Why you should ALWAYS book flights directly with airlines

If you take one piece of advise from this blog, please let it be this. ALWAYS book flights directly with airlines whenever possible. When looking for flights, I always search using Google Flights or for one way domestic flights I will sometimes search on Skiplagged, but when it comes to booking, I always book directly with the carrier I plan on flying.

If you book flights via a travel aggregator or 3rd party website, they ultimately become the party responsible for helping you with flight changes, cancellations, and rebooking. In the even you find yourself in a situation where you need to make a change or have any problems, I am sorry to say, I can almost guarantee you will not find a resolution to your problems. There are plenty of horror stories with people cancelling flights booked via a 3rd party and ultimately ending up with a trip credit that is essentially impossible to use. The worst part about this is, even if there is a simple issue such as a seat change or questions on fare rules, etc. the airline will be unable to help with anything and ultimately pass you back to the booking party. With the state of the airline industry in 2022, schedules constantly changing, fully booked flights, and a large amount of cancellations, there are just way too many things that can go wrong when not booking directly with an airline.

I can also say this from personal experience. When traveling to Europe in December, I found an incredible deal on a flight from Chicago to Copenhagen with a return flight from Athens over the holidays. Because SAS does not allow multi city bookings on its website and I was not getting the same price I was seeing over the phone, I was forced to book on Priceline. All was fine with the outbound flight to Copenhagen as well as the flight to Athens. Before leaving for the airport, both my wife and I took COVID tests for our return flight to the US. Well, as luck would have it, both were positive. After making arrangements with the hotel we were staying at to be able to quarantine, I immediately tried calling SAS and after sitting on hold for an hour was told there was nothing they could do to help me reschedule our return and was sent back to Priceline. After 5 back and forth calls and over 5 hours on hold, our flight had already departed and neither SAS or Priceline were able to help us other than to offer a refund of the remaining ticket balance which was around $200. The problem was, it was New Years Eve, there were very limited booking options from Greece back to the US, and one way flights were $3000+ per person. In the end I had to just accept the refund and find a way home. Luckily I was able to find a flight using AAdvantage miles from Paris. If I wouldn’t have had a large quantity of miles with AA, this simple issue would have wound up costing me over $6000. So please, heed my warning, and ALWAYS book directly with airlines.

There has never been a better time to book a trip to Europe.

The travel industry was undoubtably upended during the pandemic. With a new surge in travel demand, especially domestically, rising fuel prices, and inflation, airfare has not been immune to massive price hikes. Flights that routinely would have been $250 round trip pre pandemic can now run $600-$900 or even more. Domestic deals are certainly more difficult to come by than they were in the past.

There is one sweet spot that still exists on fares right now and that is fares from the US to Europe. It is now routinely less expensive to fly from New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles to many destinations in Europe than it is to fly to many popular destinations in the US. With the Euro to Dollar exchange rate near historic lows, at par for the first time in 20 years, a European vacation becomes even more appealing and affordable.

Here are just a few examples of options for a 1 week trip to Europe

There are flights available in the next 6 months from New York City to Europe as low as $225 ROUND TRIP on full service airlines.

Flights available from Chicago to Europe in the next 6 months as low as $362.

An example of flights from LA to Europe in the next 6 months as low as $443 round trip.

With travel restrictions being lifted, no resting requirments on entry to the US, and the Euro near 20 year lows vs the dollar, you should consider making Europe your next travel destination in the next 6 months, because as history has shown in the past all of these factors will not be in alignment forever. Learn how to seach and book these flights here.