most services offer cheaper fares online as that way they don't have to pay travel agents commission or in this case employ staff, it is far cheaper to employ a computer designer for a few months to design an online ordering system than it is to hire an entire booking staff. what i normally do is go to 3/4 sites at the same time and try to book the same flight and then just grab the cheapest.
I however have a better rant for you, this morning the dart, our commuter train service, announced that starting this friday, that 4 days notice, it will be shutting over 3/4 of the dublin train services for the weekend, not just for this weekend but for the next 18 months then when that is finished they will shut the other 1/4 for 9 months. and we wonder why we have an infrastructure problem.
Cheers
~M

>Just I minor rant.
>
>I've recently been trying to book a flight to Charlotte (North Carolina) from Gatwick. Using a variety of on line sites to check fares and availability. What a mess of conflicting information I get. Different prices (varying by a huge amount) and availability
> where do these web sites get their base information ? How can you be sure you get the best result in the end ?
>
>To cap it all I tried ringing USAirways directly and was quoted a fare £50.00 dearer than the one I was looking at on their web site as I spoke to the lady. Also I suspect she may have been operating from a call centre because her English was quite poor which really put me off enquiring any further with her.
>
>So there it is, the modern world, I can't find out a definitive price for something or if its even available.
>
>Nick Mason