Best flight comparison websites?

[GlasgowGirl]

What flight comparison websites do people recommend? Up until a year or so ago, the only one I knew of was expedia. But there seem to be so many now - I know of Kayak, Holiday Hypermarket, Cheap Holiday Deals and Skyscanner, and there are probably loads of other ones too. I've found that sometimes they do come up with different prices but haven't noticed any consistent patterns in terms of one being cheaper than another. Is there a particular one that anyone would recommend?

[Tony]

I generally just go to the airlines websites and do the research myself. I have used expedia and found it to be expensive. Have you seen this one:

Budget Airline FlightChecker tells you when to go for the cheapest price: MoneySavingExpert.com

The notice at the bottom made me laugh - "Ryanair are currently having problems with their website". It should read that Ryanair are suing the companies that screen scrape - Ryanair wins German court victory in screen-scraping injunction | The Register

[Martino]

The reason why the prices are so different is that price comparison search engines are either not searching live prices (which change by the minute), or that they are unable to calculate the price due to the airline complicating their pricing structure (these days, a price comparison engine has to ask you how many bags have you got, how heavy are the bags, how are you paying, can you print your boarding pass or do you have to check in at the airport, etc...).

Just go to the airline's site directly. You can find a complete list of who flies where on WhichBudget.com

[Tony]

I understood that the rules had recently changed and airlines will have to show to full price including taxes to make comparison easier - no more 1p headline prices.

[Martino]

Originally Posted by Tony

I understood that the rules had recently changed and airlines will have to show to full price including taxes to make comparison easier - no more 1p headline prices.

That's just for fuel surcharge, airport charges, government taxes, etc. But they don't have to include bag supplement, airport check-in charge, credit card charges, etc. After all, they (like the comparison sites), cannot calculate this without you telling them how many bags you are carrying, how are you paying, etc.

Sometimes, these "small" extra charges can amount to double the original ticket price.

[Tony]

Thanks for the clarification, it would be interesting to compare the cost of these extras alone across all the airlines. I have been meaning to do this for car seats and car rental firms as I was shocked to find out how much Avis charge - Avis Car Hire Con

[GlasgowGirl]

Thanks for the replies folks. I guess I'll just have to do the donkey work myself and search individual airline websites: I was just being lazy and hoping there was a site that would do it for me! Martino, I hadn't seen the Which Budget site before, that's a really useful site.

[Paul Carcone]

I use Travelocity and Lastminute.com to do the donkey work, identify the cheapest flights and potential airlines that fly the route I'm after there and then go to the individual airline and book direct with them.

It usually saves you around £10-15.

It's also worth considering flying from regional airports that may be close-by...sometimes you might have a much cheaper airline/less popular route to choose.

Paul Carcone