Booking US Flights through 3rd Party Sites query

mockingjay

I have found a great deal on direct flights to the West coast in July (LA) through Skyscanner. When I go to book them it redirects me to the likes of Expedia/laterooms etc and I can book from there which is fine. However the airlines official site is charging almost €1k more for the flights, which I found worrying. When I google booking through third party sites such as Expedia it says that problems can arise with customer service, they can change your seat selection up until takeoff, give you poor seats (not worried about this at the price), could be bumped off the flight (this happened us before with Canadian in LA - disaster!) and apparently the small print will tell you that the prices can go up after booking which you must honour (I can't find this bit though). Wondering if anyone has anyone had any problems in the past booking long haul through these sites.

If I'm booking the trip myself I'll be prearranging accommodation, some which has to be paid in advance, so I'm a little worried about this.

jackinthemix94

I've booked 20+ times through Skyscanner (Expedia, ebookers, eflights.ie, lastminute.com and Vayama) - never had an ounce of trouble.

readytosnap

jackinthemix94 wrote: »

I've booked 20+ times through Skyscanner (Expedia, ebookers, eflights.ie, lastminute.com and Vayama) - never had an ounce of trouble.

Same here.

Ronin247

I was looking at flights a while back and was redirected to Vayama and I googled them and the reviews were not positive so I would say avoid them anyway.

nsa0bupkd3948x

I've used loads of them before and never had an issue. Only time I ever had to contact the third part was Vayama when the airline cancelled the flight I was due to be on. Vayama were top notch getting everything sorted.

Doyler92

Ronin247 wrote: »

I was looking at flights a while back and was redirected to Vayama and I googled them and the reviews were not positive so I would say avoid them anyway.

I booked last years vegas flights through this company. We kept getting emails saying the flight has changed always by about a half hour so no major issue. The last email was about 2 months before the scheduled flight and when we go to the airport everything was totally fine so I've no issues with them.

ProudDUB

readytosnap wrote: »

Same here.

Me too.

Mountainsandh

Glad you asked the question OP, and to see the good reports, as we've booked holiday flights to LA via Skyscanner too and even though so far so good, I'd be a little bit apprehensive.

readytosnap

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Glad you asked the question OP, and to see the good reports, as we've booked holiday flights to LA via Skyscanner too and even though so far so good, I'd be a little bit apprehensive.

Skyscanner just transfer you to the provider when you select a price and they (skyscanner) would be on a commission for the link.
You have nothing to be apprehensive about, I booked with lastminute dot ie about 3 years ago, I booked the flights months in advance (despite the name of the site) and the flight times were changed 5 times between the booking and the actual flight, the first time the change was less than an hour heading out but minus 5 hrs coming back. Lastminute told me that if they did not suit they would refund me or try to find an alternative, I asked them to find an alternative, which they did. Same flight out but +2hrs return, that suited us. then they changed it 4 more times (various times 15mins-4 hrs) by the time the flight came around the departure was 10 minutes later departing and no difference on the return. Sometimes booking far in advance can be a bit daunting especially if you get "urgent info about your upcoming flight" emails and you get a fright then open it and see the difference is 5 minutes.
So I can confirm other than that mentioned above, we have never had an issue with any 3rd party providers. I have used all the above and probably one or two more.