RetireJapan

I am tentatively considering a trip to the UK in the autumn. I usually use Skyscanner but am finding it pretty user unfriendly in terms of the effort required to trawl through various dates and departure airports. And with prices, erm, on the high side, I am keen to find the best deal possible this time. Anyone got any tips?

Browse prices wherever, but I've been reading that it's better to then go direct to the airline site and book/purchase there.

If you need a change, you then deal with the airline instead of having an intermediary in the way.

Echo captainspoke's comments.
Browse prices in skyscanner, momondo, expedia or one of those.

Then book direct, esp in the uncertainties caused by Covid.
The booking services are cumbersome to deal with if anything needs to be changed (date, cancellation or refunds)
Date changes are quite likely scenario in current condition (for example, if you get a covid positive test result right before the return flight)

So, book directly with the airline.

By far the best flight search tool I've ever seen is ITA Matrix, which was subsequently acquired by Google I think, but you can still use their site, both an old version (which I'm kinda used to) and a newer version:

- Old ITA Matrix: https://oldmatrix.itasoftware.com/
- New ITA Matrix: https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search

I recently bought a ticket to UK for my daughter who is headed there for university. I looked at skyscanner but ended up buying through Qatar direct for a somewhat decent price.

Unfortunately, pent up demand for travel has really inflated airfares. Bargains are hard to find but don’t give up without trying. My tips:
1. For searching I recommend Google Flights. They provide at least a couple of comparative costs for your preferred carrier option along with direct links to book with the airline. Most importantly, GF offer a tracking service to provide email alerts for price drops for your nominated route.
2. LCCs are cheap. JAL-backed Zipair is offering $549 fares for Tokyo-LA return. Not all LCCs are listed with online agents so you may need to check them directly on their own websites. LCCs are cheap but because of that you need to accept their disadvantages like strict baggage limits, limited food and entertainment, poor customer service, etc.
3. If you have a preferred airline, sign up for its emails which advise of discount fares. For European destinations Etihad have been offering great fares, especially for their brilliant business class.
4. Not sure of your family situation - we took only direct flights when the kids were young - but flexibility with arrival and departure airport as well as times can save large amounts of money. (You can also specify several airports, say Haneda, NRT, Chubu and KIX in Google Flights to find better deals and save time too.)
5. Finally, if you have frequent flyer miles built up, now would be a good time to use them.

Thanks to all for the responses, a lot of really useful tips there.

Google Flights has been my go-to for comparing prices. As kawasemi mentioned, they acquired ITA Matrix awhile back, so it's powered off of that. I find it more user-friendly than ITA.

Just flew my family to the UK and back with Etihad.

With Russian airspace out of the equation for many airlines, a Middle East routing worked well for us. Etihad, Qatar and Emirates all seem to have attractive offers for layovers and stopovers. We did a layover outbound and a stopover inbound, making use of Etihad deals on hotels and transfers.

Price was reasonable, and the travelling went more smoothly than anticipated with three kids under four.