Booking

A large and growing number of online flight booking engines are available these days.

Finding the best fares can be a long and painful process, but using a number of different sites will help you track down the best deals.

One of the best search engines to compare prices between airlines is Kayak.com, or Kayak.co.uk if you’re based in the UK. It crawls through several hundred airline websites and has a useful, intuitive tool which allows you to filter your results by times of day and easily modify your search.

Another good option is Expedia, which has specific sites for the US, UK and a number of European countries. You could also try Priceline, or Priceline Europe if you're not logging on from the US, while Amadeus is useful to get quick information on timetables and airlines flying certain routes.

We also like InsideTrip, which rates fares according to a whole range of factors including number of connections, flight punctuality, which gate you'll be using at the airport and even how likely you are to lose your bag. 

Always bear in mind that low-cost, non-scheduled carriers such as Easyjet or Ryanair are generally not included in flight booking engines, which means you’ll have to trawl through them individually to check fares and availability.

Different regions of the world might also have their own booking engines which might bring up better fares than some of the larger, global sites listed above.

Good luck, and happy travels.