We’re all used to booking our trips on the internet. That’s hardly new. But here’s something that is: increasingly, instead of using big online travel agents such as Expedia, Lastminute.com and Ebookers, confident web consumers are cutting out the middlemen and booking direct with airlines and hotels instead.

The trend is revealed in recent statistics from the internet intelligence firm Hitwise, which showed that while visits to online travel agents remained stable last year, visits to hotels’ and airlines’ own sites grew by nearly one-fifth. “People are going to online travel agents, finding the flight or hotel they want, then going direct to the supplier to buy it in the hope of saving some money,” said the company.

My, what a sneaky lot we are. But are we smart? It’s always been thought that the big agents offer the best deals, because they can negotiate bulk allocations of seats and rooms. Now, though, things are changing. The hotels and airlines are wising up to the way internet travellers shop — and counting the cost of the commission they have to pay third-party agents.

So, who can offer us the best bargains? We hit the net to find out. We selected some apparently good deals from the big agents’ sites, then went to the relevant hotels and airlines to see if we could book them cheaper direct. Here’s what we found.

THE FLIGHTS

Expedia (www.expedia.co.uk) is currently number one on Hitwise’s list of most visited travel-agency websites, so it should have some pretty good deals. We went looking for a direct flight to Cape Town, flying out on March 9 and back on March 16. The top result was a ticket with British Airways — a night flight out and a daytime return — for £570. Not bad — and it was advertised on the site as an “Expedia special fare”.

Of course, “special” is one of those words that can mean just about anything. In this case, it meant “expensive”. At BA’s own fast and efficient site, www.ba.com, the same flight was to be had for just £545.

So, chalk one up for the airlines? Not so fast: Ebookers (www.ebookers.co.uk) would sell it for exactly the same price as BA, while Travelocity (www.travelocity.co.uk) was asking a piddling 50p more.

We looked again, this time for a Heathrow-Sydney flight, leaving March 9 and returning on March 23. Our first port of call was Airline Network (www.airline-network.co.uk). Its best deal for a direct flight was with Qantas, at £637.50. The exact same seats were on sale at www.qantas.co.uk for £638. Virtually a dead heat.

Not satisfied with that, we went to Ebookers (www.ebookers.com) — where the same flights were offered for £617. A £20 saving — not huge, but worth having. Lastminute.com (www.lastminute.com) could sell the same ticket too — but its best deal was a pricey £658.44.

Looking for a definitive result, we tried one more route: London direct to Las Vegas, out March 9, back March 16. Ebookers had performed well so far, so we tried it again: just one option, a Virgin Atlantic flight for £318. Check with the airline at www.virgin-atlantic.com, and surprise surprise — also £318. The other agencies were pricier, most just by a few pounds, though Lastminute put in another notably woeful performance with a quote of £401.47 — the dearest by more than £70.

The verdict: selling flights is the same cut-throat business it always was — but now the airlines are in there buccaneering with the best of them. Travel-agent websites are a useful resource: Expedia in particular is fast, slick and packed with information, including departure times and flight durations from a wide range of carriers. Once you’ve chosen your preferred flight, though, check the airline’s own price. You could save a few pounds in a few seconds.

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