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what is the best way to buy airline tickets to Ireland?

Looking to travel to Ireland during the summer of 2011. looking for some insight for getting discounted airline tickets during this time frame. There will be 8 of us going.

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1. One site may be slightly lower than another but the supply and demand economic rule applies to all financial transactions…..make your purchase on reliability and common sense……what will work for you…….and……..your travel requirements…..always use trusted and ethical travel sites…….yahoo travel…….orbitz……travelocity……expidea or club type membership….AAA or AARP. Take a moment to make sure a cheap ticket is worthwhile and reliable……..I can’t recommend any one site…….its up to you to search and decide what is right for you. If you see what appears to be a good deal … grab it…don’t worry if the price goes up our down a little bit next week……
2. Too bad there are not two more of you, then you would constitute a "group" in the eyes of many airlines and might secure group pricing (plus one of you would might get to go for free as the "group leader"!). Absent a group, visit www.farecompare.com, which allows you to check airfares at several travel website at once. Once you find an airline with a good fare, book it at the airline's website, not the travel website. If something ""happens," your itinerary will be better protected. You might pay a couple bucks more booking on the airline's website, but the extra $6 or $10 is worth the peace of mind when the airline starts diddling with its flight schedule. I once booked travel to Germany and back on United through Priceline.com. The airline changed my flight so many times that Priceline couldn't keep up with it. At one point they actually had me departing the last leg of my travel two hours before my incoming flight was scheduled to land! Finally Priceline gave up and turned it over to United, which not only rescued my itinerary, I got an extra day in Germany out of it! I think I saved all of $20 booking through Priceline, but could've saved the many hours wasted on the phone with them.
3. You are along way out, but there is no time like the present to start looking at ticket prices. Try searching on comparison sites such as http://www.kayak.com or http://www.skyscanner.net etc.. Google search will give you more options. try airlines websites too, as they may offer a discount on your numbers, even though a group booking tends to be 10+ for airlines.
4. For cheap tickets, try: Hotwire.com Expedia.com Travelocity.com Priceline.com Bing.com/travel Aerlingus.com Have a great trip!
5. I've found that www.aerlingus.com usually has the best prices, and the most direct flights. I don't think you'll get a discount on tickets through any site or agency even though there are 8 of you, unfortunately. On the Aer Lingus site (that's the main Ireland airline), you can look at the whole calendar and find the dates with the cheapest flights. I also wrote this article that has a lot of tips in regard to going to Ireland for this first time, finding cheap flights, etc. that might help you. Good luck! http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1955654/ireland_travel_guide.html?cat=16