Booking flights

Sean_1251

Hi everyone,

I'm planning on travelling solo to South America next April. Hope to fly to chile and head down around Patagonia for 5 or 6 weeks before heading up through Bolivia, Peru etc. I'd then like to maybe head to New York for a week to visit friends before I come home.

My question is basically what is the best way to book flights for a trip like this? Is skyscanner my best bet and just book the flights individually? I found a travel agent site called Sta travel based in the U.K. which seemed to put together a good price for my outgoing, return and sa to New York flights. I googled reviews of the company and they were not good however. If I did book flights through their site I presume that once they are booked they are booked and it's essentially the same as skyscanner??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

duffman13

Sean_1251 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm planning on travelling solo to South America next April. Hope to fly to chile and head down around Patagonia for 5 or 6 weeks before heading up through Bolivia, Peru etc. I'd then like to maybe head to New York for a week to visit friends before I come home.

My question is basically what is the best way to book flights for a trip like this? Is skyscanner my best bet and just book the flights individually? I found a travel agent site called Sta travel based in the U.K. which seemed to put together a good price for my outgoing, return and sa to New York flights. I googled reviews of the company and they were not good however. If I did book flights through their site I presume that once they are booked they are booked and it's essentially the same as skyscanner??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

STA travel are a huge travel agent, they seem pretty decent from what I know of them. Being honest go with whatever is cheapest, however if the price for booking directly with the airline is only a few euros more then book with the airline. It gives you more flexibility. STA as far as I'm aware charge 200 euro or something to change ticket details plus the airline fee however if you booked directly it's cheaper if you need to make changes.

If you don't need to be flexible go with the cheapest agents.

thebsharp

I always found booking flights myself to be the best option. It does depend a lot on the destinations youre looking at i.e. demand for flights between the destinations youre looking at. The likes of STA might get you the cheapest flights but sometimes if you look into their proposed flight times and layovers etc they're not always as economical as they seem.

thebsharp

Also, if you havent already, you could consider flying into Buenos Aires and doing a loop down through Argentina and back up through Chile into Peru, or vice versa. Buenos Aires is an amazing city.

Do your best to book flights so that you're not spending unnecessary time and money catching cheaper flights if you get me. 100e or so extra on a flight can sometimes be the best value option when you factor in all the hidden costs associated with the cheaper flight