Do you prefer booking directly or via third-party sites?

[QFVAflyer]

From my experience, airlines are much more likely to take care of you if something goes wrong than the European flight-booking websites that are often listed on Skyscanner.

Yeah - appreciate it's a risk - and wouldn't recommend it to family/friends - but its served me well (so far). With Qantas/Virgin I rely more on my status than having booked direct for them to look after me. Internationally - I'm happy to take the risk I guess

 

[CaptJCool]

Yeah - appreciate it's a risk - and wouldn't recommend it to family/friends - but its served me well (so far). With Qantas/Virgin I rely more on my status than having booked direct for them to look after me. Internationally - I'm happy to take the risk I guess

Out of interest
How much % is the cost savings ?
10% or more ?

 

[LionKing]

I do most of my CX flight bookings via Trip.com, because there are a lot of hidden cheap Business Class fares that if booked directly on Cathay Pacific, you won't get Business Class all the way.

Disclaimer: I don't fly economy class in and out of Australia, NZ and Hong Kong, as well as all intercontinental sectors and sectors above 90 minutes of net flying time.

 

[r01x]

Often I book flights when I am 100% certain of travelling, in which case I will go with the cheapest OTA (often gotogate/byojet etc). Never had any issues with ticketing and saving $15-30+ each time

 

[Warks]

I've always been very much opposed to going through anyone but the airlines. I'd never tried a third party service before so couldn't really judge. However, when the stupidity war started prices on my watched flights on Thai and Turkish (IST-BKK, BKK-SYD) for September went through the roof overnight. I found flights $500 cheaper on Booking and Trip. I haven't been game to tell Mrs Warks yet, I'll save that to drop in at the last minute as we are at the airport about to board I think.

 

[QFVAflyer]

Out of interest
How much % is the cost savings ?
10% or more ?

It varies widely - sometimes a trip.com or similar will be hundreds cheaper (especially for business class) - sometimes its very marginal. In my experience for domestic there's rarely too much variation - but have still seen economy flights on VA $100 cheaper on trip.com than direct.

I do most of my CX flight bookings via Trip.com, because there are a lot of hidden cheap Business Class fares that if booked directly on Cathay Pacific, you won't get Business Class all the way.

Disclaimer: I don't fly economy class in and out of Australia, NZ and Hong Kong, as well as all intercontinental sectors and sectors above 90 minutes of net flying time.

Any tips for finding particularly good CX flights on Trip.com? I've seen some very good prices ex CGK/DPS - but don't have a strategy for looking for them other than just random searching

 

[aikman]

Having a hardline approach of booking direct all of the time is silly in my opinion. There are absolutely times when it's better to book indirect. It depends on the situation. Each to their own. We all have different needs, preferences and circumstances.

 

[SYD]

Any tips for finding particularly good CX flights on Trip.com? I've seen some very good prices ex CGK/DPS - but don't have a strategy for looking for them other than just random searching

You can use ITA Matrix (set currency to AUD). IME, the price you see is more or less what you get direct with CX (although, they’ll charge in IDR).

You could then compare with Trip to see if there’s a better price.

We booked a CGK-Euro-DPS round trip once on Webjet - only because we had vouchers and discount codes that saved a couple of hundred dollars each on a J fare (plus got to pay in AUD on points earning cards).

 

[Seat0B]

Our trip a month ago, I found Agoda & Expedia were cheaper than hotel websites by about 10%.
I booked a place for 5 nights in Melbourne next February, and it was cheaper on their website.
Flights for our trip a month ago were much the same via whatever aggregator sites I tried compared to the airlines, so I just went straight to the airline for that. For the European train tickets, the sites which aren't the railways seem to be more expensive overall.

Yes I just had the same experience with Choice Hotels. I had duly joined up to their loyalty plan, and was looking to book some places for upcoming winter trip to Northern Europe. Because I have booking.com Genius Level 3 (now how's that for a w@nky title of a tier) I get a 10% discount and it was exactly 10% cheaper to book on booking.com than to book direct. Yes I know I won't get loyalty points, but Choice was a secondary program for me anyway, so the saving ~$300 for 2 multi night stays was enough to change my usual preference to book hotels directly.