Deb,
I also found some incrediable pricing on SideStep.com. I would love to book thru them but I don't have any knowledge of the company.

We did! Actually SideStep is a search engine and not a company you book airfare through. Once you select the price/time combination, it then brings you to the site that is actually selling the tickets. You may not know what airline you will be flying unitl after the purchase is made but it's pretty easy to figure it out by flight times etc. Since there are few large carriers to STT, we figured out we were on an USAirways flight and when we booked it, we were! It certainly doesn't hurt to use sidestep as there are no obligations and I did find the sites they sent us to were very very competititve! Good Luck!

I thought I had booked a flight to stx for June = used sidestep.com they passed me on to a company called Onetravel.com. I got a confirmation number, but never saw my flight purchase amounth show up on my card. The travel insurance showed up immediately. I called .... and called.... and called. Found out that "Oh, we sent you an email(NEVER RECEIVED) letting you know that those carriers can't be ticketed together. So we can try and re-book you" I said - NO THANKS!! No call, no email - was gonna re-send the email - never got it. I'm glad others have had good luck - The thing is - everything looked like I had a booked flight - except it never showed on my card. Good thing I watched and was checking. Cuz with e-tickets you don't get a physical ticket. Got to check, check, check.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I've got my own horror story about airfare booked through the web.

In February, 2003 I bought round trip tickets to St. Thomas for my 20th Anniversary trip which was in October that year. The great thing was that I paid only $360 pp rt - an unbelievable rate from Seattle.

Now for the bad. In the 9 months between when I bought tickets and when the trip was to happen, the airline cancelled the flights that I was originally booked on. This started a cascade of bad events.

At the beginning of October with about 2 weeks until I left for the trip, I find out that Orbitz had re-booked my flight to St. Thomas, unfortunately, the booked my return trip to originate in San Jaun. (How did they expect me to get to San Jaun - swim?)

Well I called Orbitz and the were extremely polite and said they fixed it. So off I go to the Caribbean.

A couple days before I'm to return home, I call the airlines from St. John to confirm, and guess what - I'm leaving from San Jaun. Once again, they said they fixed it.

Well, low and behold, Saturday morning I arrive at the airport and find out I don't have seats on any plane leaving St. Thomas. I came uncorked. Fortunately, I was very nice to the airline counter people at the airport, because they were WONDERFUL - St. Thomians are great people.

Long story short, I called Orbitz - they blamed the airlines. I called the airlines - they blamed Orbitz. I was stuck in St. Thomas.

Finally I got some corporate "yes" woman on the phone from Atlanta, and she told me, "it's not the airlines problem, your contract is with Orbitz." So I cussed her pretty good, and she sent me to her Supervisor because, "she didn't have to put up with language like that." Well, I don't have to put up with being stuck in St. Thomas because of Corporate apathy.

The Supervisor was great. He said, "hold a minute, and I'll get this fixed for you." A second later the phone rang at the desk, and I was IMMEDIATELY on the next plane to San Jaun.

Well the adventure didn't end there. In the chaos, I forgot to turn the keys in to the Rental Car Company and I didn't notice until I'd gotten through Security. One of the Security people, a young man of perhaps 22 offered to turn them in for me after his shift; so I took him up on the offer.

When I got on the plane I realized, I'd just turned the keys of my rental car over to a complete stranger. Thoughts of an irresponsible young man out joy riding my rental car at my expense ran through my head on the long flight home. Well much to my delight, the gentleman did exactly what he said he'd do, he turned the keys in. Didn't I tell you St. Thomians are WONDERFUL people?

Well, the trip home was not without incident. We flew all the way to San Jaun, got 50 feet off the runway on final approach and got waved off because there was an iguana on the runway. As we circled waiting for the iquana to move off the runway, a lightening storm started and we couldn't land because of the lightening. So what did we do? We flew all the way back to St. Thomas to refuel.

But it got better. The flight from San Jaun to Chicago had fewer than 12 passengers - so every one got their own row. That was great.

The moral of the story?

Orbitz books a LOT of people and it's easy for little old you to slip through the cracks. So if you can't cuss like a sailor to get attention from a customer service supervisor - MAKE SURE YOU CHECK AND RECHECK YOUR RESERVATIONS!!!!!

PS I use Orbitz all the time and they're great. Just know that you don't get the same level of personal sevice that you'd get from a trave agent. On the other hand, you can probably save some money.

I've only ever used Orbitz, Sidestep, and now newbies to the game Kayak.com and Mobissimo.com to FIND the airfares out there, then booked directly with the airlines. (I figure then you dont have that finger pointing to wade thru when something goes wrong.)
Using a middleman can apparently be a double edged sword and is obviously not quite the same level of service as the traditional travel agent.
I believe that the onetravel.com site the above poster was refered to is a UK company (?) which could be another hurdle to deal with and hence, something to watch out for.

jmg, we ditto everything that you said. Check web sites for prices then book yourself with airlines directly. I was told to do that by our good friend who is a travel agent. It will save you a lot of grief and if there is a schedule change they will notify you directly. We are leaving next week for St. Thomas and have had our res. since June. There have been 2 changes and we we're notified each time. We are in Michigan and our tickets were $50.00 cheaper than I have seen them since.

Carole just an FYI to you and others, have seen another post that noted if an airline changes your reservation, and that if the airfare just happens to be cheaper at the time THEY are changing it, that they will give you the lower fare with NO surcharge IF YOU ASK. Would like to see if others could confirm this is indeed true.

jmg, yes that is true. I did ask and at .the time it was more. Because the changes were theirs, we did get better flights without the 100 surcharge for changing. Thanks for everyone contributing to this board. It has been a wealth of info.

It seems like the safest bet is to book directly with the airlines or a travel agent. My next question is do I wait and see if the price of a ticket goes down (we are traveling in June) or do I book asap? I know June is a big wedding month in ST and SJ.

Sorry to piggyback off of your question Deb, I am scheduled to be in STT in the middle of May, what is the absolute latest that I should purchase tickets. Right now a flight from STL to STT is ranging anywhere from $650.00 1100.00 PP. Is this normal???

As first timers to STT and STJ coming up in late March we wondered the same thing about fares to the Caribbean i.e. were the "rules of thumb" we had applied to other places we fly (like AZ and FLA) different because of the destination/time of yr, etc.???
Previous experience with these places was around 3 months out seemed like the best $ time to book. However, I became apprehensive enuff to book tix in early Nov. at what I thought were good but not great prices to SJU and then Caribbean Sun Airlines to STT.
Low and behold, in late Dec.(yes, 3 months from departure), my fare watcher alerts and my new fav airfare search tool kayak.com turn up very cheap flights from NYC area - lower than what we paid. These popped up mid week and were only available for a short time before they went back up.
Also look at non-majors like Spirit to SJU. Then you can consider one of the puddle jumpers like American Eagle or Caribbean Sun Airlines out of SJU. Check it out and see if it works for you.
Also, if you come in late to SJU, there is a newly refurbished Best Western at the airport I’ve heard good things about and you can fly out on the next morning as early as 8am to STT and begin your USVI vacation before 9am.
Folks that say book high anyway and get vouchers or "rebates" from the airline if prices drop havent tried doing that lately - that is no longer policy and/or high fees are applied that most often negate the $ benefit.
Lesson learned - know your home market and trust your instincts.

deb,
I ended up booking my trip thru orbitz - Roundtrip detroit to stx june 1 returning june 30 - total cost flight, taxes & fees, $5. booking fee $617.

Check the airline websites all the time, they do change fares very often... The best day I find to purchase tickets is on a tuesday, the worst is on a friday. Good luck and have fun on the islands. We will be there on our honeymoon in May, staying at Gallows Point.

I love your ordeal it really made me laugh, sounds like your a very patient and humorous person!

Patient and Humorous?

Only on my good days!!!!