Skyscanner cheapest price safe?

smithers1981

Quick question in relation to previous post. Found flights I want to book LHR to LAX with Air New Zealand.

Skyscanner cheapest price is £924 for 3 of us return, this is not booking with airline direct. Booking with them direct would be £999.

Are there any disadvantages of booking through an online travel agent rather than by going through airline direct?

I want the cheapest but also peace of mind thanks

EveryWhere

Disadvantages are that if something goes wrong, you will have to go through the OTA to get it fixed. If they are not open, you are stuck. in addition, the OTA may have admin fees attached to assisting you.

If you book direct with the airline, you can see clear fare conditions during the booking process and if anything goes wrong, you can deal directly with the airline there and then.

If you aren't sure about how these things work, I would suggest that you book direct with the airline.

smithers1981

thanks will go through airline

Caz3121

many of the third parties that advertise on Skyscanner do not have live prices. You make a 'booking request' and they will either be able to purchase at the advertised price or they will ask for more money.
A good tip is putting the name of the Third party into the search box in the Air Travel forum of TripAdvisor....many of the complaints come from those that did not read/understand what they were purchasing (no refund on non-refundable ticket, no baggage included on a hand baggage only fare, asked for more money etc) but the constant advice given is to book direct with the airline...or pick a real travel agent eg Expedia

zagfles

I found there was less flexibility using an agent, eg date changes, refunds etc. But you may be OK with this. As above, look into the travel agent and only book with them if they have a good reputation.

bagand96

It all depends on the agent. The general advice will be to book direct with the airline, because it cuts out the middle man..

That said, some agents are decent, and there are sometimes decent savings to be made. It's all about doing your research and weighing up whether the saving is worth it. Reviews are a good indication but as Caz said, you do need to filter some of them - the "wouldn't refund a non-refundable ticket" reviews are a classic!

A lot of problems with agents come when the airline makes changes to flights or itineraries - especially where there's multiple flights and connections. If you've booked with the airline you just call them and sort it. If you book with an agent then the airline cannot, and will not, deal directly with you. It must be through the agent - and that when you need a good one. Some online agents will have very few staff and may be based abroad etc so getting them to sort it can be difficult. Also agents make wafer thin commissions on flight sales, so there's little motivation for them to be proactive.

In your case some of this might not be applicable - I'm assuming your looking at Air New Zealand's direct LHR-LAX flight, so its not a complex schedule and probably not likely to change. Again it just comes back to weighing up the saving against the potential inconvenience.

Who was the agent?

steve1500

I would go with the Airline, we had a flight time changed, by a few hours., which was then a real pain.


Flight booked with BA, phoned up & explained the problem it was causing. They put us on an earlier flight that day

smithers1981

traveltrolley and fly sharp coming out cheapest?

dj1471

Travel Trolley are fine, I've used them many times. Cashback is available via Quidco/TopCashback too. Don't know about the other one.

richardw

I did lots of searching this week on skyscanner and was surprised at the inaccuracy of pricing, they just seem to sometimes be showing what’s in their cache. It just isn’t as perfect as perceived.

aussiecanuck

I have google chrome. Don't go back to the same site time after time. They save your information and give you the same results. I go incognito. Info isn't saved.