Airline booking sites?

[ffutures]

Can anyone recommend an airline booking site that is reasonably easy to use and not ridiculously expensive? I've been trying to sort out travel to Belfast for next year's Eastercon and every site I've looked at so far is a hugely complicated mess.

Update Friday - ended up booking British Airways flights on their own site - more expensive than Easyjet etc., but ends up costing me about the same price since (a) Easyjet's carry-on baggage limit is tiny and they charge £40+ if you want to take a bag large enough for a couple of changes of clothing and (b) with my Freedom Pass I can get to Heathrow fairly fast and free on the Elizabeth line, Gatwick would take twice as long and cost actual money.

Comments

[ckd]

I generally use Google Flights and then the book-with-airline links (or use it to find flights and then book with miles on my preferred airlines), but (a) most of my travel these days is US domestic to one of about three airports (COVID having wiped out both my work travel and a lot of my convention travel) and (b) I'm biased because I (b.1) literally know the people who developed and run it and (b.2) still work for the company, though not on that product.

A quick check of the dates of Eastercon and London (all airports) to Belfast (all airports) shows outbound options on easyJet from LTN-BFS, LGW-BHD, and STN-BFS as well as Ryanair STN-BFS at the cheap end, and British Airways with LHR-BHD or LCY-BHD at the expensive end. (Plus some ridiculous connection options like easyJet LGW-GLA-BFS with seven hours on the ground in Glasgow, but those only show up if you tell it to show you all the options.) I didn't bother filtering for time or limiting the airports, which I would be doing for a real search.

[ffutures]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[coth]

I've used Skyscanner as a starting point for the past seven or eight years. I know there are other options out there but on this I'm a satisficer, not an optimiser. I don't find it difficult to use, but that doesn't mean you can be careless with it. All the airline complexity re baggage allowances and extra charges and things are still there and need to be dealt with.

[ffutures]

You're not kidding - I just realised that Easyjet want to add £50+ to the flight price for a reasonable sized cabin bag and a seat. Ryanair can only do early morning or late evening which would add a lot to the fare to Gatwick since I couldn't use travel cards. And so forth. Can't find anything that's ideal, I might go back to British airways and see if it comes out cheaper with everything taken into account.

[coth]

I just listened to a Radio 4 podcast on pricing. Apparently there is new law coming in soon to stop websites doing add-ons to the original price quoted, but - get this! - airlines have got an exemption.

[dormouse1953]

Not a helpful answer, but after my health scare back in 2021, I don't feel like flying again. My plan is to take the boat to Dublin and then a train (after spending a few days in Dublin).

[ffutures]

I really don't want to spend that long away from home, and not a huge fan of long rail trips to ferry ports etc, but it's not a bad idea if you have the time.