Travel consultants say best fares for airlines can be found online

Experts say searching different Web sites can save hundred of dollars

Planning a trip where you need airline tickets? They’ll be cheapest online.

Airlines no longer pay commissions to travel agents on air tickets, so most agencies now charge a fee for them.

Many also have said that the fares they find are the same as on the Web. But still go with a travel agent if you like the customer service offered if you run into problems while you’re on your trip. If you’ve bought your tickets online and miss a flight, you’ll often have to call the airline directly for help.

Airlines have trained consumers to turn to the Web for tickets. Many major airlines also have initiated fees for issuing tickets on the phone.

Bill McGee, who has completed extensive research of online travel sites, said airlines offered the best fares online because it’s cheaper for the airlines.

“The best deals by far are online,” said McGee, a travel consultant to WebWatch, which is dedicated to improving Web credibility. It is a division of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.

There are quite a few sites available. Some are online travel agencies, while others are search engines that will check multiple travel sites for the best fare.

There is no one site that outshines the rest, McGee said.

“There is no silver bullet out there,” he said. “There’s no one-stop shop.”

McGee said that in tests, no one site always came up with the lowest fare.

“It really makes sense to shop around,” he said. “The good news for consumers is they all seem to be very competitive.”

McGee said savings can be pennies or hundreds of dollars.

But the main reason the sites aren’t the end-all-be-all are because not all airlines participate. Southwest (www.southwest.com) and JetBlue (www.jetblue.com), two popular low-cost carriers, don’t participate in any of the travel sites, and you have to go to their own sites to find their fares. In fact, even airlines that participate in other sites still try to push you to their own sites.

Where to click

Judy Graham-Weaver, spokeswoman for AirTran, said there were lower fares on www.airtran.com that aren’t advertised elsewhere.

McGee said that was a new trend in the past few months.

“It’s always good advice, when you’re on a third-party site of any kind and you see a good deal — it doesn’t matter whether it’s airline, hotel or car — check out the (company’s own) site” to see if the same thing is cheaper.

A colleague last fall saved $160 on two tickets to Florida using Mobissimo, a travel search engine (www1.mobissimo.com). On my search of Mobissimo, the cheapest fare was from Opodo, a travel agency in Britain, as well as several more familiar sites. Some other travel search engines are SideStep (www.sidestep.com), Kayak (www.kayak.com), Farechase (farechase.yahoo.com) and Qixo (www.qixo.com).

Among the most well-known travel agency sites are Travelocity (www.travelocity.com), Orbitz (www.orbitz.com), Expedia (www.expedia.com) and Cheaptickets (www.cheaptickets.com). There’s also Yahoo Travel, (www.travel.yahoo.com), which seems to link to a partnered site with Travelocity. I also found OneTravel (www.onetravel.com) and Lowest Fare (www.lowestfare.com).

Watch for fees

Most travel sites will charge you a service fee that ranges from $5 to $10 per ticket. Make sure to read fine print and look closely for the service fees — some sites will include the service fee in the price they quote while others won’t add it until right before you buy the ticket.

McGee said fees may vary even on one travel agency site, depending upon the agreement the site has with the airlines.

AAA, the automobile club, also offers airline tickets on its site, www.aaa.com. Fees will vary according to which local club’s site you access through the main Web page.

There also are Web sites like Priceline (www.priceline.com) and Hotwire (www.hotwire.com) where you might find ultra low prices for airfares and hotels if you’re very flexible. With these sites, you have to buy a ticket without knowing exact details of your trip, like times or airlines.

McGee said you have to ask yourself whether the savings are worth what you’re giving up.

Airlines have a 24-hour window to fulfill your requested time and rental car agencies and hotels can change the type of room or car or even property, McGee said.

A friend once bought a Priceline ticket and ended up not using it because it was going to require leaving at 1 a.m. with a connection at 4 a.m.

But a colleague got a great deal on a hotel once, staying at a four-star hotel for $46.

Obviously, there are a lot of choices of sites to search for cheap airfares. If it’s too overwhelming, just pick a few. It’s just like any other purchase — do the amount of research you’re comfortable with before buying.