Booking International Flights - Tips

Kalkino

Hey Gang,

I need to book some around the world flights to get back home to NZ next year for a wedding and I thought I'd just see if anyone had any good advice. I've done similar things in the past, once through STA, the other through Expedia, and I've since decided that it is quite possible to get substantial price differences if one isn't too careful or is a little hasty.

So, any tips/websites/services/ general advice would be great.

I'll be using either a UK or NZ credit card to buy, if that helps

Fuzzywhale

I use kayak.co.uk for my long haul flights. An Aussie friend has recently recommended edreams.co.uk, which you might want to check out.
Both of those sites are aggregators that just scan a bunch of different travel websites.

japan

Basically just play around with different sites and travel dates.

Sometimes it's actually useful to call airlines and ask what their cheapest deal is. British Airways are surprisingly good in that regard, they'll tell you if you could get a cheaper fare by moving dates around or using a different airport (sometimes it's worth the extra couple of hours to get the train to Manchester if it'll knock hundreds of pounds off a ticket).

Kipling

London to NZ sounds as horrible as NY to India. As insane as it sounds in the age of the internet, a good travel agent can be useful in these cases. The problem is finding a good one.

itasoftware.com is back end software to some travel websites - I usually use that to find schedules and options before I start a full search.

Kalkino

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll be checking them out. Also, a travel agent as well.

@kipling - yup, it does kind of suck. The flights seem to be at the very best 24 hours, up to 37 depending on how long one stops over at the various regional airport hubs in Asia. This makes for some mad jetlag. I remember last time it was so bad that at one point I fell asleep (while mainly sober) mid sentence at a bard while talking to friends