When planning flights for our Rick Steves 11 day tour of Sicily, I checked out a Skyscanner itinerary. Skyscanner is a website, kind of like KAYAK but offering cheaper connecting flights. We also wanted to spend 4 days in Paris before starting our tour. Imagine the following airline plans: French Bee to Paris, Air Italia to Palermo, Ryan Air from Cantania to Rome, West Jet to Calgary, Alaska Airlines to Portland, OR. At first, I was afraid. Would all these flight connections be on time without any delays? And what if I missed a connection? Would I end up spending wasted hours in the black hole of an airport terminal? Or worse, would I end up like the woman I saw in the Calgary airport--sitting upright, somewhat bent over, stirring in a comfortless plastic chair, her eyes closed, her mouth open, her large snorts and snores punctuating the terminal air. Maybe a larger carrier would be a safer bet, right? But then the reduced cost of such a flight route won me over. Forget the fancy flights and frills of 5 inches of additional leg room. We could spend our money better on nicer hotels, taxis, and higher quality wines. I went for it . . .and it worked beautifully. Every flight worked out and we easily got to every gate with time to spare. Okay, we might have hurried our pace through the Milan Airport, but we made it in plenty of time. Not sure this is the story of everyone who has ever gone with Skyscanner, but I would do it again. And West Jet ended up being our favorite flight.
Posted by
San Diego, California
6231 posts
But Skyscanner is a third party vendor, correct?
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6711 posts
We use Skyscanner the same way we use Google Flights or Kayak: we use it to search for flights, then book from the airlines themselves. It is handy to be able to see a number of airline options on the same screen.
The only time we used a third party vendor to book flights, the itinerary worked, but there were some fraught moments when KLM couldn't easily find our booking record. It worked out, but I can do without the added stress.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Probably need to clarify here. I also used Skyscanner to see what was possible ( like Google Flights) then booked through individual airlines. I did not use a third party booking service.
Posted by
Western WA
121 posts
So, another tool. I suppose it comes down to how comfortable someone is with unprotected connections.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
2823 posts
You got lucky.... to anyone else don't try it, more often than not people don't get lucky. Do an internet search
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
6065 posts
So am I correct that you just used Skyscanner to select the flights, but then booked the individual flights separately on different tickets? You are a much braver person than I would be. I much prefer the safety of connecting flights booked on the same ticket - especially if they are on different airlines.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23765 posts
Personally I was not sure of the purpose of posting other than to hype Skyscanner a bit. It is just a search engine. So what is the excitement?
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19398 posts
My thoughts exactly, Frank. New poster; first two posts are unsolicited recommendations.
Hmm!
I've been seeing too much of this recently, a new poster joining just to post a recommendation. Maybe the Community Guidelines should specify no unsolicited recommendations until after the hundredth post.
Posted by
Republic of Texas / U.S.A. / Magyarország / Budapest
21933 posts
Yup, the OP's other thread is a promotion for Trattoria da Federico. LOL.
Posted by
TX, USA
5143 posts
Well, while I wouldn’t do this, I am really glad it worked for you! And I understand your excitement and appreciate your humor. LOL.
And it’s true that if you are prepared for something to go wrong (one delayed flight…..), and you aren’t in a time crunch, then you have successfully saved money.
AA keeps trying to sell me a one hour connection in Helsinki coming home (and all on the same ticket) and if I don’t have flexibility to stay a day because of a missed flight, I regretfully say no thanks. Ha!
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
12368 posts
French Bee to Paris, Air Italia to Palermo, Ryan Air from Cantania to Rome, West Jet to Calgary, Alaska Airlines to Portland, OR........ Every flight worked out and we easily got to every gate with time to spare. Okay, we might have hurried our pace through the Milan Airport, but we made it in plenty of time
When did you go through Milan?
...
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19398 posts
It looks like Air Italia has flights from Paris to Palermo with connections in Milan.