Booking an international flight first time?

Booking your international flight is a big deal, especially if you are doing it for the first time. Booking process is still simple and straight: go to any of the booking engine, my favorite being expedia.com. Give in your search criterion for flights, choose the best option and book it there itself. However you need to optimize your bookings for various factors such as:

• Duration of Flight / Number of hops - You can sort out your flight choices on expedia.com and other booking engines. Needless to say flights are boring and it is best to keep your duration short. Your flight duration goes up as the number of hops. Expect each hop to delay you by at least 2 hours. Ideally you reach any remote location in at max 3 hops. International flights connect major cities only and expect more hops as your final destination go to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Expedia gives you all the possible combinations and all you have to do is to choose the ones which are the shortest and satisfy other constraints. It is advisable to take the hop in between the journey. For e.g. if you are flying from Delhi to Washington; a stop in Paris is better than a stop in NY. Basically break your journey into 8 + 8 hours so that you can stretch your legs, rather than for a 15 + 1 hours.
• Time at each hop - Your duration at each hop should be at least 2 hours. You will need at least 30 mins to reach to the terminal where you catch your next flight. Keep one hour as backup in case of earlier flight delay. Make sure that all your flights are operated by same airline company. In case your incoming flight gets delayed and you miss your next flight, it is an obligation of the flight operator to give you next possible flight to your destination. However that happens if they operate both the flights. When you land at the first airport of your final destination country you will have an immigration check. The next flight (if you have any) would be a domestic flight and all passengers arriving from any international flight are required to do an immigration and visa check. So keep 1-2 hours as extra backup for this hop. Do not worry about check in baggage as they get transferred by ground staff to your next flight.
• Price - Expedia gives all the details. You will mostly find best prices here. Do not forget to check the prices directly on the flight operator website after you have chosen flight from expedia, as it offers direct deals at times. kayak.com only gets you a close data from other engines but I have never got a good booking experience there.
• Departure / Arrival Time - Make sure you do not end up late night at your destination as it gets difficult to reach your staying place unless no one is coming to pick you up. Evening arrival is best at it helps you with jet lag.
• Flight quality - I believe flight operators have different level of services they provide to travelers. Few operators are recommended for better food, others for their on time arrival. Read ratings on online review engines if you want to, but mostly it doesn't matter.
• Baggage limits - This is a big confusing part. You never find appropriate information about baggage limits. Here are a few pointers - 
1. Even if your international flight offers 2 check in baggage and your next connecting flight is domestic, chances are that it offers only 1 check in baggage. You will then have to pay to flight operator at airport.
2. Check your baggage status on the flight booking website to make sure.
• Cancellation policy - Again notorious part of bookings. Booking engines do not say much about it either and you could be booking a ticket that is non refundable! Sadly I didnt find a way to get this detail unless you book through a local agent or through http://traveltriangle.com