Two important things to keep in mind while booking a flight:
1. While booking a flight, use as many of the booking sites as possible (Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak, SkyScanner etc.). Some of them include budget airlines for certain airlines, while others do it for a different set of airlines.
2. One thing you need to know is that when you are looking for flights, your internet browsing history is tracked by the website and the airlines and they are notified of the extra demand for the flight. If you search for a flight a few times, you might notice that the price increases after a few days. One way to prevent this is to enable 'private browsing mode' while looking for flights. Here's how to do it for Mozilla Firefox:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history
Posted by
Idaho, USA
7877 posts
Thanks for sharing this info. While looking for options on these sites, I always go to the airline website to book a flight. (I do book my hotels with Expedia, Booking, etc.) In the situations when flights change or are cancelled by the airlines, upgrades, etc. , I don't want the risk of dealing with two separate businesses.
Posted by
charleston
14 posts
Thanks for your info. I went on other sites and they said that is not the case. I think other sites like Flyer Talk and Air Watch Dog said that this does happen anymore.
It is very confusing when there are so many opinions on this issue.
Any other opinions?
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10673 posts
Other opinion: clear your cache and cookies.
Posted by
charleston
14 posts
Flyer talk, Air Watch Dog and other sites say that does not work...clearing cookies. We went to the library and used their computer after we searched online on our computer and the price was the same.
The problem is so much information that it is hard to figure out.
Google Flights, Skyscanner,airline websites the prices are usually the same.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8337 posts
When I'm flying anywhere, I go to Wikipedia and lookup all the airports of the cities I'm flying to and thru--and those airports close by.
Someone somewhere is maintaining lists of airlines and destinations served at virtually every airport in the world. And the list is maintained daily and it is very accurate.
I'm always looking for the budget European airlines flying to the places I'm traveling to keep airfares down.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6811 posts
Other consideration: if the absolute lowest price is the only criteria you use when selecting a flight, don't come back complaining afterwards about how mean the airlines are for squeezing the seats smaller and smaller and inflicting misery upon you. They're just giving you what you are asking for (albeit in an indirect way).
There are lots of resources online that can tell you all sorts of details about that seat you are about to buy your way into for 8-15 hours.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23642 posts
I don't think there is any validity to idea that frequent inquires means higher prices. That has been frequently discredited. And there are easy way to check it if you are suspicious.
Posted by
PA
2875 posts
Not to mention that to protect your privacy from whatever sites you visit you should be clearing your cookies, cache, and history frequently.
Posted by
Edinburgh
2684 posts
it is important to remember when booking Budget airlines or low Cost carriers that everything is additional cost, especially luggage, meals/drinks and at airport check-in , you must cost in these factors.
also LCC are very strict on the size and amount of carry-on luggage, fail to obey their regulations and you can pay dearly for it.