Any advice on comparing flight prices INCLUDING all additional fees...

Tunstallstoven

Morning all

I've only ever booked flights (without attached holidays) a couple of times before and so know very little about the subject.

I now need to book some flights to Czech Rep for a music festival... There are 4 or 5 airports at similar distance away from where i need to go, as well as the option of flying into somewhere further afield and doing the remainder of the journey by train (Berlin, Vienna, etc etc).

I've started up a spreadsheet to compare costs between different airports (for both the "to" and "from"). There are a lot variables! What's making it really difficult though is all the extras that different airliners charge (booking in, admin, baggage, payment type, etc etc). As such, when I'm getting prices in the screenscrapers they aren't really all that helpful because they don;t account for these extras....

Is my only option to follow through each and every quote to the final stages so that I can get a total price? Or is there an easy way?

Many thanks

Max

spiro

No quick option that I am aware of.

Tunstallstoven

OK - thanks for letting me know.

I do feel that any kind of help/advice would speed things up a bit and make them more accurate. So could anyone tell me if there are things in addition to these that I should look out for:

- costs for baggage/luggage (do they ever charge for hand luggage as well?)
- admin costs
- check-in costs
- a charge for payment method

richardw

Max_Dread wrote: »

..do they ever charge for hand luggage as well?...

If you go over the size and weight allowed they do, read all the airlines' small print.

spiro

Max_Dread wrote: »

...do they ever charge for hand luggage as well?...

No but there can be big differences in what you are allowed i.e. Easyjey specify a size but as long as you can lift it into the overhead locker there is no weight limit whereas Ryanair specify the size and limit you to 10kg.

Tunstallstoven

Here's another question if someone would not mind....

Do the screen scrapers give you access to cheaper prices? I think it is going to be a lot easier for to do price comparisons using the airlines own sites. But will I end up with the same prices that way, compared with when using a screen scraper?

Tunstallstoven

Max_Dread wrote: »

Here's another question if someone would not mind....

Do the screen scrapers give you access to cheaper prices? I think it is going to be a lot easier for to do price comparisons using the airlines own sites. But will I end up with the same prices that way, compared with when using a screen scraper?

Just a quick and cheeky bump if I may....

I'm hoping to spend some time this weekend doing some comparisons. TBH, although it might be more long winded, I think I will find it easier to just go to the individual airline websites and get my own quotes from those (not least of all because I can then ensure all the extras are included).

But should I then go through the screen scrapers afterwards? All will they just churn up the same flights at the same prices...?

Tunstallstoven

OK - so to answer my own question (and for the benefit of anyone who might come across this in the future), it seems that there is no difference between getting flights from screen scrapers and getting them direct from the airline's website.

HTHs!

Max

Doshwaster

Max_Dread wrote: »

Is my only option to follow through each and every quote to the final stages so that I can get a total price? Or is there an easy way?

Yes, it can be a difficult job to find the best deal - and it's not really in the airlines' interests to make it simpler. As you say, there are so many variables and everyone is different in terms of the extras they want and each airline different in terms of what is free and what is an extra.

No website is perfect for this but I think http://www.skyscanner.net/ is the best.

Don't forget to factor in the time/cost/hassle of getting to/from the airports at both ends.