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When comparing Airfare.com, CheapOAir.com and BookIt.com it becomes clear that one of the sites offers a multitude of services which the other two don't. However depending where you are traveling and what your travel requirements are you may find one of these sites preferable over the others.
The bottom line is which site offers the lowest prices and provides what you are looking for, each of these sites has its pros and cons but when comparing prices the lowest prices were consistently offered by one of these sites.
When choosing which site to use consider:
The services offered by these sites are not identical which makes your choice of which site to use a little easier.
Each of these travel booking sites has added extra travel tools but CheapOAir.com had a unique travel glossary making it easier for first time online travel booking. Other features unique to CheapOAir.com are a business/first class travel section and reservation of airport parking. Unlike Bookit.com CheapOAir.com has special concessions for those in the military, seniors and students. On hotel search results the customer reviews and ratings are from the extremely reputable travel site Trip Advisor.
CheapOAir.com has a live chat customer service which is always an added bonus when trying to solve booking problems. CheapOAir.com provides a customer call number for clients outside of the US which the other two sites do not. In fact their approach to customer service is very thorough even providing a separate call number for various issues and not one general contact number. Of course not every customer can be a satisfied one, this review comes from an independent review site:
Luck1717: "They are the worst I've wasted a lot of time with cheapo air Complete rip-offs. Do not even consider dealing with these punks Horrible Experience The worst Service ever"
The customer reviews on the CheapOAir.com site are a lot more positive:
John: "Thanks to CheapOair for your outstanding assistance during my difficult time. Because of your excellent customer service and attention to my circumstances".
CheapOAir.com outperformed the other two sites in number of hotels found for New York and their hotel rates in comparison were slightly cheaper on selected hotels. The CheapOAir.com flight prices are usually cheaper than the other sites, for example New York to Las Vegas return costs $361 on CheapOair, $433 on Bookit.com and $514 on Airfare.com. When checking international flight routes CheapOAir.com still beat Airfare.com, for example Rome-Paris: CheapOAir.com $226 and Airfare.com $420. CheapOAir.com will often offer cheaper flights with a stop over where the other two sites offered direct routes.
A weakness of CheapOAir.com is that the flight search results are displayed without the final price (excluding tax and fees) so that only in the booking stage do you see the final price.
CheapOAir.com charges booking fees ($26 for domestic flights; up to $32 per night per hotel room and $15 on car rental, $10 paper ticket fee) which are balanced slightly by the numerous discount coupons they provide.
Bookit.com offers similar travel services as CheapOair although the sparse layout of the home page appears to offer less each tab opens up other options. Some of the features which make Bookit.com worthwhile include a free hotel room for group organizer when booking a hotel. Bookit.com also does not charge a fee for flight bookings.
Bookit.com has a useful search option for special deals where the deal prices are indicated on a map and you can narrow down your search using extensive options. Conveniently Bookit.com's home page automatically features vacation packages from your nearest airport. Among Bookit.com's travel guides are guides to the most famous theme parks unfortunately the travel guides include only American destinations.
The Bookit.com toll free number is not available 24/7 as with the other two sites, it functions for 19 hours a day on weekdays and 16 hours on weekend. BookIt.com has a BillMeLater option where you can pay up to 6 months after your booking with no interest. Bookit.com claims to make customer service a top priority and to provide all the information and assistance you might need on the site however the FAQs section is extremely limited.
As with Airfare.com the main complaint customers have about the site is the customer service and their bad refund and cancelation policies.
Steve: "Don't ever book with (bookIt.com). They overcharge you and miss lead you. I booked 4 days in Los Cabos and they over charged my about $400 more."
The search by travel theme option is limited including mainly popular destinations and not specific interests, although they do have an "all-inclusive" option which the other two sites do not offer. Although Bookit.com does not specifically say so as far as I can see bookit.com they do not handle flights originating outside the USA.
When comparing flight prices BookIt.com was consistently not the highest price but rarely the lowest price either.
To its credit Airfare.com is probably the most security conscious of the three sites as they require credit card authorization by fax as well as the usual requirements.
Rather confusingly Airfare.com states in their FAQs that they do not make bookings originating outside of the US, yet when searching for these flights they are provided. However their prices do not match up with those of CheapOAir.com, for example Tel Aviv-New York costs $989 on Airfare.com and $824 on CheapOair.com.
Although Airfare.com has 24/7 toll free phone assistance if you prefer contacting them by email it better not be an emergency, I wrote to them twice over 4 days and got no reply. A live chat alternative would be preferable.
Airfares.com does not offer special low prices to seniors, students or the military as they claim that their prices are already the lowest. The air tickets on Airfare.com are all non-refundable so if you book through them you need to be completely sure that you will be traveling. If you need to change your booking it will cost you $200 domestic and $350 international and that is only on certain destinations where you are allowed to change your booking.
Unlike the other two sites Airfare.com does not have a newsletter or price alert option. Airfare.com does not handle car rental, cruises or holiday packages where as the other two sites do, in fact over all Airfare.com provides fewer travel booking services and travel resources than both CheapOAir.com and Bookit.com.
Overall customers of Airfare.com seem to be unsatisfied to say the least, especially about customer service:
ArynBergman:"If you try calling expect to be on hold for a while and to not accomplish anything."
Ihateairfareco:"Beware of booking flights on Airfare.com. They may have great deals, but they offer no service and continuously give you the runaround with no straightforward answers..."
When comparing air ticket prices Airfare.com consistently had the highest prices out of the three sites both domestic and international. For example Boston-Miami: CheapOAir.com $302; BookIt.com $329 and Airfare.com $418.
Although it's always worth checking a few travel booking sites before closing a deal I would start with CheapOair. Even though it does add a service fee the search options and search by travel interest can help you get exactly what you are looking for. Depending on what kind of a traveler you are and what you are looking for some of these sites will not suit you at all.
Airfare.com
BookIt.com
CheapOAir.com
Overall it is disappointing that none of these sites offer an eco-friendly travel option or an option for gay and lesbian travel, with the large range of travel themes and interests on offer I would have expected these two travel styles to have been included. There is also no option for rates to be displayed in other currencies or languages on any of these sites.
The bottom line is always price and service and in comparing these three travel booking sites I found CheapOAir.com the best option.
Thorough job.
Very nice information.
Nice job on this comparative review. You put a lot of work in to this.