Useful non-biased flight website

How to communicate with your potential renters - how to turn site visitors into enquiries, and enquiries into bookings.
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Mountain Goat
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Useful non-biased flight website

Post by Mountain Goat »

We've got some punters coming from the States, and struggling to find economic flights in April - they have been using www.kayak.com which I've found impressive, especially as the site appears to be totally independent and deals with hotels as well as flights.

They've got some busy but rather anon. forums (31,000 on line when I looked - and that's before N. America got out of bed - some clue there).

The UK version is www.kayak.co.uk and is currently in Beta, but looking good.

MG
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Taff2
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Post by Taff2 »

Here's another site that's been recommended to me
though I haven't used it myself yet.
I quite like the layout but..............

when you get to the page confirming your choices
and the prices there's a little box that says
"Check Price"
Click on that and the prices change :?
They also change (on the next screen) if you don't click
the box.

I've tried a few test runs and the prices can remain the same,
increase and on a couple of occasions decrease :shock:

I've no affiliation to the site just offering another option :)

Cheers
Ian

www.skyscanner.net
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Ian, it looks good, and fast; that's a good addition, and they don't appear affiliated to anyone, which distorts prices on other sites.

MG
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi All,

I mostly use www.skyscanner.net

Its mostly budget airlines but its easy to use and you can get a month view so then can decide what day to go..
It saves on looking at all the different sites as it compares them in one go....I also recommend it to Guests.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Struggling with Skyscanner, which looked good.

Trying to get these punters from Boston to the UK in April, and the only arrival destination it can offer is Glasgow.

Seems unlikely. Awaiting their comment.

MG
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi MG

Try Travel Supermarket.com

Theyre listing quite a few from London To Boston with different airlines....
I couldnt seem to put Boston into departure though [only british airports]
but it does list the airlines doing the route so you could then check them.

Hope it helps Love Rosx
Last edited by Big Sis.. on Sun Jan 21, 2007 6:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by A-two »

The not so mightly US$ is at a 10 month low against Sterling, so that may be having an impact on flight prices from the US end, but plenty of availability in the $500 - $600 price range for a round trip. (I used www.Orbitz.com )

Don't forget that for international, there are foreign and U.S. government-imposed charges of up to $200.00 per roundtrip ticket, depending on routing and destination, so by my calculation, out of $500, the airline may only be getting something like 80 British Pounds/ US$150 each way. That's incredibly cheap for a transatlantic flight isn't it?

Perhaps your punters are attracting higher rates on peak days over Easter and maybe need to move a day or so? Otherwise, I don't understand the problem, sorry.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Thanks, everyone.

Joanna, problem is that until yesterday there was nothing direct for less than $1,100 from the East Coast. Stacks of weird ones (BOS-Chicago-LHR) with one-stop. They seemed to have taken a drop overnight, and out of all the above, orbitz.com looks very good. Ideally they're trying to get to GVA, so that complicates things.

Ros, thanks, TravelSupermarket looks good as well.

MG
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi Mountain...

Are their dates quite flexible in April...as it is Easter and the flights can alter by hundreds of pounds between dates.. :roll:

HI Mountie :wink: Good morning :wink: [YUE :wink: ] posted at the same timexx


Hi Ian :)
when you get to the page confirming your choices
and the prices there's a little box that says
"Check Price"
Click on that and the prices change
They also change (on the next screen) if you don't click
the box.

I've tried a few test runs and the prices can remain the same,
increase and on a couple of occasions decrease


Why this happens is that the site[say Skyscanner] is quoting easyjet/ryanair etc fares and are linked to their sites all the time.
As you know budget airlines prices fluctuate depending on bookings etc...
So to keep up to date you have to click to see if theyve altered since the last update....
If you look when your first checking they will say how 'old' the prices are since they were updated.
But you can always check the current price.....

I use these a lot to check which websites the best for the dates and then usually book on the website directly...
The fares are always the same as Skyscanner have quoted. :wink:
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Skyscanner replied comprehensively today, as the only flight I could find eastbound across the pond was to Glasgow (great place but....):

Hello Mountain,

Thank you for getting in touch with SkyScanner (http://www.skyscanner.net).

SkyScanner currently focuses on price comparisons for single-hop flights from budget airlines.

For long-haul flights, you would be better off using a site like Expedia.com, which includes the larger scheduled airlines in their database.

We are in the process of making some major changes to the site, which will hopefully address some of the problems you had. We are redesigning the home page to make it clearer exactly what kind of flight search we offer, and also expanding our search feature to cover all airlines (not just budget airlines) and multi-hop flights. These changes should (hopefully!) hit the site in the next couple of months.

We appreciate all the feedback we get from our customers, especially when the comments are critical of the site, because that's how we find out what we need to offer a better service. I hope you were able to find the flights you were looking for elsewhere, and also that you might still consider using SkyScanner at some point in the future.

Kind regards,
Bonamy Grimes

MG

Thanks, Ros! Yours looks great for Europe, so I've bookmarked it to use later.
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Post by Giddy Goat »

Great reply MG.

Love the christian name! Wonder if she (he) is as good humoured as the name implies?
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Thats OK MG :wink:

What I would say to anyone that some other sites dont incoporate all the taxes until you get to the booking stage[which is a bit sneaky] sometimes only after giving your cc details etc....

also some do add commission..
that happened to me with ebookers when I booked an Air Berlin flight It was cheaper booked directly...[only got caught once though :wink:] hope you get sorted :lol:
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Taff2
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Post by Taff2 »

Thanks Ros,

All is now clear 8) :oops:

Always guaranteed an answer on LMH :D

Cheers
Ian
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi Ian :D
Thanks Ros,

All is now clear
Well thats a first :shock: I usually manage to confuse people[me included :wink: ]

Your more than welcome Ian.... :wink: :lol:
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Post by Hells Bells »

Mountain Goat wrote:Thanks, everyone.

Joanna, problem is that until yesterday there was nothing direct for less than $1,100 from the East Coast. Stacks of weird ones (BOS-Chicago-LHR) with one-stop. They seemed to have taken a drop overnight, and out of all the above, orbitz.com looks very good. Ideally they're trying to get to GVA, so that complicates things.

MG
Do they have to go via UK?
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