Where is the best place to buy airline tickets?

Your vacation is just around the corner, and you haven't bought airline tickets yet? Well, today we will tell you where you can purchase plane tickets.

Buying airline tickets from an airline, travel agency, or air ticket office

Just like 20 years ago, you can buy tickets at an air ticket office or an airline's sales office. It's worth noting that airlines will only sell you tickets for their own flights or partner flights. The situation with air ticket offices is better; in their office, you can buy an airline ticket to almost any destination in the world, however, they do not work with budget airlines. When buying a ticket at an air ticket office or travel agency, don't forget about the service fee. As a rule, its size depends on the chosen class of service or flight distance and ranges from 500 to 2500 rubles. Another disadvantage is that you won't see all possible flight options. Whether you find the optimal flight or not, and how long it takes, depends on the cashier's experience. By shifting your trip by just one day or increasing the layover duration by an hour or two, you can significantly save on the flight, but not every cashier will offer you choices. It's much easier when all possible flights and prices are right before your eyes. In this case, you decide whether you will wait 7 hours for a layover or overlook a 10 000 rub difference and fly comfortably. This option is only possible with online airline ticket booking.

Buying airline tickets online

Over the past few years, the online market for airline ticket sales has been developing rapidly. Currently, there are three types of players, which we will now describe in detail.

1. Airlines

Many of them have already acquired websites where you can book an airline ticket. This method of buying tickets is convenient and reliable, but it also has its drawbacks:

• Few payment options. Most airlines only accept bank cards for payment.
• The purchase process is sometimes unclear and confusing.
• Not all airline websites are translated into Russian.

Due to the language barrier, you might accidentally pay for services you don't need. For example, baggage exceeding standard allowance, priority boarding, seat selection, insurance, etc. Difficulties may also arise when returning or exchanging a ticket. If you have problems with English, it's better to use the websites of companies that have a Russian version or a representative office in Russia. This will significantly simplify your task in case of force majeure. It's also worth noting the advantages of booking on airline websites, the main one being, of course, promotional fares, which are only valid when purchased on the carrier's website. As a rule, they are not regular but are part of an airline's promotion or sale. Quite often, such fares can be found on the websites of airBaltic and Estonian Air.

2. Airline ticket booking services

Essentially, these are the same air ticket offices, but their online version, and without such large service fees, or sometimes even without them at all. You choose the airline ticket yourself from the options provided by the system; for most destinations, there are over a hundred.

The main advantage of online air ticket offices is access to airline web fares. These are special fares for which tickets can only be purchased online.

Because some airlines provide large agencies with confidential fares, prices on airline ticket booking websites can be lower than on the official carrier's website. Our website kupi.com is also an online airline ticket booking agency.

 3. Metasearch engines or flight aggregators

These are websites that only search for tickets for you. As soon as you find the optimal option and click the "Buy" button, the metasearch engine will redirect you to the agency's or airline's website to complete the purchase. The most popular metasearch engines in Russia are aviasales.ru, momondo.ru, kayak.ru, flytourist.ru, buruki.ru, and skyskanner.ru. The list of agencies they search for airline tickets is unique to each. Therefore, prices and flight options will vary everywhere. System settings and service policy also affect prices and flight selection. For example, aviasales immediately shows the final ticket price. But when you go to an agency's website from skyskanner, you might be unpleasantly surprised by additional surcharges. Metasearch engines try to reduce the time for selecting options, so the search usually takes no more than 30 seconds. If an agency or airline fails to provide information about its flights and prices within this time, it does not appear in the search results. Most often, this happens during peak hours, and if you want to get the widest selection of options, search for airline tickets before 12 PM.

So, where is the best place to buy airline tickets?

The answer to this question depends solely on you. If your main goal is to find the cheapest option, then search for airline tickets on metasearch engines and go to the first agency that offers the lowest price. But if the quality of service and bonuses, which can later be used to purchase tickets on Kupi.com, are important to you, then it's better to find "your" agency. Unfortunately, this is only achieved through trial and error. And we sincerely hope that we, kupi.com, will become "your" agency.