What is the best site to buy plane tickets online?

I want to book a flight for a one off trip, I googled my city to my destination and I saw listings from around $175 (spirit airlines) up to $500 (United and other airlines). What are the reasons for such a price gap in airline tickets? Is this accurate? What should I be expecting to pay from Chicago to Texas and what site do you recommend?

Internet today is full of fake websites. They make look alike sites to confuse you into thinking you are at the right site. Before parting with your money on the internet ensure that the site you are currently on is what you really intended to deal with otherwise you will just have your money stolen or overcharged for that matter.

There's no "best" site. Look on the major ones, such as expedia.com, and also look on the airline websites. Note that not all airlines, such as Southwest, show up on the consolidation sites.

Try something like SkyScanner

National airlines
Regional airlines
low Fare
Ultra low fare.

Offer different stuff with your ticket.

It can be a bigger seat, more choice of flights, faster flight, better refund or cancellation options. More luggage and on and on.

You get what you pay for. If you want the extras you pay up front with a full fare ticket or a la carte add on to low seat price ticket.

The range is NORMAL You decide if you want the cheap seat with no extras or want the first class one.
There's no one best site for every possible situation you want to dream up.

Some low cost airlines do not have fares on the search sites. You need to check direct with the Airline.

There are people that make their living searching out the deals. You can search them out too.

I saw listings from around $175 to $500. SO WHAT suggest you look up the schedules.

Fare changes by time of day and the day of the week. A direct non stop is usually more than a route with stops.

In case of things like a breakdown larger Airlines have more stuff to react to the situation than a small Airline does.It costs money for this extra stuff.

Search where you want for the many fares available.

BOOK your flight directly with the Airline.

Chicago to Texas depends day of week, time of flight and the Airport in or near Chicago you depart from and the destination Airport in Texas.

The price is higher at larger Airports.

Depending where you live maybe General Mitchell International Airport has flights that work for you.
MKE is the code.

Some reason in particular you can't employ a Travel Agent to help you. They get paid by the Airline just like your booking site does.

One uses humans and the other is just computers.

Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines are cheap but not many flights.

From Midway try Southwest for a flight.

I usually use kayak.com.

When you find a flight that is suitable - in terms of cost, departure time, length of flight, # of stops and so on - then kayak will send you to the actual airline site so that you purchase the ticket directly fro the airline.

It depends on when you are flying. Summer is usually more expensive because lots of people take to the skies once school is out. Ticket price will depend on what city in TX you are flying to. The price flying to Dallas will be different than if you fly to San Antonio or Houston. You can start out with However know that some airlines such as Southwest make you buy tickets on their own website. Also be flexible with your travel dates. Sometimes flying on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday will get you a lower priced ticket than if you fly on a Friday or Monday.

As for why the ticket price difference, there can be a number of reasons. Some airlines such as Spirit charge for just about everything except the air you breathe. The airline charges for checked bags and carry-on bags. Another reason why there's a price difference may be because one airline is promoting a route or that flight is not selling as well and they want more people on the flight.

The site doesn't matter. The airline sets the price- the other sites aren't allowed to offer tickets at any lower prices. You can look at a site like Kayak.com or Orbitz to compared prices. Be sure to look at what extras you're going to be charged for. Some charge a fee for a checked bag if you are not one of their frequent flyers. Spirit charges for everything extra. It may still come out to be cheaper.

Buy from the airline website. Use a site like Kayak to compare fares, but the same flight on the same airline will be the same price no matter where you book.

You're seeing a range of prices because fares do vary by airline, by date of travel, by how far in advance you book, by number of stops along the way, etc. Spirit is a discount carrier, which is why it appears so much cheaper. Be sure to read up on the extra fees on the discount carriers if you choose to use one.

I mostly use comparison sites to search options then go direct to the airline's site to book. Not all airlines are on comparison sites, i.e. I don't think you'll see spirit or southwest.

Also each airline decides their own pricing, so some will be competing against direct competition that may appear like they are more expensive, but low cost airlines like southwest and spirit can have hidden extra payment that often raises the price closer to other airlines.

The best site to actually buy tickets on are the airlines' own websites. The only reason that I could think of to use a 3rd party site would be if you are flying a very uncommon route that requires you to fly multiple airlines from different alliances. When you buy from a 3rd party site, you run the risk of having to deal with a middleman if something goes wrong with your trip and/or you need to make changes.
That being said, I use those sites to comparison shop (keeping in mind that airlines like Southwest don't show up on them), then buy off the airline's site.

As for why the prices are different, each airline offers different fare options with different conditions. Sometimes their cheapest option might not be available. Also, Spirit might show up as the cheapest flight, but they will tack a fee on for everything. In order to compare prices, you need to take into account everything that you might have to pay for, such as checked luggage, carry-on luggage, and picking your seat ahead of time.