Flight Search Engines Flying from U.K

[roomark 1,268]

Hi lads...

Which search engines do you tend to use nowadays?

I always used Skyscanner (flying from Manchester)  but all that Skyscanner seems to pull up now is FinnAir ...

Recommendations please ?

Cheers

Edited November 24 by roomark

[bob lt 218]

Out of interest, I pulled up MAN - BKK - MAN with February 2020 dates and found:

Emirates, Air France, KLM, Finnair, Oman, Etihad, BA, Turkish, Qatar, Singapore, Cathay...…………..

Have you applied a filter by accident?

[roomark 1,268]

Just now, bob lt said:

Out of interest, I pulled up MAN - BKK - MAN with February 2020 dates and found:

Emirates, Air France, KLM, Finnair, Oman, Etihad, BA, Turkish, Qatar, Singapore, Cathay...…………..

Have you applied a filter by accident?

No mate Emirates is coming up but for over a grand ...

Iv been trying for well over two weeks having said that I'm just playing around with prices for Jul /Aug at the minute.

[galenkia 5,467]

Travel Supermarket has always given me good choices 

[AJSP 626]

6 minutes ago, roomark said:

No mate Emirates is coming up but for over a grand ...

Iv been trying for well over two weeks having said that I'm just playing around with prices for Jul /Aug at the minute.

I’ve been doing the same for end of July  and coming up with some horrible prices ( not all), but think after Xmas is when I normally book do will keep looking 

on topic, I have used skyscanner

[KWA 747]

Momondo, Kayak, Google Flights and ITA Matrix as well as Skyscanner.  None perfect but all have some good features.

Edited November 24 by KWA

[roomark 1,268]

Cheers lads 👍

[bexwell 55]

I like Momondo, it used to come up with the cheapest flights consistently but recently skyscanner seem to be a pound or 2 cheaper.

[Stillearly 4,389]

Kayak for me and usually compare to the airlines own page 

[cosceguinhas 18]

I've always had good service from Southall Travel and  https://www.traveltrolley.co.uk/

Prices seem OK, and the one occasion I had a problem, it was sorted within 12 hours.

[RR007 625]

7 hours ago, cosceguinhas said:

I've always had good service from Southall Travel and  https://www.traveltrolley.co.uk/

Prices seem OK, and the one occasion I had a problem, it was sorted within 12 hours.

Yep Travel Trolley I use exclusively these days. Dont even bother with Skyscanner any more as TT 9 times out of 10 are the cheapest for Oman and Eva. 3 Times they have gone beyond the call of duty (none of which were their fault) when twice I was able to and wanted to change "unchangeable dates" and once when Oman had a group of 43 people on open tickets reschedule for my Bangkok Muscat sector and I as single traveller was bumped. Called TT back in London told them politely to get their arses in gear and half hour later a phone call back saying all sorted just check in online as normal.

They also send you a trust pilot review link to complete for which you get £10 voucher off next trip (every ticket not just the once)

Edited November 25 by RR007

[Jambo 2,134]

I don't trust ANY agent.

My last two trips I used several agents search engines to find which Airline was showing up with a good rate then booked direct with that airline on line. The additional cost was marginal and still cheaper than all the rest.

 

[john luke 2,617]

Could I suggest that if you are considering using Skyscanner, then conduct ones search and get the list of travel agents in order of their ascending prices.  Then just type in the name of the top few travel agents together with the word review.  I think one may get quite a shock with some of the reviews.  

A number as based out of UK and the reviews on some are very close to saying some of the companies act unlawfully.

[RR007 625]

The problem with reviews right across the board is that customers who are unhappy vent their views but the ones that are delighted rarely do.  I have NEVER had an issue with agents and thats going right back to the early days of Benz Travel in 1990.   Christ knows how many I've had personally off Travel Trolley or the other guys that use them recommended by me....must be 250+ easy return tickets all up....none of us ever have had an issue

In all my trips have only ever booked 3 times off an airlines website. Twice with Oman and once with Eva way back

[RR007 625]

18 minutes ago, john luke said:

Could I suggest that if you are considering using Skyscanner, then conduct ones search and get the list of travel agents in order of their ascending prices.  Then just type in the name of the top few travel agents together with the word review.  I think one may get quite a shock with some of the reviews.  

A number as based out of UK and the reviews on some are very close to saying some of the companies act unlawfully.

Book the ticket....get the eticket an hour later (I do with Travel Trolley).....go into Amadeus (check my trip.com) enter airline 6 character reference....look for status ok ok ok ok if 4 sector flights....thats it you're in the system...period

[john luke 2,617]

2 hours ago, RR007 said:

Book the ticket....get the eticket an hour later (I do with Travel Trolley).....go into Amadeus (check my trip.com) enter airline 6 character reference....look for status ok ok ok ok if 4 sector flights....thats it you're in the system...period

Appologies if I am wrong but I think you missed the point of my post.  There are a large number of reviews of the travel agents who use Skyscanner, where customers complain of being subject to further charges after they initially paid for the booking, not recieving a ticket and/or not getting refunds or excessive delay in recieving refunds.  Whilst you check Amadeius to confirm that you are on the system; if this proves negative you may have problems either actually securing your ticket or obtaining a refund at all or within a reasonable time.  Appologies if I misunderstood your post.

[RR007 625]

39 minutes ago, john luke said:

Appologies if I am wrong but I think you missed the point of my post.  There are a large number of reviews of the travel agents who use Skyscanner, where customers complain of being subject to further charges after they initially paid for the booking, not recieving a ticket and/or not getting refunds or excessive delay in recieving refunds.  Whilst you check Amadeius to confirm that you are on the system; if this proves negative you may have problems either actually securing your ticket or obtaining a refund at all or within a reasonable time.  Appologies if I misunderstood your post.

No personal experience of any issues of additional monies requests or anything remotely like that. In addition as I said earlier in the thread Travel Trolley went out of their way on 3 occasions for me none of which were remotely their concern/fault. I would suggest people try Travel Trolley and report their experiences back here.

You're not going to get an eticket without the airlines own 6 character code (not the same as agents 6 digit code) .....Years ago (am talking 25 years plus) agents could issue the old style paper tickets with "wait listed" sectors rather than "ok".....provisions exist now that once airline 6 character reference is issued thats it with no waitlisting.

Am not saying some agents wont try it on (additional money requests because yes they get an allocation and suddenly it may have been exceeded at lower price) but I've never known it personally or any of my friends.

Even if you go on Omans own website the site warns that price changes can occur after payment but before eticket issue.  I suspect a lot of the criticism of agents may be because customers dont always grasp how the system works and a request for an additional £25 or whatever is seen as a scam rather than a algorithm/allocation price movement

[Jambo 2,134]

1 hour ago, RR007 said:

 

You're not going to get an eticket without the airlines own 6 character code (not the same as agents 6 digit code) .....Years ago (am talking 25 years plus) agents could issue the old style paper tickets with "wait listed" sectors rather than "ok".....provisions exist now that once airline 6 character reference is issued thats it with no waitlisting.

 

I am sorry but that was not my experience.

Five years ago I booked two seats with Thai Airways  (or possibly Emirates) and I received actual etickets.

Several months later I tried to log into the Airline's website using the provided booking reference but could not access my details. I subsequently telephoned the Airline who eventually advised me that the booking had been cancelled as the Agent had not paid the airline.

Okay, this was a local agent who had ceased trading  but one I had used several times previously and I did receive the etickets.

 

[coxyhog 1,236]

Missus had a call early hours today that her bro-in-law has died.Went on Skyscanner & got a ticket for tonight on Eva from Skysharp for £538.I did check their reviews before paying & they were good.

All checked in with seat allocated so looks like I'm self catering again for a while.

[KWA 747]

3 hours ago, john luke said:

There are a large number of reviews of the travel agents who use Skyscanner, where customers complain of being subject to further charges after they initially paid for the booking, not recieving a ticket and/or not getting refunds or excessive delay in recieving refunds.

Some of these cases will be down to the agent not booking real time with the airline and either finding out their advertised price is no longer available or more likely just trying to gouge the customer.  If you refuse to back down you can often get the original price, but who really wants to deal with lowlifes like that?

[RR007 625]

13 hours ago, KWA said:

Some of these cases will be down to the agent not booking real time with the airline and either finding out their advertised price is no longer available or more likely just trying to gouge the customer.  If you refuse to back down you can often get the original price, but who really wants to deal with lowlifes like that?

Then use Travel Trolley who 9/10 are the cheapest anyway. 250+ plus tickets between us (its higher than that) and never once an issue of any sort for any of us.

Strangely enough TT are the original "online" version of Southall Travel who back in the day didnt have a good reputation. I do wonder if the email address attached to each purchase effects the efficiency of the deal and complete lack of gouging..... Mine I suspect ensures the system develops a rash saying "hey top booker" no messing around with this guy and same with colleagues.

Then again I and they started as "newbies" at one point with no issues. Anyway I dont even bother with Skyscanner now straight to TT and then check their price against Omans and Evas own site. On 2 occasions Oman had flash sales and I booked with them and once with Eva

[thunder367 19]

i use the flight search engines compare prices and see whats about.then ring dial a flight they can match it or even get it cheaper and include a 1 night hotel stay in bkk.but i never use the hotel as its mainly hostels they give u if it saves me 40 quid then i book it.only way a got a flight for xmas under grand was to book a hotel and have a 5/6 hr stop over on way back.so need to contact qatar airways and see if i can pay to use lounge as in a frequet flyer member with them as thats the only airline ill use

[KWA 747]

16 hours ago, thunder367 said:

so need to contact qatar airways and see if i can pay to use lounge as in a frequet flyer member with them as thats the only airline ill use

Qatar give free lounge access to Silver Frequent Flyer Club members and above, both at Doha and at outstations.  It's one of their better benefits as the equivalent status on many others only gives lounge access at their home base.

[KWA 747]

On 11/27/2019 at 12:22 AM, RR007 said:

Then use Travel Trolley who 9/10 are the cheapest anyway. 250+ plus tickets between us (its higher than that) and never once an issue of any sort for any of us.

I don't think they've popped up more than a handful of times in my searches, but think I might have used them once a while back.  Maybe they have better deals with other airlines, but not in the top 13 here (although there's some here I wouldn't book if I could help it):

 

or top 21 here: