Flight booking help

what route are you trying to book?

I would use sky scanner to see what airlines are on the route and then direct to the airlines website to book or use a reputable company like Expedia, lastminute to book.

London to Hong Kong. It's a joke, the website has taken money and then ring to ask for more money. It's a complete scam

Hopefully you've paid with a credit card and I would just cancel the transaction!

I haven't had a post purchase cost increase, but I frequently find that when you go through to the booking sites the price isn't as advertised. Also the online booking agents seem to have striped out the cost of customer service, so I would rather pay a bit more to book direct with the airlines than risk ruining a holiday. So as above find out which airlines fly the route through skyscanner etc, and then go direct.

Also increasing the cost after purchase sounds pretty legally dodgy to me.

Airlines direct ALWAYS unless loads cheaper

I've had this before, basically the airline has put the ticket into sabre incorrectly and isn't honouring it when it goes through. You won't be able to book it at the price you want anywhere. Presumably the price is cheap enough for it to effectively be a pricing error, so you'll have to book through a different airline at the correct price

Private browsing mode to search for the flights-you don’t need the airlines knowing there’s a load of people interested in the route on those particular dates. Find the carrier then book direct through them using a cash back site (quidco etc) even if it’s a few extra £££.

What scuttler said, book direct with the airline. You'll see all the extras there (if you have to pay for luggage, seats, whatever). Online Travel Agents (OTA) if its substantially cheaper than the airlines then it's almost always not going to stick, and they are a nightmare when flight times change / there are delays or whatever. In all likelihood schedules for next winter will change so far easier to deal with a direct booking with airlines operating the flight.

Name and shame the travel agent.

Reputable online travel agents are fine - as long as you know what the extra costs might be (e.g. they superimpose their own change fees on the ticket, and the airline won't talk to you direct).

You can normally identify the disreputable ones because the force a call back or don't take enough info for a real booking when they take that first payment.

You need to be careful which of the sites you are referred to you actually use.

Private browsing mode to search for the flights-you don’t need the airlines knowing there’s a load of people interested in the route on those particular dates

This is standard for me.

I expect to get a different price once transferred to agency and you get the "checking flight" spinner, just as you frequently get a tweak when buying car car insurance it's after the transfer and checking flight details that this occurred. Takes all details, takes card number, takes money THEN rings you saying not available it's £500 more!

Globehunter.com
Easemytrip.com

I forget the third, they didn't take payment.

Completely underhand

Find the carrier then book direct through them using a cash back site (quidco etc) even if it’s a few extra £££.

That's what we are doing now but not via the cash back site never heard of them.

Jack's Flight Club for discounted flights.
It'll then tell you how to find the cheapest options and how to book (sometimes through OTA, more usually direct through the airline).

Most OTAs are a bunch of scammers; Ryanair have had a long-running legal battle because they refuse to use them and therefore some OTAs take it on themselves to "unofficially" publish Ryanair prices that are higher than Ryanair's own (cos the OTA want a commission of course).

I found my last long haul flights via Google Flights, tweaking days out/back and route options then booked direct with the airline. Exactly the price as shown.