What website to find flights these days?

[dr.girlfriend]

I used to use kayak.com to find/book flights, but it's acting squirrelly -- only showing me flights on Frontier even though I know other airlines fly direct.  Is there a better site for true price comparison on different airlines these days?  I'm willing to pay a little more for a reliable airline and nonstop flight, etc., but I tried two separate trips on kayak and got terrible options.

[Deleted]

Google flights can show you different options but I still tend to book direct since there are so many cancellation problems lately and I'd rather have booked through an airline and not a third-party.

[wanderingback]

Google flights

[steamboat185]

Google flights is awesome. It’s very flexible and customizable- you can even search by legroom!

[ellipses84]

I use google flights to search. Then I purchase directly through airlines (sometimes through multiple airlines). Once airlines stopped allowing other sites to list them, the travel sites weren’t effective for me (I.e. Southwest) Just make sure to double check the whole itinerary and cities. I noticed when I was trying to buy a ticket to a small Midwest city, some of the results were showing me flights to Chicago without the extra leg of the trip factored in (it is drivable but a long drive and not an option we’ve ever used).

[dr.girlfriend]

Nov 19, 2021 11:48:59 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Once airlines stopped allowing other sites to list them, the travel sites weren’t effective for me (I.e. Southwest) 

Interesting!  I didn't know this was a thing that happened!

Ugh, we ended up paying about $2000 total for each trip on American whereas Frontier would have been about $600 total, but honestly at this point in my life and finances I think it's worth it.

As a note, though, we paid $100 each ticket to make our flights fully refundable, but then at the end it would have been only $100 *total* to buy trip insurance with Allianz, so maybe we should just do that in future.

[orval]

Nov 19, 2021 12:37:20 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Nov 19, 2021 11:48:59 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Once airlines stopped allowing other sites to list them, the travel sites weren’t effective for me (I.e. Southwest) 

Interesting!  I didn't know this was a thing that happened!

Ugh, we ended up paying about $2000 total for each trip on American whereas Frontier would have been about $600 total, but honestly at this point in my life and finances I think it's worth it.

As a note, though, we paid $100 each ticket to make our flights fully refundable, but then at the end it would have been only $100 *total* to buy trip insurance with Allianz, so maybe we should just do that in future.

Not to bring you down, but my sister has flights on American for the week after Christmas.  They already changed her flight times by about 6 hours so now she basically misses half a day of vacation by not arriving to the resort until around midnight.  She also was supposed to meet us in Nola this summer.  Flight was cancelled and the next flight didn't have her arriving until  9 pm.  her original had her landing at 9AM.  She decided not to come wiht that change .  Air travel pretty much sucks right now. 

[fryjack2]

We paid $$$ for flights to Costa Rica months ago to make sure our flight time wasn't at 2am or had 2 connections ( 24 hours of travel) and were informed yesterday that the flights were canceled by the airline. Now there are not any available flights that fit the above criteria. So we either have to pick a new flight that leaves at 5am or 6am when our hotel is 3 hours from the airport and those flights still get us home after midnight. There are no other flight options.

We usually look on Orbitz or similar sites and then book directly with the airline.

I feel like air travel these days is bullshit. They sold us flights for X price and now are saying those flights don't exist. We have to leave our trip a day early missing out on purchased excursions, or spend 24 hours traveling back and waking up at 1am, or not sleep to get to the airport and spend more $$ on these new available flights.

It should be illegal to sell a non existent service. OR not charge for rebooking on an available flight even if it is more expensive and reimburse for extra hotel costs or reimburse people for trips they have to cut short.

[dr.girlfriend]

Aaaaaahhhh this all sounds terrible. :-(