What is the best travel web site?

[RJ]

Mrs. and I are contemplating some long-term extended travel in the future when I retire retire. Mainly point to point, to sight-see specific places we missed on our RV Adventures.

I see a bunch of these travel web sites advertising they are the best, but I thought I would ask for you guys input before we connected up with one long term.

So, what is the best travel aggregator web site for airlines, hotels and rental cars?

Wait for the poll. Multiple votes are allowed. :)

[Guinnessman]

Rich,

As I sit here in a Marriott, my suggestion is to join a hotel loyalty program. Between a Hotel Credit Card, and an Airline credit card, you can accrue points to go toward hotels/flights.

I have had good luck with Kayak, Hotels.com, and Priceline, for car rentals.

Marriott and Hilton families of hotels are my preference for our personal travels these days. Marriott properties are the most consistent hotels I have stayed in over the course of my airline career. Early in my career I stayed in enough shitty hotels to last a lifetime. Those days are past, and now I am a hotel snob. But you can be a hotel snob, and still find deals thru loyalty programs, AARP, AAA discounts, or corporate discounts.

Go to the Marriott site and compare some numbers with Kayak or Hotels.com to see how they compare. I am biased because of my current discounts due to work, but AAA numbers were not bad from what I could see.

A hotel I recently booked was $365 a night with travel industry discount, vs. $407 AAA discount. At Hotels.com that same room was $429 a night on the same days. Hardly a discount.

Hotels.com and Priceline had some awesome fire sale deals during the recession, but honestly I haven’t used them in quite some time. So buyer beware! Feel free to shoot me a PM for more enabling.

[Grey]

Momondo is supposed to be a good one. No experience.

[Norville]

I hate Expedia with a passion. Too long to type, but they truly tried to screw me out of about $900 when I was a young business traveler.

As above, pick a hotel chain and airline you like and bank miles / points for the future.

Sitting in a hotel executive lounge last week a couple of guys were bragging about amassing 300,000 points. I’m close to a million in spite of spending several hundred k this year on vacation. Loyalty credit cards help too.

[luckyman]

I generally use Kayak or my company web site to find most things, and then if at all possible I buy directly from the provider. Over the years the only times I have been truly screwed are when my wife booked through something like Expedia.

[SouthNarc]

None of them.

[BehindBlueI's]

They are all samey-same. Use them to get an idea of what's where, reviews, then call the hotel.