cheapflights.com legit or scam? cheapflights.com Reviews 2023

An In-Depth Look at CheapFlights.com

CheapFlights.com has long been a popular website for budget-conscious travelers to search for affordable flight deals. While the site doesn’t actually sell tickets itself, it aims to simplify the flight search process and surface great deals for consumers. In this comprehensive review, we’ll take an in-depth look at CheapFlights.com’s offerings, fees, policies, and both editor and user reviews to help you decide if it’s the right site for your travel needs.

How CheapFlights.com Works

Unlike booking sites that allow you to directly purchase tickets, CheapFlights.com serves as a search engine to help you find cheap flights. When using their website or mobile app, you enter your desired travel details like destinations, dates, and number of passengers. CheapFlights.com will then search across multiple airline and travel partner sites to display flight options matching your criteria.

A few key things to note about their search process:

• Flight prices are not displayed on CheapFlights.com. Instead, they provide links that redirect you to booking partners like Orbitz, OneTravel, and Hotwire to view fares and complete the booking.

• Search results are often grouped into “packages” that may combine flights with a hotel or rental car instead of displaying standalone airfare only.

• Their database searches numerous airline websites and OTAs at once for the widest coverage of flight schedules and prices. However, you’ll need to click through to the external sites to book.

So in summary, CheapFlights.com specializes in the initial flight discovery stage but relies on other merchants for actual ticket purchases. This means researching prices may require visiting multiple sites.

Editor Review and Ratings

On TravelSiteCritic.com’s in-depth editor review page for CheapFlights.com, they note a few key pros and cons:

Pros:
– The “Handpicked Travel Deals” page curates some affordably-priced flight and hotel packages not seen elsewhere.

Cons:
– You must click through to numerous partner sites instead of seeing prices directly on CheapFlights. This extra step lengthens the booking process.

• Particularly annoying is being redirected to Travel-Ticker, which opens additional windows on your device.

They conclude that while CheapFlights.com is effective for initial flight discovery, sites like CheapAir.com that display prices in only a couple clicks are preferable when time is of the essence.

TravelSiteCritic.com also rates CheapFlights.com at 2.9 out of 5 stars based on 16 user votes. This score puts it in the middle of the pack versus other travel booking sites they’ve reviewed.

CheapFlights.com Fees and Policies

As CheapFlights.com is not actually a travel agency or ticket seller, they do not charge any booking fees that some OTA competitors may assess. All transaction fees would apply through whichever airline or travel partner site you use to complete your purchase.

Some additional points regarding CheapFlights.com policies:

• Their website and mobile searches are free to use at any time.

• No cancellation or change fees since they don’t directly handle reservations. You’d work with the travel supplier for any policy details.

• Flights may be subject to taxes and government fees not included in quoted prices until final booking. Always review all costs before paying.

So in summary, CheapFlights.com’s fee structure is simple since the booking process happens off-site. Just be aware of potential taxes and policies with the actual travel providers.

User Reviews and Ratings

To gain insight from real customer experiences, it’s helpful to browse CheapFlights.com reviews left directly on the TravelSiteCritic.com review page. At the time of writing, there were 16 public user ratings averaging 2.9 stars.

A sampling of positive user reviews praised:

• Wide selection of flight options across dates
• Intuitive search filters that made customizing trips easy
• Found flight deals well below prices on airline sites

However, some criticism in user reviews included:

• Confusing that prices aren’t shown directly and take extra clicks to view
• Search results not always in clear price order, requiring more digging
• Too many pop-ups and redirects on some of the booking partner sites

So while CheapFlights.com appears capable of surfacing great deals when used correctly, the off-site booking process seems to create frustrations for some users according to these comments. As with any travel search tool, individual results may vary.

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Alternative Flight Search Tools

No single website will have every great flight deal or work best for every traveler. So it’s worthwhile exploring alternatives to CheapFlights.com depending on your priorities. Here are a few highly-rated options:

• Kayak – Known for clean interface and easy-to-scan price comparisons right on the site. Fewer clicks required versus CheapFlights.com.

• Google Flights – Powerful calendar view makes it simple to spot date-specific fare changes. Also examines nearby airports.

• Skyscanner – Excels at exploring multi-city and round-the-world trips across multiple carriers. Visual heatmap of price trends.

• Momondo – Part of the Kayak group but includes some low-cost airlines missed by other metasearch sites.

• ITA Matrix – For advanced fliers, this bare-bones tool from MIT lets you specify even minute search parameters.

So if looking for the absolute rock-bottom price isn’t your only goal, these alternatives streamline different parts of the flight search and booking process. Experiment to see what fits your travel planning needs best.

Should You Use CheapFlights.com?

In summary, while CheapFlights.com aims to simplify flight discovery, both editor and user reviews suggest it may not be the most efficient option for booking due to its off-site processes. However, it still has its place for the right traveler.

Some pros of CheapFlights.com include:

• Wide-reaching database that searches numerous airline and OTAflight schedules at once

• Curated travel deals page highlighting flight/hotel bundles not found elsewhere

• Free to use with no booking or cancellation fees passsed along

It may work best for travelers who:

• Primarily need high-level flight options and dates without immediatley purchasing

• Are willing to click through partners and compare multiple price quotes

• Specifically want to browse their handpicked vacation packages

But for those seeking fast, straightforward booking or clear price visibility, alternatives like Kayak or Google Flights could save more time in the long run. As with any tool, your needs may vary – so testing CheapFlights.com is recommended before deciding. With both positives and negatives, it remains a popular if imperfect metasearch player.

In conclusion, this comprehensive CheapFlights.com review covered the site’s inner workings, policies, reviews from editors and users, alternative options, and who might find it most useful. While not flawless, it fills an important role in surfacing flight options and deals worth considering as part of a full travel planning research process. Consider giving it a try if initial search and deal-hunting hold priority over speed of booking.