I clicked through one of the CheapTickets banners last week. It's still being displayed, and I have no complaints. It's tastefully presented, shows me up front what they have to offer, and lets me decide whether I need it or not.
As it happened, I did. I got a great deal on a last-minute cross-country fare by being able to shop a smaller carrier I otherwise wouldn't have known about(America West, HQ'd in Phoenix). My little sister, who needed to fly out for our grandfather's memorial, was able to fly from New Orleans to LAX the next day, and fly back two weeks from that day. Price tag: a smidge over three hundred bucks total, including tax and 9/11 obscurity fees.
Sadly, the vast majority of ads I get served up aren't exactly so professional. Fully half the ads I've gotten so far today are the rapidly flashing, stomach churning, epilepsy inducing "WINNER!" type ads. It sure seems like much more than half, though. Ugh. Much as I love the site, I'm not going to expose my system to junkdotcom, bad cookies, spyware, and eventual pop-up blackout.
I wonder how much of the three hundred bucks from before eventually filtered down to purediablo.com, though! Almost enough to arm wrestle the advertisement service to yank those awful "WINNER!" people?