The Best Flight Booking Sites
Here’s a quick rundown of the best flight search sites for booking cheap airfare.
Travelocity
Booking Buddy
Expedia
CheapO air
TripAdvisor Flights
One important thing to remember about booking sites/OTA, is that Southwest fares are not sold on them. Some other airlines have also pulled their fares from some booking sites, but most airlines do make their fares available.
Here’s why these 5 are the best flight booking sites and metasearch options out there, and the best defining feature of each. Since it’s impossible to know which site will provide the best price for your particular trip, you should always compare fares from a few sources before you book.
Travelocity
Travelocity Flight Booking Site
It should be noted that Expedia owns Travelocity, so this flight booking site basically gives you Expedia price results with a different color scheme and organizational preferences. Travelocity’s homepage is streamlined but doesn’t offer a flexible-dates search. On the results page, bag fees are revealed by clicking a drop-down for each fare, which makes it a little difficult to compare fees (you will likely have to scroll a bit). Travelocity rates each flight itinerary with a score on a scale of 10, which takes into account the duration, type of aircraft, and “quality of amenities” available onboard from “Very Good” to “Satisfactory” to “Fair.” Travelocity charges booking fees for some, but not all flights.
Best Feature: The out-of-10 flight rating assigns each itinerary a clear score, so you’re a lot less likely to mistakenly book a long layover or miss out on a better itinerary with Travelocity.
Booking Buddy
Booking Buddy
Booking Buddy is owned by SmarterTravel Media, SmarterTravel.com’s parent company.
Compare multiple airfare sites with one click to find the best flight deals on Booking Buddy. This metasearch site lets you easily compare prices from other sites (like Priceline) without having to do a bunch of different searches. You can choose which flight search sites you want to compare, and Booking Buddy opens up a new tab with your selected flight dates and destinations already filled in.
Looking for a flight and hotel? Booking Buddy offers a combination flight and hotel search that can save you some decent money by bundling.
Best Feature: Sign up for a price drop alert, and Booking Buddy will email you when costs drop on your route.
Expedia
Expedia Flight Booking Site
As previously mentioned, Expedia is nearly identical to Travelocity, but fares did vary between the two sites on some of my searches. As with Travelocity (and to be fair, a number of other OTA), Expedia will try to up-sell you on adding a hotel to your itinerary. This can save you money, but be sure to compare prices before you book. On the result's page is a “Show flexible dates” option so you can see whether cheaper flights are available if you shift your trip a day or two. Expedia charges variable booking fees (and, they are not always the same fees that Travelocity charges). When you select your fare from the list of option, there’s an interstitial step that displays what is and isn’t covered in the fare, including seat selection, cancellations, changes, and baggage rules.
Best Feature: Like its subsidiary velocity, Expedia basically double-checks that you understand what sort of fare you’re choosing before you click “select” again. It’s a helpful bit of transparency in today’s cluttered airfare landscape.
Cheapo air
Cheapo air Flight Booking Site
Much like velocity and Expedia, flight search sites Cheapo air and preTravel are versions of the same product, owned by Fair portal Inc. Cheapo air charges the same booking fee as pre Travel: from $0 to $35 per ticket. Though the sites are owned by the same company, the fare results are not always identical, so it’s worth checking both. Cheapo air shows some “Super Saver Fares” for which you don’t find out the airline you’ll be flying until after you book—which means you also don’t find out what baggage fees apply until after you book. However, the savings might be worth it.
Best Feature: Cheapo air prioritizes nonstop prices over itineraries with stops, organized in an easy-to-read chart that’s organized by airline.
TripAdvisor Flights
TripAdvisor Flight Booking Site
TripAdvisor is known for its hotel reviews, and now travelers can apply their ratings to airlines, plus search for airfare on TripAdvisor Flights. On testing this flight booking site it’s clear that TripAdvisor doesn’t always serve up the cheapest fares, but sometimes it did. It always, however, gives you the option to surface Expedia, Travelocity, and other flight booking site, results, so you can compare right away with one click. TripAdvisor Flights also has some helpful search options up front, like a checkbox for prioritizing nonstop flights.
Best Feature: TripAdvisor’s flight search tool is unique from others in that it offers review-based FreScoes of airlines alongside their fares, so you’re less likely to book with an obscure, poorly rated airline without realizing
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