What's the best website for finding flights?

[BC]

I'm finding this one quite good as far as features are concerned.. can at least use it to narrow down cheap possibilities..

http://www.skyscanner.net/

Anyone know of a better one?

[ConnerVT]

Much better - http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch

-- Full month searches
-- Detailed breakdown of taxes and fees
-- Several different display formats
-- Can narrow down searches by number of stops, select/remove airlines

[BC]

Conner,

Yeah that's pretty good..  did notice though that some of the cheapo airlines don't show up in ita.. like ryanair.

[BillyB]

I've used cheapoair.com


Typed in some dates and locations and the prices of airfare were similiar to your skyscanner BC

[I/O]

'pends a bit where you're searching from sometimes. I notice expedia shoots me to the the Au site from here but when in Russia it tends to shoot me to the US site unless I play around and force the issue a little.

For mine (Aus based)

Expedia (The easiest with the most detailed breakdowns IMO)
Zuji
Webjet
studentflights
Farecompare
Travelone
Lastminute

There is a host of them but it is always worth checking directly with the arilines those sites throw up during a search.

[Aloe]

if you want the cheapest tickets, use a flight search engine to look for the names of airlines that serve that route, then look up every airline's website and look for special offers, because flight search engines never ever show special offers in their search, special offers only show directly on the airline website

[Olga_Mouse]

Much better - http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch
- Full month searches
- Detailed breakdown of taxes and fees
- Several different display formats
- Can narrow down searches by number of stops, select/remove airlines

It asks for login and password - looks like it's some professional site for travel agents?

For European travels I can recommend opodo - and checking different countries (opodo.co.uk, opodo.fr, opodo.de).

Opodo.de is the cheapest (according to my personal experience), but if the payment is done with a credit card issued by a Russian bank they might suspend the payment and ask for the passport scan & credit card scan to be e-mailed to them  :evil:

[ConnerVT]

It asks for login and password - looks it's some professional site for travel agents?

Just click "Log in as a guest"

[camachinist]

I use ExpertFlyer (subscription GDS access) and ITA. I can search award/upgrade buckets for most airlines quickly on EF, as well as save canned searches and seat/bucket alerts. ITA allows for complex route/fare matrix construction which we mileage runners use to travel cheaply. Everything is executed either on the airline web site or through a TA competent in complex itineraries. ITA runs the back end of a number of TA and airline web sites so the results are generally easily duplicated.

The airline web sites will often have 'specials' (like Aloe mentioned) which are opaque to the GDS/CRS (online search sites/TA sites) so it does pay to cast around there. Also, most major airlines are members of alliances and, generally, alliance airline mixed tickets can be built and ticketed on the airline web site. Mixed tickets, which often can be quite inexpensive, requiring different airlines/alliances, have to be built and booked through a TA.

Personally, I've flown a bit over .5MM miles in the last six years and have only used a TA (online or B/M) once, and that was for a mistake fare I couldn't book on the airline web site. The airline web sites can do pretty much everything you want.

Also, here's a fare mining engine which we use to check trends in fares and quickly peruse and sort fares by a number of parameters...

Good luck and safe travels

[Shadow]

For flights I have checked Amadeus which is ran by one of the main travel agency flight reservation systems.
It does help to check multiple destinations of departure, especially in Europe where distances are short. For instance in the past the flights Amsterdam to Moscow were cheapest through Italy, even if a direct flight was shorter in distance.

[Vinnvinny]

Another good one is TerminalA: http://uk.terminala.com/webpages/index.aspx

I have used it a few times in the past as for some reason it tends to pick up different options than most other search engines I use. More than once it's saved me several hundred $'s simply because it offered an alternative that no other site did.