Be Excellent To Each Other

Going to go and visit my brother in Florida next spring, I've never in my life had a holiday where I am solely just booking flights as opposed to buying a full package through a holiday firm including hotel/apartment car-hire etc.

I sat down this morning to take a look online and realised I literally have no clue as to where to look! What is a good place to search?

Cheers!

I usually use http://www.kayak.co.uk , although other price-scrapers are available.

If looking for hire cars, I'd recommend Expedia because the prices they quote include insurance - something the rental companies' sites tend to view as an additional extra. Got caught out really badly on that this year!

I'd normally throw it through Expedia, Travelocity and opodo to get some ideas of pricing, then go to one of the dial a flight bucket shops and see if they can do it cheaper.

Make sure that whoever you book with has the thing that is like abta but isn't as it only relates to flights (helpful I know) an pay by credit card to be safe if they go tits up. Also you need insurance for the US for health so you should also have cover there.

Because its florida you may actually find charter are cheaper than scheduled but thy won't necessarily be on Expedia and the like hence trying offline once you have price compatibles.

Don't forget your visa-waiver through the ESTA website, too!

I've got tickets by phoning Flying Eagles before for quite cheap. They failed me on the cheapness this time, but twice previously I've had very good deals through them.

1. If you are flexible about your travel dates, start with SkyScanner. It has the best interface I've seen that lets you pick between dates and prices.
   
2. Once you've used that to narrow it down, you'll probably find it's offering you flights by certain carriers through resellers like Expedia or the like. Doublecheck SkyScanner's price with the reseller. Then go the carrier's own website and see if it's the same price there.
   
3. Optional: either call or go and visit some actual travel agents and try and beat that price. Or try some other websites, like NetFlights, which just so happens to use the software I work on every day for flight prices.
   
4. If all these prices are about the same, book on the carrier's own website. You'll get the least chance of anything going wrong that way, and the best chance of things like online check-in not screwing up. If the prices are different, or the best fares are ones that combine different carriers, then book wherever the price is least.

And don't forget your ESTA, as Pete has said, and make really, really sure that your APIS data (name, address, passport) that you enter on the booking is absolutely correct.

Thanks, folks, will get cracking on this tonight

Also, Virgin are very good for flying to Florida and among the cheapest.