Best flight search engine?

[Tonish]

I'm getting a little frustrated at the moment trying to book my summer flights. Not all of the search engines include all of the airlines and there are many price variations. No real surprise there.

However, has anyone found one search engine which consistently stands out as the best, easiest to use, has the most options and cheapest flights? Perhaps there's a secret one out there which the travel professionals use and don't tell us about? That's the one I want if it exists.

The best I've found so far is [name edited].

[blott]

Going to have to be really careful here as many of them have links to car rental, park tickets and homes.

Have you tried the link at the top of each forum page for flights?

[Katys Grandad]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by blott
Going to have to be really careful here as many of them have links to car rental, park tickets and homes.[/quote]I'm trying to be careful here as I do appreciate why this rule exists.

As I'm unable to mention specific sites I'd recommend having a look at Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert website. It has a guide to how to find the best prices which, obviously, includes sites we can't mention specifically on here.

Hope that's OK![msnsmile2]

[Sniff]

I doubt you'll find a reliable one. There are literally millions of fares, and not all are available to all sellers under the same conditions. Even so-called aggregator sites that act as portals rather than resellers usually only work via screen s[bad language filtered out]ing, and most airlines actively prevent that now. The airlines have a vested interest in not having their fares compared to other carriers and go to great lengths to prevent this happening.

[zanderbuchan]

I hope I don't run foul of any problems with info below.....

Try searching on google for ita software. Follow the link and enter system as guest.

Come to think about it, I may even have picked up this link from an earlier posting on here????

[sarahnmitch]

That's the one I use Zander. You just give the booking codes to the travel agent. It's also good as a reference to see what flights are going for.

[steph_goodrum]

It's always very difficult as some search engines use "smart pricing" , I was reading the other day. It is set so that if for example a few people check the same flights and any seats are sold then the price is udjusted upwards. It takes away the flight operators having to manually keep an eye on populare dates and flights and ensures they get the maximum amount of revenue per seat they feel they can.

[DLB-GOUROCK]

Take a look at [website edited]

It's just another tool in the box.

Tonish I'll send this in a dm to you also.

[Sniff]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by steph_goodrum
It's always very difficult as some search engines use "smart pricing" , I was reading the other day. It is set so that if for example a few people check the same flights and any seats are sold then the price is udjusted upwards. It takes away the flight operators having to manually keep an eye on populare dates and flights and ensures they get the maximum amount of revenue per seat they feel they can.[/quote]The only people who can adjust the prices are the airlines themselves. The airline reservation systems certainly use very sophisticated algorithms to monitor sales and fine tune prices, but search engine websites cannot do this, they can simply show the prices the airlines or 3rd party vendors are selling at.

[Katys Grandad]

I very much doubt that there's a 'best' search engine for the reasons outlined above.

I spend far too much of my hard-earned on flights during the course of the year and have come to the conclusion that you have to decide what you are prepared to pay and just go for it when it appears. Sometimes that will turn out to be the best fare and sometimes it won't but that's how it is. I subscribe to a number of specialist sites but they only provide a marginal advantage and aren't really worthwhile for the occasional flyer.

Of course you should do your research to improve your chances of getting the best prices available but the airlines are much better at working their systems that the paying passenger.