Online airfare search aggregators - Review and Ranking

[FlyerTalker]

The blog Upgrade Better has posted a review of 11 "metasearch" websites (plus two other research sites), such as Kayak and Sidestep. Given how often we hear the question, "Where should I look for.....?", this might be of some value. The overall conclusions:

So which aggregator came out on top in 2009? Here’s the summary, with site-by-site reviews thereafter…

• Overall best bet: TripAdvisor Flights. Low fares, good features, a solid performer overall. It took them a while to join the game, but it’s a strong product with a small but important edge over its closest competitor, Kayak.
  
• Lowest price, domestic: If you’re searching for domestic US airfare, most of the aggregators did pretty well, but the lowest fares were consistently on TripAdvisor Flights, Mobissimo, Momondo, or Trax. (Kayak and Sidestep would have been included in this list, but they often offered the lowest flights at the same base fares, but typically directed you to Orbitz, instead of to the airline or to a no-fee site like Priceline, to buy the ticket. Orbitz still charges a booking fee as of this writing, so single-airline itineraries can typically be purchased for less elsewhere.)
  
• Lowest price, international from US: If you’re searching for international flights starting in the US, try Kayak and Trax
  
• Lowest price, international, ex-US: If you’re search for international flights that don’t originate or end in the United States, Mobissimo and Momondo performed best.
  
• Class conscious: If you’re looking for a deal on premium cabin fares, fly.com is your site.
  
• Sorting features: If you want control over options, and like to tweak and limit your results, Kayak gives you the most power.
  
• Real total cost: TripAdvisor Flights TripAdvisor Flights lets you estimate what your actual costs will be, including luggage checking fees,
  
• Avoid: WeGo, which offered impressively-low search results, but none were actually bookable. Also avoid Dohop, whose prices were consistently higher than their competitors.
  

Reviews of individual sites are in the complete post, which can be found HERE. I highly recommend reading the entire post, as the individual reviews provide important information on each site, and a follow-up on the "ranking" above.

 

(Note to moderators: Perhaps this should replace the "sticky" on search sites, given the age of that original posting.)

[parody]

The current version of the TripAdvisor search engine has certainly made some significant improvements from when it was first released and most likely more will be made. I think a little more time is necessary to determine whether it beats out all other sites, however. While I have not seen an exhaustive comparison, a couple of thoughts come to mind. For example, while kayak.com does not give one the fares for Southwest flights, it at least indicates whether they are in the market being analyzed. To my knowledge, no other site does this. Although difficult to find, one can at least ascertain from kayak.com what airlines are included in their search. Again, I know of no other site that explicitly divulges this type of information.

 

Although the blog includes a bunch of popular metasearch sites, I wonder why they did not include itasoftware.com. Some folks like it because of some of its powerful search capabilities (including its month-long search) and the ability to include nearby airports up to 300 miles away from their primary airport (i.e., at the origin and/or destination end of a trip). Most sites that do search nearby airports do so at a fixed distance which is not specified.

[Ephraim]

I would never use Kayak or Trip Advisor for one-way transatlantic fares. They both come up high because they don't include consolidators.

[ab0si]

I would never use Kayak or Trip Advisor for one-way transatlantic fares. They both come up high because they don't include consolidators.

 

Which is one of the reasons why I DO use them.

[FlyerTalker]

Although the blog includes a bunch of popular metasearch sites, I wonder why they did not include itasoftware.com. Some folks like it because of some of its powerful search capabilities (including its month-long search) and the ability to include nearby airports up to 300 miles away from their primary airport (i.e., at the origin and/or destination end of a trip). Most sites that do search nearby airports do so at a fixed distance which is not specified.

ITA was not included in the direct comparison and rankings because it does not have any booking capabilities. At the bottom of the complete article, it does talk about ITA and also FareCompare as being "sites of note".

 

As always, any "ranking" has caveats and issues of methodology. There is no absolute best website. As Mark Ashley wrote in the review: "The golden ring of a truly complete search, covering all the options and all the providers, is still a ways away. No single site actually finds every flight option, every fare, or every seller."

 

My goal in posting the link was to get more information out to the purchasing public, so they can be informed consumers with more, and better, tools at their disposal. FWIW, the comment section is quite interesting as well, and I plan to follow it via RSS.

[jetexpress]

FlyerTalker, thanks for some interesting information.

[Ephraim]

Which is one of the reasons why I DO use them.

 

To each his own. Personally, my last flight was a white fare on Vayama. It was the same as the higher priced flight on United and Lufthansa as everyone else's flight... just $800 or more cheaper.

[parody]

ITA was not included in the direct comparison and rankings because it does not have any booking capabilities.

 

While true, it's a fine line given that most folks seem to book directly with an airline anyway. Oddly though, with ita one can click on "show booking details" and get more refined, detailed information on what is actually being "booked" compared to what other "booking" sites show. Actually, by definition, booking can't be done with any of the metasearch engines. Rather, they just refer one to the "booking" site where the fare was found. But ita does this in a more obscure way when one goes to "show booking details".

[FlyerTalker]

I agree that moving ITA to a separate "category" is a fine distinction. OTOH, it is a bit more "geeky" in its interface, and you do have to make a completely separate action to get to a booking site to complete the process. I'll leave that distinction as a factor in the review's methodology - a choice of the author - and hope that people read the whole post and not just the highlights at the start.

 

Personally, ITA (and its very powerful route language) is half of my online toolbox, with ExpertFlyer being the other half. For some specific needs, I also use KVS, but between ITA and EF, I've got the best available without going to professional industry GDS access, such as what Greatam uses for work. But, as with EaasySabre vs Travelocity, friendly interface often wins the day in the big picture. Thus, the popularity of Kayak et al.

[Jade13]

To each his own. Personally, my last flight was a white fare on Vayama. It was the same as the higher priced flight on United and Lufthansa as everyone else's flight... just $800 or more cheaper.

 

Do you still get the airline miles/points if you go through these type of sites? Was it the same United and Lufthansa flights?

[Jade13]

I tried the Trip Adviser Flight Search Engine and was directed to Travelocity. In this case a PAPER TICKET was required (For Air Tran and United). I did not see an upside to go this way. I am also unclear if there is a booking fee on Travelocity and whether I would get the airline points or miles going through Travelocity, Expedia, Hotels.com and others? (I know I could not get hotel points a couple of years ago at Hotels.com but I did get a room that was sold out if I went direct)

[Ephraim]

Do you still get the airline miles/points if you go through these type of sites? Was it the same United and Lufthansa flights?

 

I bought with Vayama and I got all my points. My confirmation worked to get my information on UAL's website. Everything was exactly the same.

 

The only difference in this case was that these are "white fares" where they tell you an approximate time of day that you are flying and they tell you the connections and the approximate arrival time. You don't get the name of the airline and the exact times until you have paid. But it was easy to figure out just b the fact that we connected in Washington and Frankfurt that our flight was on United and Lufthansa. And we paid US$506.14 to fly from BTV to VCE (Burlington, Vermont to Venice, Italy) one way. The hubs sort of give it away.

[Globaliser]

Thanks for the post, FlyerTalker - that's going to be very useful for many people.

But, as with EaasySabre vs Travelocity, friendly interface often wins the day in the big picture.

'Twas ever thus. RIP, easySabre - you were a more powerful, informative and useful site than virtually every online booking site that there is today.

But it was easy to figure out just b the fact that we connected in Washington and Frankfurt that our flight was on United and Lufthansa. ... The hubs sort of give it away.

Let me see: you figured out that you were going to fly on United - and you still bought the ticket? ;)

[Ephraim]

Let me see: you figured out that you were going to fly on United - and you still bought the ticket? ;)

 

It was the cheapest ticket. Honestly, I don't see what difference it would have made no matter what airline we would have been on. Flying economy trans-Atlantic they are all basically the same, give or take an amenity or two. It's all six of one or half a dozen of the other. It's not like Thai or Cathay fly from Burlinginton, VT. :)

 

At least with United/Lufthansa, I still got my Aeroplan points.

[Globaliser]

It was the cheapest ticket. Honestly, I don't see what difference it would have made no matter what airline we would have been on. Flying economy trans-Atlantic they are all basically the same, give or take an amenity or two. It's all six of one or half a dozen of the other. It's not like Thai or Cathay fly from Burlinginton, VT.

Well, as you say, to each his own. I would pay good money to fly on LH rather than UA, for example - so that would be important to me. I think that there are still significant service level differences between trans-Atlantic airlines even in economy. It's not just the amenity or two, welcome though they are; it's the entire experience, including the airline's attitudes to the customer.

[Ephraim]

Well, as you say, to each his own. I would pay good money to fly on LH rather than UA, for example - so that would be important to me. I think that there are still significant service level differences between trans-Atlantic airlines even in economy. It's not just the amenity or two, welcome though they are; it's the entire experience, including the airline's attitudes to the customer.

 

I respect that. To each his own. For me, price is more significant than the differences in service. If it was just a few dollars, I might consider it, but when you talk about hundreds of dollars... I'll suffer through a few hours. We all make personal choices, we just have to make the right ones for ourselves.

[UtterCaro]

I bought with Vayama and I got all my points. My confirmation worked to get my information on UAL's website. Everything was exactly the same.

 

I wasn't so lucky. Only 10 days of effort so far, but no luck (yet) getting my recent Vayama miles into my US account. :::sigh:::

 

Caro

[greatam]

I respect that. To each his own. For me, price is more significant than the differences in service. If it was just a few dollars, I might consider it, but when you talk about hundreds of dollars... I'll suffer through a few hours. We all make personal choices, we just have to make the right ones for ourselves.

 

While I agree price is a consideration, the "fine print" in Vayama's terms of service brings quite a few worries.

 

Evidently, the booking engine COULD give you an "illegal" ticket (from Vayama's website):

 

An important note regarding air tickets:

 

"Air carriers may be required to make available to the public the terms of their contract of carriage pursuant to Title 14, Part 253 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The circumvention of an air carrier's rules, including practices such as back-to-back ticketing (purchasing two or more tickets with overlapping travel dates in order to circumvent minimum stay requirements) and hidden-city ticketing (purchasing tickets including segments which the purchaser does not intend to use in order to circumvent an air carrier's pricing structure), is prohibited by many air carriers. The use of prohibited ticketing practices may result in the air carrier taking actions including the cancellation of the ticket, denied boarding, revocation of frequent flier miles and other benefits, additional charges to the purchaser's credit card, additional charges collected at the airport, or future invoicing. You are responsible for ensuring that your purchases abide by the terms or conditions of purchase imposed by any third party with whom you elect to deal, including terms or condition of purchase set forth in an air carrier's fare rules or contract of carriage"

 

And THIS:

 

"From time to time we may change or modify the terms, or impose new terms, including adding fees and charges for use. Such changes, modifications, additions, or deletions shall be effective immediately upon posting on the website or by any means of notification by which you obtain actual knowledge thereof. Any use of the services after such posting or notice shall be deemed to constitute acceptance by you of such changes, modifications, additions or deletions."

 

And LAST:

 

"You agree to abide by The Terms and Conditions of purchase, including all cancel rules, imposed by any supplier with whom you elect to deal. A supplier that is an air carrier is required to make available to the public the terms of its contract of carriage, and we make available the fare rules for all air carrier tickets before purchase."

 

 

Vayama adds EXORBITANT change fees: "Itinerary Changes/Cancellations/Refunds: Itinerary changes including refunds, if permitted for the fare, will have a $100.00 USD service fee charged per ticket by vayama and may have an additional change fee charged by the airline of up to $350.00 USD. This fee varies by market, carrier and specific fare rule."

 

And while they indicate they will give the fare rules, they don't give COMPLETE fare rules because you have NO idea what fare class you are in BEFORE you book the ticket. So you have no way of knowing whether you are getting miles. Just because the airline itinerary engine accepts your FF #, doesn't mean you get FF miles. This from the "rules and conditions" just before you hit the PAY button "This fare may not accrue miles or qualify for mileage upgrades. Contact the airline directly for details.".

 

WITHOUT the fare class, you cannot determine whether you have a true consolidator ticket with miles or not.

 

Too many caveats for me.

[Ephraim]

Most of those are in everyone's carriage contract. Have you read Travelocity's? Many of those are just normal airline policy.

 

As for the change fee, that is part of the caveat of purchasing a white fare. Once purchased you know the carrier, which means that their special non-disclosure contract is over. It's a LOT cheaper... and there is a reason.

[Jade13]

It was the cheapest ticket. Honestly, I don't see what difference it would have made no matter what airline we would have been on. Flying economy trans-Atlantic they are all basically the same, give or take an amenity or two. It's all six of one or half a dozen of the other. It's not like Thai or Cathay fly from Burlinginton, VT. :)

 

At least with United/Lufthansa, I still got my Aeroplan points.

 

I have flown a bunch of airlines internationally in the past few years such as Canada Air, US Airways, American, Continental, SWISS, LAN, Delta and Lufthansa. I would put Lufthansa and SWISS at the top and really above all the others from my experience.

 

I flew American yesterday and United today (and United two weeks ago), not international but 3-4 hour flights and they were really just OK and I liked things better on each of them but I agree they were "basically the same". I don't like the fact that United charges you more for more forward coach seats (Economy Plus - I know there is more room) or exit rows. I had no problem on US Airways last week getting Bulkhead seats upon arriving at the airport on two different flights and it did not cost me more. United gave headphones on a few of there flights and that has become few and far between. The attendant on American yesterday was great.