Where to buy airline ticket?

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To fly to Europe, I used many method to find the cheapest airlines:

• See promotion from local newspaper, find some free&easy packages
• Contact your travel agent to find cheapest flight with short connection (direct flight usually more expensive).
  • http://www.chanbrothers.com/flight/
  • http://www.ctc.com.sg/

• Use Internet Web Flight Aggregator to find airline list that serve your destination. They usually not cheaper than travel agent. After finding the airlines list, go to each airline website to check its promos and fares.
  • www.Expedia.com
  • www.Kayak.com
• Find promo fares using each airlines website, even Singapore Airlines (SQ) sometimes offers good bargain.
  • www.cathaypacific.com
  • www.singaporeairlines.com
  • www.malaysiaairlines.com
  • www.etihadairways.com
  • www.thaiair.com
  • KLM
    
  • www.emirates.com

I used ChanBrothers, a leading Singapore-based travel agent, even I live in Indonesia, just because they have special promotion of many airlines, and I found one from China Eastern Airlines. To speed up communication after they quoted me the price, called them by phone to make confirmation/reservation.

Please take note that destination Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London usually have same ticket price, but I suggest to arrive at London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt. Do not arrive at CDG Paris unless you know a bit of French. And notice when and how long to make a connecting flight (Cathay at Hong Kong, China Eastern at Shanghai, Etihad at Abu Dhabi, KLM at Amsterdam, etc).

You must know some this terms before crawling information:

• Return Flight. Always buy ticket with return, do not buy separate one-way ticket, unless airlines specifies itself as low-cost airlines.
• Connecting Flight. This means you will be drop at an airport and wait for one to several hours to continue flight. Your luggage may be transferred automatically (ask for sure). Make sure you only make one connecting flight (two connecting usually waste your days).
• Stop-over. This is a feature that usually you don't know if book from travel agent but actually exist. If you want to stay one night or more in the connecting flight's city, then this is called stop over. Read terms and conditions in airlines website if the airlines offers stop-over. Let's say from Jakarta to Shanghai, connecting at Hong Kong, then you want to spend some days in Hong Kong, then you do not need to buy separate ticket for Jakarta to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Shanghai, but you have to find airlines that have hub at Hong Kong, and ask for stop-over for several days as you wish (usually no more than 7 days).
• Open Jaws. This means you can return from city other than original destination, example is you book ticket from Bangkok to London Heathrow, but return flight is from Amsterdam Schipol to Bangkok (you have to find your own way from London to Amsterdam). This can save your money since you don't have to go back to London at the end of journey. This feature may not be available to all airlines/flights.

So let's see what I've done in my flight itinerary. I used China Eastern Airlines from Singapore Changi (SIN) to London Heathrow (LHR), connecting at Shanghai Pudong (PVG). Return flight (using open-jaw) from Frankfurt (FRA) to Shanghai (PVG), using stop over feature for 4 days, then back to Singapore Changi (SIN). All using one return ticket, and it cost me SGD 990 per pax (equiv. EUR 490).

Cheap right?

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