Expedia. It makes it easy to get a listing of hotel and flight combinations which are usually the same or cheaper (by a few bucks) than other travel sites. I also like the fact that their pricing includes fees and taxes. Some travel sites make you go through a 2 or 3 step process before getting the final cost which can be time consuming.
Another nice little engine that I don't use very often is Kayak which will search through other major sites such as : Webjet, Cheapoair, Travelocity. I haven't personally used Kayak to book any of my tickets, but it's a handy way to get your comparisons done in one search. Another neat thing I like is the flexible dates calendar that generally lists different prices for particular days of the month. The key word here is "generally," because even this calendar seems to be challenged.
The one thing I find that lacks in most of these sites is that they don't give you a "cheapest day to travel" option. Those who have some flexibility with their travel dates will likely opt for a cheaper ticket if available. Most of the sites generally have a +/- 3 day flexibility window, but perhaps a longer time frame would be nicer.
Interesting enough, I did a search on cheapoair.ca for flights from Ottawa to Osaka. Just to show you how costs can be quite date sensitive take a look at the following 1 day comparison:
Cost from Ottawa airport (YOW) to Osaka (ITA) departing on April 1st = $947 (not including taxes/fees)
vs
Cost from Ottawa airport (YOW) to Osaka (ITA) departing on April 2nd = $1246 (not including taxes/fees)
Some other things that I would like to note is that I've been looking at prices since November. I've noticed that prices 5-6 months in the future are generally very high. So just because you book flights way before hand, does not mean that you are getting the best deal. I imagine that there is a kick in time before prices start fluctuating based on supply/demand.
Keeping this in mind I will continue to scan prices until the end of this month (January) before making a purchase. Ideally, I would like to get a ticket under $1000 if possible.
Other notes: cheapoair.ca has been the cheapest up until today. One thing I noticed is that their tax fees can vary, so keep that in mind. For example I searched for a ticket leaving in March which came out to $947 on the face value, but the taxes were almost $100 more than the above April ticket for $947. Always compare by final cost with these guys.
** With that being said it looks like expedia.ca has the cheapest ticket. With their fees and taxes included, the total price comes out to $1059CAD vs $1105 with cheapoair.ca. But, the flight time with Expedia is roughly 26 hours versus a 19 hour flight using Cheapoair.ca.
Is the $46 dollar difference really worth the extra 7 hour travel time?
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