I recently wrote a story about how most online booking sites are not a good idea and I feel as though it is a better idea to book with an agent seeing as how agents these days charge fees that are so low that the difference in price is almost imperceptible. I still think this is the case in most situations but recently I needed to get a flights somewhere and didn't need to take very much luggage - almost none - with me. In this instance I think that booking with a website is a better idea than using an agent because the way that many of the discount websites work is that they will target the "no frills" airlines in their prices and you can save a lot of money by using these airlines.
However, I really think that it is a bad idea to use any of these websites if you have luggage because as they say, that's "how they get you."
If you are traveling somewhere and it is just an overnight trip or you don't need to bring much stuff with you, there is a website that I was recently recommended and it was significantly less expensive than any of the others.
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The website / company is called eDreams and I had never heard of them before about a week ago. While they might be really well known in some parts of the world, since they are a European company they were never really on my radar. This is because I rarely have anything to do with Europe since it is one of the more expensive places to travel to. They do bookings globally though and recently I was able to get a short flight in Central America for about 20% less than I was seeing on any other website that I was attempting to use. Compared to Trip.com, Expedia, Kayak, and Kiwi, eDreams was much cheaper.
I don't know how this is possible entirely but I suspect it was because of which airlines they partner with. On the surface they appear to use airlines that other websites or even agents either want nothing to do with or don't have access to and in my instance it was with the airlines that most people would probably consider to be the worst airlines. Now, generally speaking I suggest people avoid these extreme-budget airlines because they are awful, but they do tend to leave on time and get you to your destination. As far as services are concerned they basically don't have any but if your only concern is getting to your destination, then why not save some money?
Edreams.com did not compensate me to write this or anything shady like that. I honestly just gave them a try recently to save some money and everything went fine. I would suggest that anytime you end up with super-budget airlines that you get to the airport earlier than you would with "real" airlines because the check-in procedure was very time-consuming and not friendly at all. If you understand what you are getting yourself into and don't have any baggage then this is a great way to save some money.
When I say "no luggage" i mean that you don't even have a carry-on bag. These airlines will charge for anything other than a small backpack the likes of which a child would use to take their books to school. In my situation I had only toiletries and one change of clothes with me and they didn't attempt to charge me extra for that. I did notice a lot of angry people that apparently didn't know that they were going to be charged for a carry-on rolling suitcase though, so make sure that you are aware of the policies of the individual airlines. The policies were stated on the website before booking but I think a lot of people just click through that stuff without even reading it.
If you do your homework and realize what you are getting yourself into, Edreams can serve a purpose in saving you money provided you are traveling with no luggage. Happy travels!