Which agency should I book our US flights with?

[LaCerbiatta]

Going to the US on October half term, to Boston and back from NY.
Have been looking at Expedia and Opodo, but online reviews are really por. BA is a bit more expensive.
Any suggestions? Have zero experience of anything other than Ryanair city breaks!!

Thanks so much :)

Book direct with the airline, much easier if there are any problems.

Jet Blue might be worth a look. Recently saw a film regarding thier planes and prices. I was very impressed. Not sure which routes they do .

Do check the price with a hotel night included. It’s often cheaper than just flight only. The last time we flew to the States, we booked direct with BA. It was cheaper to have car and hotel included then just the flight. Also, having a hotel element turns your flight only deal into a package.

Thanks for that! Having a look at BA now

We are going with aer lingus

I have flown to the US with almost every carrier and the only ones I would never use again is Aer Lingus. BA are definitely not worth paying more for. I would also book direct with the airline.

Book direct if you can. Whilst you do see people moaning about BA, I've always found them excellent when things go wrong outside of their control, the worst being that Icelandic volcano, they arranged accommodation, 3 meals a day and the pilot and copilot knocked on peoples doors every day or two leaving a note if they were out to make sure they were ok - exh got onto the first flight available routing a bizarre way to avoid the cloud

Oh and you get free booze and food still on BA to the USA not so much lots of other airlines, I recommend the south Asian meal option, definitely better than the meat (I'm not vegetarian)

If you can afford it, premium economy is lovely

We had 2 horrible experiences with Opodo
the price can be great and if everything goes according to plan they are good… but if you need any changes or the flights are changed by the airline, then it’s horrible
expedia, has been ok so far
but yes, if you can book directly- BA are great

I done uk to ny and back from Boston in may with ba and it was perfectly fine
I’ve also flown to nyc with united ans it was also fine
if I had to pick a airline it would be ba

I've used Trailfinders several times for long-haul travel with the family. You get to speak to a human, there's no hard-sell, and they provide really good support if something goes wrong with your travel plans.

Trailfinders. I book all my trips through them. They package the flights and all you need is one night accommodation through them and it’s often cheaper than just buying the flights alone.

They also sort everything out in case of cancellations etc and we’re great with my cancelled trips in 2020 and 2021 - full refund.

Avoid Expedia and Opodo like the plague.

Book with the actual carrier. So southwest, United, jet blue. Only use a site like Expedia or Ocado to get an idea of the available flights. If there are changes or problems, having booked your tickets through a 3rd party website is a nightmare. Airlines and hotels will direct you to the website to deal with the problem and those websites don’t really have any effective way to deal with issues in real time. You also aren’t likely to find better deals booking 3rd party.

There are still some legitimate travel agencies with real people on staff who deal with issues and problems. Those are different and can be useful, but they primarily exist for the business travel market in the United States.

Oops, Orbitz not ocado

Thanks all, booked directly with BA. Only slightly more expensive than Expedia and Opodo.