travel websites

I am working out travel plans to go see my grandmother in AZ this summer. I haven't been out there in a long time. She has been to Connecticut and I visited with her there over a year ago, and only for a short time. It looks like those travel websites don't really save you money though. I went to expedia, orbitz and travelocity, but it was cheaper to just go direct to American Airline's website and order from there. Now this is only about a 5 dollar difference, but still. Mostly i used the other websites for an overall look at the different airline prices. So i guess they are helpful, just not as good as they could be.