Airfares: Booking on Travelocity vs. direct with airline

Usually Traveocity, Expedia, Orbitz all offer the same flights/prices as booking directly with the airlines. However, sometimes they can also put various pieces of an itinerary together using different airlines and flights and come up with a flight itinerary at a discount price. I find that the lower price often indicates poor departure/arrival times, more than average connections, in/out of different airports (like Dulles, Reagan, BWI all service DC). If it's a good price and you like it then go for it. Just make sure to take all of your confirmations and phone numbers with you on the flight...you might need them if the airlines make a mess of it and start point fingers at each other.

One good thing about Travelocity is that they sponsor The Amazing Race.

One caveat about booking with travelocity, et al: if a problem comes up, the airline will refer you to your booking company to handle it.

For the reason Zoe gives, I use sites such as Travelocity and Expedia to find low fares, then I book directly with the airlines.

Thanks everyone for those replies. I have always used Travelocity just to check fares, but booked directly with the airline. It sounds like that's the best way to do it. And, of course, I like that Travelocity does sponsor the Amazing Race!

April is a long way off to get reliable prices - so I assume you are becoming familiar with the pricing in general? I have booked transatlantic flights this twice this year, and found that the prices change daily or even more often. It's a marketing thing, so becoming familiar with the range of prices will be beneficial. I look for the best connections and airlines through the travel sites and then check the airline directly on multiple occasions so I get the range of prices. Even the seats available change!. I book through American Express for the points, using my points, and getting the insurance that is included with them.
Have fun! We are going in November!

Yes, I'm only checking now. I know much will change over the coming months. Thanks to all for your help.

I used to love using Travelocity - until I had a problem and needed to contact their customer support. 1. C.S. seems to be in India with agents who are not only very difficult to understand, but who don't get the nuances of your problem. It's as if they're just typing a few "key" words into their computer then they read you the stock response. I finally had to ask for a supervisor - still Indian, but with much less accented English - who sort of did the same thing. I finally gave up. On a previous trip,I had booked with Travelocity to Puerto Vallarta and got incorrect information from them about necessity of a passport for my son. (This was 5 years ago when passport rules were changing.) As a result, we found out at the end of our stay that we couldn't fly home! We actually had to fly to Guadalajara to get to the US consulate for a passport! But as this was a Friday...it meant an extra 3 days in PV. Awww... but as our resort was sold out, we asked Travelocity for help. Not that I expected them to pay for it, but at least for some help with accomodations. The only hotel they could find turned out to be one of the most expensive in PV, and it was waaay out of town, requiring expensive taxi rides. After one of those rides into town we found that there were plenty of hotels available - but for some reason Travelocity couldn't book one of those for me. They had me by the b---s and they knew it.
That's why I don't use them any more. Dave

check out onetravel. i have been searching for flights and have found them to be siginificantly lower than other 'central brokjers'.

I am surprised that no one mentioned Kayak.com. We have booked our last three trips using Kayak and have done very well finding the cheapest flights. We found the key is knowing far in advance when you want to travel and than checking every night until you see the fare that you are happy with. Once you hit your target price go for it. In may we got a flight into Milan and we flew out of Venice to go home for $800.00 non stop. We bought the tickets in November. Flight were listing for over $1,000 before and after a two day period when the price dropped in November. The airline we got was Delta which we were very happy with.