My experience with flight reservation sites

Flight price comparison with Skyscanner

Let me summarize my experience with various flight companies based on my 6 years of travels. Always compare your flight prices with Skyscanner, and book by following the link. Skyscanner does not charge any fees for its service, nor it places cookies on behalf of the travel agent sites.

1. TravelGenio / Travel2Be - Managed by the same team. The worst of all. Read my post on my experience with them - Is TravelGenio a Scam?

Score: 0/5

 2. Tripsta

They are the best of all that I tried.  They do not randomly increase the price or seek additional charges.

However, like all the other travel agents, they also apply a price differentiation. As I prefer my flight details to be in English and in Euro, I had a habit of using their Ireland website, tripsta.ie. However, for the same flight, it costs 507 Euro in tripsta.pt and 541 Euro in tripsta.ie. Next time, I will stick with tripsta.pt, though I need to stick to the Portuguese language, as I cannot change the language to English while in Portuguese site. Only Portuguese language is available in tripsta.pt. I can, of course, use Chrome to auto-translate, just to be safe.

Score: 5/5

3. GotoGate

They are fine. However, I did not like the site as much as I liked Tripsta - which was simple and plain.

Score: 4/5

4. MyTrip

Haven't tried yet.
Score: ?/5

5. eDreams

Used them a few times, as they were the first to offer an easy payment with PayPal with 0 additional fees. The situation has changed now. They once sent a notice mentioning "Your card has been declined" when I actually paid using PayPal and when the payment was indeed successful. I had to call them and clarify. It was a smooth process, and the email was a mistake. They fixed it and sent another confirmation email promptly as I asked them over the phone - just to be safe.

Score: 4/5

6. Rumbo

Haven't tried yet.
Score: ?/5

7. BudgetAir

Offered 15 Euro discount, if you pay additional 8 Euro during a previous flight. I did not prompt for this, as I was not sure whether I will use them again. However, overall pleasant experience booking with them. No additional charge and no random fees. Also offers cheapest for many flights.

Score: 5/5

8. TopAtlantico

A local Portuguese option. Has many branches everywhere in Lisboa.

Haven't tried yet. 

Score: ?/5

9. Abreu

A local Portuguese option. Has many branches everywhere in Portugal. Price is a bit high. However, it gives you the sense of security if you must buy from an agent. Recommend if you live in Portugal. You can visit them to buy the ticket.

Score: 5/5

10. Geostar

Another Portuguese option. Too expensive. 

Score: 2/5.

11. Kiwi.com

Too expensive. Is this a joke?

Score: 1/5.

12. Trip.com

Notorious for offering tickets only 168 hours before the flight, even if you buy the tickets 3 months in advance and pay the full price. They even cancel the flight ticket by the 168-hour deadline and offer you a refund. But by then the ticket prices would have high-rocketed, and therefore your travel plan is basically ruined. Read my post on my experience with them - Is Trip.com a scam?

Score: 0/5.

13. Your local travel agent

For the same flight, we paid 560 Euro from our travel agent (original price: 565 Euro; with discount - 560 Euro). 8 Euro more than Abreu. However, local travel agents are experienced to find you the best options from/to their base country - after all, this is their expertise.

Score: 3/5

14. Direct booking from TAP

Offers easy payment options as long as you have a Portuguese bank account - through ATM or online banking. Unless the flight is a TAP flight, the price will be very high. Even for the TAP flight, this may not be the cheapest option. However, you can pay within 24 hours. This gives you an additional safety net. Also, TAP flights are the best, inside Europe, to travel to/from Portugal.

Score: 5/5

15. Direct booking from Wizz 

The website was terribly slow. Takes ages! When I complained, they suggested me to book through their mobile application. They have friendly folks on their social media though. Wizz gives you the lowest prices and discounts to exotic locations in East Europe when you book directly. Their membership program is worth purchasing too.

Score: 5/5

16. Vayama

Vayama, a travel agent mostly based in India, seemed ok. But painfully I found that their 26$ package for the 40$ discount on your next trip is a scam/trap. You will never be able to redeem the discount. It has so many hidden clauses to avoid providing you the 40$ discount. Read my post on my experience with them - Is Vayama.com discount of 40$ a scam? Also, Vayama customer service is a joke! 

Score: 0/5

My final verdict, based on my experience with flights across Europe, Asia, and the USA is given below. Good luck with your travels!

VERDICT:

Tripsta: GOOD 5/5

BudgetAir: GOOD 5/5

Abreu: GOOD 5/5

TAP: GOOD 5/5

WIZZ: GOOD 5/5

Gotogate: FAIR 4/5

eDreams: FAIR 4/5

Local Agent: NOT BAD 3/5
Geostar: BAD 2/5

Kiwi.com: BAD 1/5

Vayama: BAD 0/5
TravelGenio/Travel2Be: BAD 0/5
Trip.com: BAD 0/5