I spend a lot more time than I used to in the air, and if there is anything I simply hate doing it is planning trips. As such, I thought it would be helpful to provide a list of places to go the next time work, play or otherwise calls you out of the office. I’ve tried to avoid the old standbys like Travelocity and Orbitz. Both of these sites provide some great prices, but you did not need me to tell you that.

Just a note about prices, they tend to change on a dime and depending on when you plan to leave or depart you are likely to get wildly different results. In order to be fair, I tested each of these sites using the same criteria. I wanted a flight leaving at anytime of the day as long as it left from Orlando on July 10th and arrived San Francisco, bringing me back to Orlando on July 12th.

Visitopia

Airline

You can get or create a complete city guide and you can book your trip right away. Visitopia has strong ties with several charities. For all of the tickets sold trough a specific charity portal, 100% of the profits will be donated to that charity. By working with both locals and charities, we feel that Visitopia has differentiated itself as a more personal and caring travel website. Please take a look around on our website.

I don’t know about all that, but one thing is for certain, they were definitely the most expensive of the travel sites that I visited. The itinerary is as follows.

Itinerary

Orlando, FL To San Francisco, Ca

Layovers 1 Outbound (Los Vegas), 2 Inbound (Denver, Fort Lauderdale)

Cost: 394 Euros

Sidestep

Sidestep is an interesting site, it searches other travel sites to deliver the best prices to you. It delivered some pretty decent prices, but most of them were not from the airport I requested. While it is not difficult for me to get to Tampa, especially if it would save me a few hundred dollars, for the sake of this experiment I will only use the lowest Orlando price.

Itinerary

Orlando, FL To San Francisco, Ca

Layovers 1 Outbound (North Carolina), 1 Inbound (North Carolina)

Cost: $607

The caveat is if you were willing to leave out from Tampa (a one hour drive) you could have found a ticket for $437.

Kayak

What I will say about Kayak is that it is an absolute breeze to use. It already had the airport nearest to me selected for my departure location and after typing the first few letters for my arrival location it had already filled in the blank with the exact airport I was looking for. What it comes down to when planning a trip, however, is price. Kayak dropped the ball in this department, falling behind SideStep even though it does a similar trick of searching through other travel sites.

You also cannot buy directly from them, once you find the fare you are redirected to the site that was offering it.

Itinerary

Orlando, FL To San Francisco, Ca

Layovers 1 Outbound (Arizona), 1 Inbound (North Carolina)

Cost: $615

eTripBuilder

eTripBuilder is an interesting variation on the travel sites mentioned previously. It uses quite a bit of AJAX and allows you to build your entire trip from transportation to airfare. While almost all the other sites offer similar features, the interface for eTripBuilder simply felt the most intuitive. The prices weren’t bad either, coming in just below SideStep.

Itinerary

Orlando, FL To San Francisco, Ca

Layovers 1 Outbound (North Carolina), 1 Inbound (Denver)

Cost: $608

cFares

cFares is yet another aggregater. Before getting into the price, I must say that I found this site to be the most annoying to use. The search was a bit glitchy and it took three tries for me to get the page to load properly. On top of that, in order to get the “best” deals you have to sign up for a membership that will run you $50 a year. That not withstanding, the deals that this membership entitles you too are rather good.

Itinerary

Orlando, FL To San Francisco, Ca

Direct Flight

Cost: $549 + $50 = $599

Another caveat, if you are willing to fly into San Jose you can get a ticket for $470 + 50 = $520.

Web 2.0 Roundup

If I was going to buy a ticket today, the winner hands down would be SideStep. It was easy to use, fast and provided the all around lowest price with the least hassle.

Here are some general tips to get the lowest airfares every time.

Plan your trip in advance. Most experts will tell you that the sweet spot for purchasing a ticket is 21 days before you actually travel, any less than 15 days and prices will start going up.

Use Discounters. While the aggregaters have quite a few of the discount airlines under their umbrella, two companies that are still holding out are Southwest and Allegiant Air. Visit their sites directly to make sure they don’t have lower rates than the competition.

Frequent Flyer Miles. If you have them, use them, if you don’t be sure to sign up for a program the next time you are at the airport. Many major credit cards offer programs that include frequent flyer miles.

Student Travel. If you are student, check with your college for student travel discounts. Many of them offer packages for major school holidays that can save you a pretty penny.

Good luck, finding a good price is all about perseverance and a touch of good fortune. Keep trying, plan early and you will do just fine.

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