About online airfares

[Oatmeal]

I have never bought air tickets online.

My wife and I are planning to travel to Russia and Ukraine in Late Sept. and spend 2 weeks.

We plan to fly to St. Petes and spend a couple of days and then fly down to Odessa.  We will spend the remaining time in Odessa and try to fly out of Kiev back to the USA.

My question is this:

I found some flights listed on Expedia and other websites that basically list flights from $1,021.02  to around $ 1,031.06 per person.  

If I buy my tickets online then will my tickets actually be for that price or are there usually hidden prices in that quote.

I have asked my travel agent to price a flight and she quoted me $1,300 per person for this flight.  I just wondered if it was worth risking sticker shock by buying my tickets online and how safe that is.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Jim

[Bill P]

... in response to About online airfares, posted by Oatmeal on Aug 5, 2002

I have booked through Expedia before.  I think with them if you want your tickets express mailed to you it cost $10-$20 extra, but that is the only other fee.  I found that Cheap Tickets doesn't charge a fee for the expres mail delivery of your tickets.  But be careful about these sites.  I found that flights from Odessa to Chicago (Through Warsaw) were substantially cheaper through the Lot Polish Airline site (By hundreds of dollars) for the exact same flights.  But I've been generally happy with buying tickets through Expedia and Cheap tickets.  They are likely to be cheaper than going through an agent because they don't have to pay them commissions.

-Bill P

[RfB]

... in response to About online airfares, posted by Oatmeal on Aug 5, 2002

http://www.cheap-airline-tickets-4-your-travel.com/

[RfB]

... in response to Check this site out, posted by RfB on Aug 5, 2002

We just booked a ticket in October to St Pete, and it was $540 with taxes via Finnair with a travel agent in NYC, 212 693-4444. My wife did all the arangements over the phone in Russian, and the price is hard to beat.

[Philb]

... in response to About online airfares, posted by Oatmeal on Aug 5, 2002

I have bought my tickets online several times.  Usually the quoted price does not include taxes (about $70.00 or so) and occassionally a processing fee of $8.00 or 10.00.

I have never bought tickets from Expedia although I have gotten quotes from them.  I have always been able to better their price by quite a bit.