Planning a Flight to Europe

by Natasha
(Australia)

When deciding to take a trip to Europe I was overwhelmed with the decisions I had to make over air travel. Everyone boasted they had the best deal or they could get me there the fastest. All I wanted to do was get there with money still in my pocket and not spend two days to do it. So I started to search and I narrowed it down to three airline sites that I wanted to choose out of.

First I searched Student Flights. Here I found the air fare reasonable but the site did not let me compare it to any other travel days and times. I would have like to look over multiple flights. I also found it was not easy to maneuver on the site. If you are a student the air fares are very good but everyone else have to pay a much higher price. To find out any other information on a flight you either have to call, email, ask for a call back or submit a form with your personal information. I would rather have had a page where I could look up answers to common questions. This site wasn't bad but it just did not give me the little extras I needed.


The second site I searched through was Escape Travel. Here I found a very easy to use site. The fares were again what I expected. There were the options of multiple airline fares but none of them told me anything about the times I could choose out of to leave and return. To me this was very important because I might pay a little more to depart on my schedule. When I clicked to enquire about a fare I was lead to a form to fill out with all my personal information which I was not willing to give at this time. I would have like to find out all the details on the flights and then when I decide on a flight give all my information. I would say this site was helpful but not as helpful as I would have wished it to be.

The last website I looked into was Flight Centre this site was very easy to maneuver through. The fare was very good; again I would have to input my personal information to get any more details on the flight. I did like the fact that the site gave a lot of travel extras such as baggage information, quotes and maps. I also enjoyed the layout it was not hard to find American travel to Europe or any other place I was coming from, where the other sites were very confusing.

All three sites advertised they would beat anyone else's price, the fares were around the same, all three had interactive destination maps/guides but I found the third one I chose to help me get to Europe. The price, the destination map/guide, the easiness of the website, and the extras were all the things that made me want to keep searching their site without frustration. I made my plans quickly, easily and felt confident that I made the right choice for me.