When I was growing up my parents used to call our travel agent to make all our travel plans including airline reservations. Today, we either hop on the Internet or place a phone call via an 800 # to make flight reservations. Every major airline has an online website with flight schedules and ways to reserve your airline ticket. The Internet has revolutionized the way we book flights and reserve out airline tickets. In real-time you can find out prices, flight times, and pay for your reservations. In order to get the best deals we say go online to major travel sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia to see what deals they are currently offering. Official websites of the major airlines will often offer Internet only fares which you can't get anywhere else. If booking online is too confusing (it's really easy), then you can always call a toll free phone number and make the reservations over the phone. I prefer to see what I'm doing online plus you can quickly compare rates between airlines online which is something I know you can't do over the phone. Southwest Airlines (SWA) currently only allows you to reserve flights on their website. You CAN NOT book flights for Southwest Airlines on Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, or any other travel website.
Online Airline Reservations and Toll-Free Phone Numbers:
As a general rule of thumb, you will get the best deals when you book directly at an airlines official website. They can offer you discounts since they don't have to pay commissions to other websites, travel agents, or ticket brokers. Therefore, start by going to the websites listed below of the major airlines. It's always a good idea to check a general travel site to see what other airlines are charging for the same flight or destination. Many airlines offer special airfares to those that sign up for email alerts or in the case of Southwest Airlines, they offer a downloadable software piece called DING. Check out the airline you do the most business with on how to get notices on reduced airfares or last minutes deals. Below we have listed all the airlines with a direct link to their website and airline reservation phone numbers.
Aeromexico - Mexican based airline that flys to United States and throughout central America. Phone Number 800-237-6639.
Air Canada - Partners with United Airlines for travel to Canada. Phone Number 888-247-2262.
Air China - Great offers to fly from mainland US to China and beyond. Phone Number 800-982-8802.
Air Fiji - Fly to exotic Fiji. Phone Number 877-Air-Fiji.
Air France - Based in France, travels worldwide. Phone Number 800-237-2747.
Cayman Airways - Fly from Chicago, JFK, Houston, Miami, Orlando, or Tampa to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Phone Number 800-441-3003.
China Airlines - Fly from North America to Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Bangkok and more cities in Asia. Phone Number 800-227-5118.
Continental Airlines - With hubs in Houston, Cleveland, and Newark you can fly to all major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, or Chicago. Phone Number 800-525-0280.
Delta Air Lines - Major hub is in Atlanta but flies worldwide. Phone Number 800-221-1212.
Ethiopian Airlines - Fly from Washington DC (Dulles), Amsterdam, Cairo, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Rome and Stockholm into Africa. Phone Number 800-445-2733.
Frontier Airlines - With their hub in Denver, you can fly to SFO, Portland, Phoenix, Detroit, Dallas, Orlando, Jacksonville, Memphis and dozens more. Phone Number 800-432-1359.
Hawaiian Airlines - Great non-stops from San Diego, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Jose, Portland, and Seattle to Hawaii. Phone Number 800-367-5320.
Horizon Air - Partners with Alaska Airlines on many of the west coast routes. Phone Number 800-547-9308.
Japan Airlines - Go from mainland America to Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Nagoya, Osaka. Phone Number 800-525-3663.
JetBlue Airways - Low cost carrier with flights in and out of Boston, JFK, Oakland, DC, Fort Lauderdale and many more cities. Phone Number 800-538-2583.
Kenya Airways - Travel to Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Cameroon, Sudan, Senegal, Egypt, Ethiopia, Dubai and Paris. Phone Number 866-536-9224.
KLM - Flights to Toronto, Milan, Prague, Chicago, and LAX. Phone Number 800-374-7747.
Korean Air - You guessed it, they fly in and out of Korea. International flights to LAX, Philadelphia, Miami and more. Phone Number 800-438-5000.
LanChile Airlines - South American travel into Santiago, Quito, Buenos Aires, Rio, Bogota, and Caracas. Phone Number 800-735-5526.
Lufthansa - Hub in Frankfurt is great stopping off point for direct flight originating in the United States. Fly throughout Europe and the world. Phone Number 800-645-3880.
Singapore Airlines - Major worldwide flight schedule with Singapore being the hub. Phone Number 800-742-3333.
South African Airways - Fly from all major US cities to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban. Phone Number 800-722-9675.
Southwest Airlines - Low fare carrier in the United States. Phone Number 800-435-9792.
Spirit Airline - US to Caribbean destinations. Phone Number 800-772-7117.
SWISS - Switzerland based airline with flights to Barcelona, Nice, Munich, etc. Phone Number 877-359-7947.
Ted Airlines - Spinoff from United. Lower fares and shorter flights. Phone Number 800-225-5833.
United Airlines - Fly worldwide to all major cities. Hubs in U.S. are in Chicago, Washington DC (Dulles), Denver, LAX, and SFO (San Francisco). Phone Number 800-241-6522.
US Airways - Merged with America West recently. Fly to Athena, Zurich, Stockholm, Oahu, Kauai, Brussels, Lisbon, Milan, Maui, etc. Phone Number 800-428-4322.
Varig - Brazilian based airline with plenty of routes in South America. Phone Number 800-468-2744.
Virgin Atlantic - British based airline with routes to America and other European destinations. Phone Number 800-862-8621.
Airline Reservation Phone Numbers:
We still recommend going online to make most of your flight reservations, but there are cases where it is best to just call up the airline and book your flight. I find that when trying to book frequent flyer mile tickets it is best to phone the airline. The web is still very lacking in this area and Southwest Airlines is one of the few airlines where using the web to book free flights is easy. Otherwise, get on the phone and let the ticketing agent help you through the process. They can quickly pull up all the flights and instantly see which ones have availability for those wanting to use frequent flyer miles. I recently took a trip on United Airlines using frequent flyer mileage and I called their 800 # to set the whole thing up. I can't imagine the hassle I would have gone through trying to do it online with all the complications (I flew from Portland, Oregon to Venice, Italy). The agent was able to walk me through the options over the phone and help me pick the easiest flight schedule. Airline reservation phone numbers are also good to know when you want to make changes to your current itinerary or need to reserve or book tickets before actually purchasing them. Most airlines will put a 24 hour hold on the tickets before you need to buy them.
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