Has anyone every heard of Smart Fares? I don't know if it's due to the economy or what but I'm impressed with some of the fares I checked: Ontario, CA to NYC $211 r/t. Last year when I had to fly to Michigan (Grand Rapids) when my brother had a stroke, I was quoted over $1,000. I have never paid over 450 or so to fly to MI. When I told the lady on the phone it was an emergency,(and had to give the hospital info) the fare was cut in half to $500 which was still higher than normal, but a hell of lot better than $1,000.

Anyway, I think it sounds pretty good, don't you? Granted, there may be one stop, but I can handle that.



Smart Fares

I did a quick Google search about them, and found a couple of complaints on the first try. Be careful. I never heard if them, and I travel all the time.

"Yesterday I booked a flight to Indpls. online thru SmartFares.com and now 18 hours later I learned- quite by accident- the credit card I used ONLY for that flight and for Thrifty car rental online has been used as a 'tester charge' for 1$ to Air France. The credit card company explained that is how a stolen acct. is first tested and then in short order, charged to.
Of course, I closed it."

"The actual cost of the air fare is the same when you book with SmartFares, or the airline with which you are flying, but it ends up costing you more to book through SmartFares. SmartFares make it look less expensive, by hiding administrative fees. It is actually costing us approximately $26 extra dollars a ticket, by going with SmartFares. On top of that, when I called to gain some insight on the "service fee" charged to my credit card, the representative was sarcastic and not helpful at all. It is not worth your time, or energy, to use SmartFares. They are in the service industry, yet provide no service at all. Try a different 'discount' provider, or go dorectly to the airline, to save yourself a headache."

TIS, check out what these people had to say about their experiences.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k1653950-Smartfares_com-Airlines_Air_Travel.html

Even without going into their authenticity, the prices they display with the search does not include taxes. If you go to checkout, they add a lot more money in taxes than the usual tax amount. A ticket I checked showed $285 on the main search page. When I went to checkout, it added taxes and showed a total of $400. That is not cheap definitely, as I could find cheaper prices on priceline and Kayak (TIS, check out kayak.com).

So SmartFares is a little on the dark side. Why splash it over these pages.

You want them to loose business?

Because I feel like it.

Must be the Kool Aid going around.

Kill yourself.

Thanks for that!! My dad needs to book a flight to come up for a funeral, and using that link would save about $400 on the roundtrip flight compared to using Continental's site directly!

...now if only he can figure out how to book a flight online by following my instructions....

Thanks everyone. I guess if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I have had good luck with Pricline, Orbitz and Hotwire. I have Kayak saved to my favorites, but haven't used it yet.

Thanks again. It's great to have friends in the know.


TIS

I also use Travelocity, TIS, not for booking tickets but for comparison and to find out which airlines fly into a certain airport. I've found that most of these "money-saving" sites quote almost the same prices that you can get from the airline's website itself.

I've never tried kayak.com, but will certainly check it out if recommended. We have found that hotwire definitely gets you some of the best rental car deals around. We were recently in Florida. Everyone was quoting $80-90 per day plus taxes, fees, etc. for a compact car. We got an H3 for $312 for the week, including the tax.

I've used the site that has the gnome(I forgot the name.) Didn't have a problem.

Continental.com does have a low price guarantee:

Low Fare Guarantee

Find Continental's lowest fare to popular destinations like Las Vegas, New York, Orlando or anywhere else Continental flies. Forget those so-called low-fare travel Web sites, because when it comes to finding the lowest Continental Airlines fare online, continental.com has it. Guaranteed. In fact, if you find a fare for the same flight, itinerary and cabin that's more than $10 lower than through continental.com, we'll make up the difference and give you a $100 Electronic Travel Certificate.

I've used Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity many times, and never had a problem with any of them.

I have never had a problem with any of the tickets I've bought on-line and I have been buying on line since I've had a computer. JL, I forgot about Expedia. I have used them as well as Yahoo travle too(with no problem). I find expedia a little higher than the others though.

When I go to Vegas though, I use Southwest airlines and book both room/flight. I think their packages are great.


TIS

A tip for choosing motels/hotels - you can bid for a specific price for a specific number of star rating of the hotel at Priceline. You can't choose the hotel, but if a hotel is available at that price, they will bill you. It is really nice. For example, you can say $50 for 2-1/2 star hotel and if they find one, you have to accept it. Don't be afraid of bidding a really cheap price, most likely you will get one. Just to be clear, by bid, I don't mean auction types, the result is known immediately.

I checked out kayak.com and they found a low price, but they referred me to the airline's website.

I haven't bid on Priceline, but every time I've used Orbitz, Travelocity, etc., I've found the same fares on the airlines' sites, minus Orbitz, etc.,'s fee. So I always book with them. My experience has been that if you book with Orbitz, etc., and you run into a problem with your ticket--and especially hotel reservation--the airline or hotel tells you to go fly a kite. They don't like those sites.

I usually book flights on the airline's sites, when I don't need a room. When I need a package, I shop the usual sites for the best deals. I found an Orbitz $200 off code on the net, and booked a trip to Aruba for this April. It came to $800pp for 7 days with airfare and hotel. That's an incredible price for their "peak" time of year.

I rarely book packages. I've also found that calling a hotel directly, or their 800# if it's a chain, can also get you better prices than what's on the web. I've also joined Hilton Honors and have gotten great prices and the points accumulate like mad. Since Hilton owns so many hotels at so many different price levels, I can usually find something near where we're going for a good price.