I used Orbitz when my wife had to return on short notice last month. It was cheaper than airline websites (only time I have found this) though on a last minute booking it was expensive regardless. I have used Orbitz for domestic flights with positive experiences.

On my iphone I really like the app: ITA called "on the fly. It does more than any other search engine I've used. The only drawback for me is the inability to do multi-city searches....don't know if it is me or the app. The neat thing about it is that you can do a search on a range of dates for a month or a specific date. This allows you to get the absolute best fare in any given 30 day period. After you select round trip or one way, you input your departure city & your arrival city/airport. It then asks you to choose calendar or specific date. Then it asks you how many days you wish to travel. Then you press search and a bar graph comes up extending all the way across the bottom of the screen. Of course there are usually a lot of ups and downs for that 30 day period. At that point there is a curser at the bottom that you can slide along with your finger day by day, and a price comes up for each day of the 30 day period. When you leave your curser on a specific date, you press get flights then dozens of flights come up to choose from, with lower priced ones on top. You just tap on the flight that looks interesting and the details all come regarding which airline(s), flight numbers, type of aircraft, length of layovers and all departure and arrival times. I It is really neat because I'm searching for flight info for family members out of Porland, Denver, & Omaha for a possible family. Trip/reunion in Ireland this spring. I found out with this tool that if we moved the trip from mid-June to mid April that the airfares are about $500 lower!!! Now if I can just get everybody convinced to book on the April 18 date while the price is in the $700-800 range! This is a deal I'm ready to jump on for the wife and I, despite whatever the rest want to do. Still need 7 more souls to commit before the group tour is a go. For us, I went on Kayak and did a open jaw into SNN out of DUB, as we plan to visit Northern Ireland anyway. If the family thing doesn't materialize, we could spend the extra week in NW Ireland, or hop on over to Scotland for a week....which means we would have to dead-head back to DUB for the return flight or pay the change fee to fly out of EDI or GLA in Scotland. It is so tempting.....!!!!!!! Dan

-- Edited by murphy on Tuesday 8th of November 2011 04:12:55 PM

I've used Orbitz many times, and my dad has used CheapoAir many times, both without problems. I usually do my searches through kayak.com now, and/or ITAsoftware.com, as Murphy said (it's a website as well as an app). However, it's not a place to buy - it tells you where it found the airfare, you then go there to find it. Some airlines don't participate in the online airfare sites, like Southwest or Aer Lingus on some. Yapta is also a great tool - find a specific flight you like, and it will monitor the price going up and down, and send you alerts.

Didn't jump on the $839 flight for apr 18, and now the price is over $1100. Go figure. With the way domestic airfares have been climbing, I doubt we will see prices at that level again. I knew it was a good buy at the time, but if my wife isn't enthused about it, I hesitate..... Dan

Orbitz is a popular online travel booking website, whether the user is on a PC or Macintosh. However, an expensive sensation has been happening of late for Mac users. CBC News suggests that Mac customers have paid more for very comparable hotel bookings. 

Susan,

That's great. Did you get the airfare?

Michele

Susan,

That is fantastic...and a great fare. Let the planning begin! 

Michele

Does ITA have an app for android.

Michele,

ITA is a software developed by google for travel and airline industries. It is designed to quickly, consistently, and accurately identify the best available airfares without relying on highcost, low efficiency mainframe computers. It was developed by MIT in the "artificial intelligence Lab" the place where many of the exotic digital technologies are first developed!

I have it on my Verizon iphone as an "ap" and am not that informed about android. I just know that it is a neat tool for searching for lots of flights, and numerous time frames up to 30 days pricings by simply sliding the curser along the bottom. It gives you a horizontal graph with the highs and lows of airline prices for any given day, period, or length of trip. It will give you the absolute best price to depart, and return....if your schedule is flexible. Even if your schedule is rigid...it will give you the best price for that too. It doesn't link you on to the airline websight, just gives you the info, then you go to the airline web sight. Hope all of this is accurate...my brain is kind of foggy this morning!

Granmama

You could probably google android and find out if it is compatable, or your cell phone company might help. When I first got my iphone from Verizon, I had 2 choices for phones/plans. I called them recently, because my 2 years is almost up, and wanted to know if I was elegible for an upgrade. Now they 19 choices (that was 2 months ago!....maybe more by now!) I think I will stick with what I have....am finally getting on to how it works! It is a "smart" phone, and I am not!!!! Hope this helps!

Dan

-- Edited by murphy on Tuesday 24th of July 2012 10:24:26 AM

Susan,

I think their software was primarily designed for domestic airlines. However Flybe does show up when I searched Edi to Knock/West Ireland. I don't believe that I have ever noticed Luthansa, SAS, or Atalia come up either.

Dan

Michele,

Don't feel bad. If it wasn't for our Son, who is an IT, I probably wouldn't know either! He has managed to prod me headlong into the technology world. It just crossed my mind that IF I had just invested 5 years ago into "Apple" what I put into a brick and mortar main street business....I could probably afford to go to Ireland twice a year for 1 month each, rather that every 1 or 2 years for 2 weeks! Coulda woulda shoulda!

As for you, well I hope you just keep doing what you do so well, and we will try to help you around the edges, if we can!

Dan