which of skyscanner booking partners to avoid/use?

[snowdrop100]

I wonder if this scenario is familiar to anyone...

Hubbie and I have been discussing possible holiday plans for next year. I take a look and see some great flights (BA flydrive to LA as we're doing westcoast next year). I tell hubbie that these are great prices because i've been secretly tracking prices for a while, but he still needs time to think about it and is sure the prices will still be around tomorrow. THEY ARE NOT :angry:

Anyway, rant over (i say this with love really because my husband stops me from spending all our money on holidays and ensure we do sensible things with it).

onto the important business... i'm back to research and trying to find a good deal again which leads me to the million dollar question: which skyscanner booking partners should i avoid? The difference between the cheapest to most expensive is about £300 and currently i can get our car hire for two weeks for about that price...

TravelTrolley
Fly Sharp
Netflights.com
Travelbag
ebookers
lastminute.com
Bravofly
Opodo
BudgetAir
EmailFlights
Travelpack
GetAFlight
Carlton Leisure
Expedia
eDreams
GotoGate
Mytrip
CheapOair
Tripsta
omegaflightstore.com

[°o°-Hannah-°o°]

People will have different experiences with different providers. I've used skyscanner many a time and couldn't actually tell you the agent I used, I just can't remember. But, I've never had any problems at all

[Incarniac]

The ones of those I have used:

• Netflights
• Ebookers
• Lastminute
• Expedia

All of those are well known and established companies and I wouldn't hesitate to use any of them again if they give me a good/best price. Bear in mind some charge a credit card fee, so do take that into account (but so does VA and BA direct, as well as many others).

I'm not familiar with the others beyond having seen them in similar search results (SkyScanner, Momondo, Kayak, etc). You should find plenty of feedback online if you look, although it all has to be taken with a little pinch of salt either way (both good and bad) - and finding a reputable website where reviews can be trusted is another discussion entirely.

You will find that people have had good and bad experiences with any of those, but I think with most you're going to be fine so long as nothing goes wrong at any stage. It's when you do require customer services that the more 'shady' booking agencies will give you grief and it is worth taking that kind of thing into account and maybe pay a little for reputation.

Also, depending on when you go, the offer you saw may well come back at some point in the same or very similar shape, so don't panic

[Galela1986]

I've used Netflights, Expedia and last minute not sure on the rest.

[Guest]

I've used lastminute.com and expedia for flights before with no problems. I know the reviews online can be offputting - but as long as you read through the T&Cs VERY carefully and make sure (and triple check) that all passenger info/dates etc. are entered correctly then the sites should be OK.

I know some charge extra for payment with credit cards but sometimes it is worth it if your credit card offers protection if something does go wrong.

[surfwidow]

We've booked our upcoming flights with Carlton leisure and so far (fingers crossed) they have been excellent! contacting us with the littlest of changes to one of our flights (3 minute difference) but obviously we haven't actually travelled yet! So that's all I can offer advice wise, hope it helps x 😊

[sunaddict]

I'd use Netflights, and possibly Expedia, but none of the others.

Lastminute is Bravofly who are extremely shonky. LM used to be ok until Bravofly bought them and renamed their group LM presumably to try to ditch their reputation. There's a lot more complaints about LM since as well.

Opodo and eNightmares are the same company. Would anyone book through a company called Cheapoair, or any company that had 'cheap' in their name?

You need to research very, very carefully if you're going to use a redirect from Skyscanner, or any online comparison site. The internet is littered with complaints about the shonky companies that advertise on them. Tickets cancelled without being asked, taking money but not the flight not been ticketed, flights being cobbled together to look like they're connecting when they're actually on 2 separate tickets etc etc. Go to the Air Travel forum on TA and put a search for whichever company into the search box.

Great tool to find flights, but book direct with the airline.

[Damn Dirty Ape]

I've booked with Lastminute.com for this July before I realised they were now part of Bravofly. That said, so far they have been ok. They have alerted me everytime the flight schedule has changed. My flight DUB to LGW is on a BA/Aer Lingus Codeshare and from LGW to MCO with Virgin. All flights where immediately viewable on all 3 airline's systems.

The only problem I encountered, and I was a little lucky in some respect, was each flight change alert I got said if we don't hear from you in x days we will assume you accept these changes. That was the message in the first 4 flight change e-mails I got. After the 2nd or 3rd I only checked the flight time changes and ignored the text in the rest of the e-mail. Then on about the 5th e-mail there was a different message. "If we don't hear from you in x days we will cancel all flights". I only noticed the changed message when I was cleaning up my inbox and was lucky I was still within the x days limit. What was strange was the flight times hadn't actually changed from the previous flight change alert and I told them this when I rang. Anyway, they reconfirmed the ticket and is well.

My advice to anyone is use them if the price is right but read all documentation received from them very carefully.

[wobblywibbly]

I would avoid CheapOair (yes I know the name should be a warning in itself) I had to buy short notice and used them, price went up during booking then 3 months later my card was used to book a first class BA flight from Heathrow to USA somewhere. The only time this CC was used in the last 2 years was for the cheapOair flight... draw your own conclusions.

[mouli1]

sometimes you can get the same price with airline direct , I used skyscanner and kayak to check out what was on offer, then went direct to airline to book