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Saving You Money on Airfares - Aggregators
Aggregators Scour the Airlines for Cheap, Discounted Tickets

By , About.com Guide

Tired of the fees charged by sites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Onetravel, but you don't have time to check every single option out there?

The new era of aggregators ushering in fee-free searches may be right for you. It is often less expensive to purchase directly from an airline than through most of the online travel booking sites because airlines don't throw in additional online booking fees. But who has the time to check every airline?

Now imagine a website that will scout out the airlines for you, look for the best airfares available, and not charge you a booking fee. This is the aggregator.

According to MSNBC, aggregators sniff out different travel sites for the best rates, may be more objective because they don't have preferred partners, and receive commissions if a purchase is made through them.

So let's meet the aggregators:

Cheapflights

Kayak

Farechase

Sidestep

Mobissimo

Super Search

Qixo

If I had to choose my favorite of the group it would be Kayak, with Farechase my second choice. Both of these are particularly easy to use and great for finding airfares. Although some travel aggregators may have better car rental or hotel options, for flights those are my top 2. But you can take a look and see what I mean when I did a recent price comparison in the search for the best airfare.

On the next page, sample fares are sought out to see if all aggregators are created equal...
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