How to actually BOOK a flight online?

[BWR1953]

I've been using Expedia since its inception (20+ years) and other booking sites as well. But over the last several days, we've been trying to book a flight to the Philippines and nothing is going through. Frustrating!

We've used Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz, Hot Wire and numerous others without success. We find a trip that meets our criteria, go through the whole process, get to the payment section and then suddenly get a message that the fare isn't available and the price jumps up $3,000. Or the itinerary is no longer available at all. Argh!

My wife and the boy are going back to visit family, but getting them booked has been impossible. We've both been hitting it very hard for 3 solid days now, plus intermittently for a few weeks while waiting for my wife's sister to get back home too. (She arrived a couple days ago.)

We spoke with a Priceline rep who had the exact same problems. It's like the advertised fares aren't real, but just click-bait to get you to a scam payment company. It wasn't like this before.

It's stopped being annoying and is becoming downright discouraging. Any ideas?

 

[alldodge]

What happens when you go straight to the Airline?

 

[BWR1953]

What happens when you go straight to the Airline?

The price goes way up. Double, triple or more in a lot of cases. The minimum increase that we've seen is 50% or so.

The last time I booked flights online was over 10 years ago, when I brought my wife and the boy here. It was very straightforward then. Find a flight that fit, book, pay and get boarding info. Simple.

Nowadays, it's like the airlines don't want to bother with bookings, so they shunted it off to the booking companies, who then shunted the payment sections to other companies, many of which are shady.

I got up at 0730 this morning and started hitting it right away. United Airlines finally showed a good fare, I clicked on the link and after it loaded, the price came up 30% higher.

It's very frustrating.

 

[dingbat]

I travel for a living. You will not get better flights or prices going with a third party booking service.

I book everything direct using my Southwest or Untied app. Simple, quick and easy.

International flights are cheapest at 60 days. Prices go up as the seats fill up.

Traveling during the week and staying more than a week will get better prices. Travel on weekends will cost you big time

 

[Scott Danforth]

Pre-covid there may have been a deal or 2 thru 3rd party sites, however as indicated above, the price has been the same.

If you want low fares, use no-frills airlines like spirit, frontier and allegiant. However keep in mind they charge for luggage. The seats also have no padding and they do not recline.

A few times I have made one flight on one airline, returning on another while shipping my luggage in a box via UPS

If you are traveling less than 500 miles I have found it faster and cheaper to rent a car and drive

Co worker from the Philippines was telling me about his last trip and the stories of planes, trains and automobiles

 

[BWR1953]

...we've been trying to book a flight to the Philippines...

This is the thread topic.

Driving or taking a train or using a cheap domestic carrier isn't exactly an option!

 

[JASinIL2006]

I’ve given up on third-party apps or websites for booking flights or lodging. Too many times I’ve had problems with the reservation, and the hotel or airline always dishes it off to the third-party to deal with. I might use a third-party app to figure out flights, but I will do the actual booking with the airline.

 

[BWR1953]

I’ve given up on third-party apps or websites for booking flights or lodging. Too many times I’ve had problems with the reservation, and the hotel or airline always dishes it off to the third-party to deal with. I might use a third-party app to figure out flights, but I will do the actual booking with the airline.

Yeah, I've been trying directly with the airlines and running into the same problems. It seems to all be click-bait nowadays.

Yesterday I even started looking into driving to alternate airports and booking from that location. Still no joy.

 

[dingbat]

Where are you trying to fly out of?

Quick search turned up a bunch of flights between $1,600 -$1,800 RT from my local airport DCA

 

[redneck joe]

This is the thread topic.

Driving or taking a train or using a cheap domestic carrier isn't exactly an option!

Planes trains and automobiles is about the movie with steve martin and john candy and the 'adventures' of travelling, not this specific thread.

 

[BWR1953]

Planes trains and automobiles is about the movie with steve martin and john candy and the 'adventures' of travelling, not this specific thread.

Yeah, I remember that funny flick.

 

[BWR1953]

I may have missed out on a deal yesterday. I didn't complete the booking because I wasn't sure if my wife would agree.

Checked a one-way flight on Jet Blue to get them to JFK in NYC. Then had a chance to book a non-stop from there to Manila. Return the same route with another one-way back home from NYC. Looked pretty good to me, but I hesitated. Ah, well.

I've also checked into driving them up to PA, where I'd visit with my buddy for awhile. But flights to/from Pittsburgh to NYC were oddly very expensive.

Argh.

 

[tpenfield]

I've had a bad experience or two booking airlines, etc through the third party booking (expedia, orbitz, etc.) I always book through the airlines. It is a little more $$$, but if you run into a problem the customer service aspects are better if you booked through the airline.

Also, as far as saving money on vacations/travel, that is what stay-cations are for

 

[BWR1953]

I've had a bad experience or two booking airlines, etc through the third party booking (expedia, orbitz, etc.) I always book through the airlines. It is a little more $$$, but if you run into a problem the customer service aspects are better if you booked through the airline.

Also, as far as saving money on vacations/travel, that is what stay-cations are for

Yah.

And I'll be doing the stay-cation here!

 

[BWR1953]

Finally got it done!

Mostly.
We booked the flight directly with EVA Air from JFK to/from Manila.

Now we just have to get them up to NYC and back. But there are options for that.

 

[stresspoint]

it must be a common thing these days for price gouging on airline flights online.
i went to the agency door after getting frustrated trying to get a flight , same thing as you , picked the flight , went to book and pay and the fare was no longer available or price jumped .
the booking agent tried to explain that there are only so many cheap fares on their site , if someone gets in before you then you miss out and get optioned to the next available fare , i called BS , because i reset my cookies and the same flight come back .with that i told him to find me a flight in a price bracket and low and behold it was done , fight booked and paid in about 10 min.
lesson learned , go strait to the door and forget the online ticketing systems.

 

[BWR1953]

it must be a common thing these days for price gouging on airline flights online.
i went to the agency door after getting frustrated trying to get a flight , same thing as you , picked the flight , went to book and pay and the fare was no longer available or price jumped .
the booking agent tried to explain that there are only so many cheap fares on their site , if someone gets in before you then you miss out and get optioned to the next available fare , i called BS , because i reset my cookies and the same flight come back .with that i told him to find me a flight in a price bracket and low and behold it was done , fight booked and paid in about 10 min.
lesson learned , go strait to the door and forget the online ticketing systems.

I'm glad that it worked well for you. In our case, "the door" is over 50 miles away and in the big city. No joy there.

 

[stresspoint]

I'm glad that it worked well for you. In our case, "the door" is over 50 miles away and in the big city. No joy there.

maybe try a phone call .

 

[BWR1953]

maybe try a phone call .

Well, it's already done. Check post #15.

 

[aspeck]

Glad you got it done, BWR. Post COVID getting decent priced flights has gotten a bit trickier. I fly more than I care to fly and hold several frequent flier memberships and am a Gold Medallion Member with Delta. Flying used to be fun but it is a necessary evil now. Anyway, as has been said, I will check out flight availabilities with Kayak or Priceline or one of the 3rd party vendors and then go to the airline and book directly. If I can't find what I want I will call the airline and see what they can do. Pre COVID I had better luck getting "special treatment" than I do in the post COVID world. I tried to use miles to get my wife bumped up a class to sit by me on a trans-altantic flight to no avail. Was told to wait till I got on the plane and ask the flight attendant ... I was told that was your only shot and it won't cost you any miles. It is a different world in flight!