Click
here to see the Times Online selection of the top 100 travel
websites. Don't agree with our choices? Know of one that merits
inclusion? Let
us know
FLIGHT ESSENTIALS
www.kayak.co.uk
Kayak searches will find airfares between any airport pair, as well as
finding flights for multi-city trips. We love the clean site and lack of
ads; the fact that you can search for flights from multiple departure and
arrival airports; the Buzz tool, which allows you to search for flights when
you don’t have a specific place in mind and want to be inspired; the fact
that prices includes taxes and fees; the slider tool that allows you to
change flight times; the fare history graph.
www.cheapflights.co.uk
One of the original flight comparison and holiday offer sites, Cheapflights
searches a number of different airline and travel agency websites, but also
has a useful news section listing new routes and seat sales.
www.seatguru.com
Book the seat you prefer after consulting this site, which has seating plans
of most of the world’s major airlines.
www.dohop.com
Now part-owned Cheapflights, but still operating independently from its
parent, this brilliantly quick flight comparison site includes major
airlines, their prices and destinations around the world, and unlike
Cheapflights, you can start your journey outside the British Isles. Snapping
on its heels is www.foundem.com,
which has a flight search that is similar in look and feel to SideStep.
www.skyscanner.net
Searches hundreds of budget, scheduled and charter airlines for the best deals
and times to travel on any route. The design is basic, but the search is
fast and the month-wide date search will generate a graph showing when
flights are cheapest - handy if your departure dates are flexible.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/flightchecker
Searches budget airlines and tells you when to fly to get the best prices.
Also has advice on getting cheaper package holidays and changing currency.
Note however, that some airlines are not included, and prices don't include
tax, which can add up to £50 onto the cost of a return flight.
www.airlinequality.com
Surveys and rates airlines around the world on food, service, comfort and so
forth, with details on seat pitch (distance between seats), as well as an
active forum of frequent flyers.
www.flightstats.com
Flightstats has more information than you could ever need on flight
statistics, from average delays on a specified route, to airport security
wait times; but there are some disgruntled passengers and data demons who
obviously contribute extensively this site.
www.airline-network.co.uk
Hard to beat for long-haul bargain flights, Airline Network has all major
airline offers and an e-mail newsletter that will make you want to drop
everything and fly.
www.flymycase.com
Flymycase is a courier delivery service that forwards your luggage from your
home to your arrival address so you don’t have to lug it to and from the
airport, worry about it turning up on the carousel or pay such high
excess-baggage charges. Also see www.firstluggage.com
and for similar services.
www.oag.com
An exhaustive database of travel information that has a free trial service
before subscription (£99 a year). Frequent travellers would no doubt benefit
from the interactive CD information and real-time flight details, but there
is plenty on offer on the site without having to log in.
www.thecheapertraveltickets.com they are the cheaper travel tickets on any cruise,flights,hotels, saved me money on every booking
ed, new york, ny
What about cheapflights.co.uk? I've been using them for years
Kim Taylor, Hampstead,
Skyscanner is really great for low-cost airlines. I use them a lot and save loads of money. They started adding scheduled airlines recently.
Jaroslaw Kowalski, Warsaw, Poland
I prefer http://www.skybargains.co.uk/ - I've booked with it a few times and its really easy, plus theres the low prices!
Laura Rudd, Bournemouth,
Hello,
I think you should add to the list a travel search engine called Trabber - http://www.trabber.co.uk
I hope it will help.
dan, London, UK
I would like to add another flight comparison website very useful for the European Market. it is called www.weefly.com and its advaced planner quite useful for finding the cheapest weekend across months.
Nick, Glasgow, uk