Sidestep.

Dude! Where is hotwire on here?!! Along with Kayak, it's pretty awesome and I have yet to find deals cheaper anywhere else (and trust me, I am OCD when it comes to looking up cheap deals lol). Also, travelzoo.com is pretty good, along with southwest.com. Curious to see what others say, maybe I've missed a good site (doubt it though, hehe)

And has anyone else found that www.lastminute.com is always hella expensive? What a crock!

I actually don't use the discount websites, the airline websites often have the same prices with more direct customer services. Also, my husband and I had an extremely horrible customer service experience with expedia once, and there is no way I'm using them again.

I'm also trying American Express travel for the first time for an upcoming trip, and so far I'm very happy with their service. An email every time the airline changes the flight schedule - you'd think that's a no brainer, but some of these discount websites just don't have the systems to communicate that kind of thing in a reliable manner.

KAYAK

Cheap hotel travel tip: Check the discount hotel prices on one of the sites like hotels.com or expedia, find what you like, then look for the hotel's own website. You will always find the cheapest deal directly from the hotel -- the discounters signed an agreement a few years back stating that they couldn't undercut the hotels. So the cheapest hotel deals will always be directly through the hotels, sometimes if you call, you will even get an even better deal -- we only travel internationally, and to spend maybe $5 on a phone call, we've saved hundreds!

supercoolnat is right. i always fly continental and most of the time find their prices slightly lower than discount sites and when I buy my tix they update my frequent flyer miles automatically.

based on my fav commercials i like travelocity and expedia. orbitz has some good ones too. i use southwest all the time because they fly where i fly. if i was going somewhere else, i'd pick based on commercial. i'm a marketing sucker.

Hotwire!!

When I plan my ever-dreamed trip to London, I'll surf till I find the best possible deal.

I usually check all of them at once. I find it really varies where you find the best deal. I check Southwest too.

I LOVE Cheapflights.com... Because it scans all the sites listed above and allows you to find the best deal in one place.

KAYAK!!!! Because it always seems to find me the cheapest and best flights (no crazy 10hr lay overs). Also I work at hotel for the reservations dept and if you call me I will give you the best rate available and if you rub me the right way you might be even able to get a free upgrade or amenity!

None of the above? I have found that I get better deals if I go straight to the airline/rental car company's website or use one of my membership discounts.

if you're a student or a teacher, studentuniverse.com is a great site! i always buy my tickets back home there and i can save more than 200 bucks each time.

http://www.smartertravel.com/

Hotels and airfare are usually cheaper direct from the source. I use discount travel sites more for activities once I am at a spot. Like liftopia.com.

most of these popular sites have gotten expensive, I usually just go to travel agents.

mobissimo

Orbitz! I travelled throughout Asia for 6 weeks back in Nov/Dec. and couldn't have done it without Orbitz! I got a deal where they took $200US off of the price of 5 nights in a hotel and $75 off of 3 nights - so i looked for the cheapest hotels and sometimes ended up paying only $20 or so (total) for 5 nights, like in Singapore. I basically planned my trip based on 5 or 3 nights in cities so i could get the best deals, and ended up having a nice long vacation because of it, for super cheap!

I also like to check the flyertalk forums for deals that people talk about - like often times hotels have price matching deals where if you find a cheaper fare anywhere they give you a night for free, and you can often do this if you check the forums. it is a bit time consuming, but worth it if you don't have money to waste.

Actually, as far as plane tickets go, I find the actual airline's websites to be just as cheap at priceline or any of that BS... it's the same rates. I use those sites just to check the fares in one place, and then I book directly through the airline to avoid nasty third party fees and stipulations. Ever try to move the date for a flight to Tokyo booked through Travelocity? Not possible. Trust me.

cheapoair.com is pretty good. i'm a student so i use www.studentuniverse.com or statravel.com (but the latter is usually better)

I tend to stick to airlines more often than travel sites. I'm especially fond of Jet Blue and Virgin America.

I use Expedia.

Expedia or British Air's own website. Within Europe, Ryanair and Easy Jet.

expedia

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com

It's pretty cool if you don't know where you want to go.

i use to be hardcore for kayak. but lately i've found the prices turn out to be inaccurate. i think that's more about the airlines and other travel sites putting the kibosh on competitive pricing and them giving bad info to kayak.

I just found out about this recently and really like it. This is a mega search tool that checks all the other sites and comes up with the best prices on everything.