was more expensive than if I booked it through Tripadvisor. Not sure why that was. The only thing you have to keep in mind is that, similar to a lot of other websites, Tripadvisor doesn't include airlines like Southwest and some of the other discount carriers.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Is booking directly with the resorts, airlines always cheaper?

[WannabeCPA]

Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133

Is booking directly with the resorts, airlines always cheaper?

It really depends for airfare but I've found the prices on the airlines websites to be pretty close to other travel websites. Same thing with hotels, not much difference but as always, it helps to compare.

[Ghengis]

fun to browse the auctions and we did get a good deal at the Fairmont in Santa Monica too...

Luxury 5 Star Hotels, Deals From Luxury Link

Mystery Travel Offers and Auctions

Limited Time Deals For Last Minute Travel Auctions

[Dd714]

For airfare - the general understood rule is that you won't get cheaper then the airlines own website. Often these discount sites are more expensive. At this point everyone knows this right? So I use a good search engine and then simply book with the airlines website.
For hotels, I have certain forum sites where I look for deals, codes, etc and base my hotel selections partially on that. Often, again, you can use these deals and codes directly with the hotel's website.

That's for personal travel, for work my company has it's own travel service.

[FlyMIA]

Kayak for airfare. Gives a lot of options and then you go to the airline directly. Very well designed site.m

[Chava61]

I too think Kayak is the best site to check for airfare prices and then book the airline ticket directly via the airline itself when possible.

When I was in China, I used the websites elong and ctrip which are the local ones with English language versions.

[beachmouse]

Originally Posted by Dd714

For airfare - the general understood rule is that you won't get cheaper then the airlines own website.

Though there are a handful of times where there are mistake fares get out in the travel agency realm in a very useful way. I keep an eye on Flyer Talk because they're a good source for mistake fares, and they've had info lately on a semi-obscure Norwegian travel agency that's had access to a few mistake fares to Europe and Asia where the fuel surcharges were left off the ticket prices, effectively cutting ticket prices in half or more, and United and alliance partners have been honoring those tickets. (Alas, that hole in the system has been plugged, but it could happen again.)