In a four part series, I will review some of the popular online travel sites and give some pros and cons when booking travel through these sites. In this series, I will search for air travel, explore how user-friendly these sites are, and look at which sites offer the best deals.
In Part I, I reviewed the most popular online travel sites. Part II will focus on the aggregrator travel sites. Please note - these are my own opinions based on my experiences and reviews of these sites. The rest of the series - Part I, Part III, and Part IV.
When booking travel, most people tend to use the popular sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. There is a reason these sites are popular. And as seen in Part I, these sites definitely have appeal for a reason with name recognition being a big factor. For those who want to look a little deeper into finding those travel deals, there are the aggregator sites which search a number of airline and booking sites to help you find the best deal. While a couple of these may be familiar, some of these may be names not recognized by the casual traveler.
In this day and age of travel, there are a number of factors when it comes to booking travel. Reviewing all of the travel sites out there is nearly impossible. Each person is unique as different people will enjoy certain features and have different ideas for what appeals to them when looking for airline deals and searching the various airfare sites. It is important to save money. Fees are constantly being added for everything these days. Knowing what fees are included when booking flights may be just as important as the deal you get or your personal preferences when using travel sites. (For some tips on how to avoid some of the baggage fees, see my article on packing light)
Here is a review of the aggregrator travel web sites.
The Aggregrators - These are the travel aggregrators which look at all the search engines and airlines to find you the best price. You then choose the site where you want to book your flight.
- Kayak - Pros - Entering the search criteria for a flight brings up a calendar on the main page giving you the prices of flights for your destination by each day of the month before you search for a flight. Gives you a lot of flexible search options on the left (stops, airlines, times, type of aircraft, etc). Allows you to compare with 4 other travel sites when performing your search. Can save your recent searches. Summarizes price and times for round trip flight in an easy to read format Cons - gives you limited information about the flights, stops, and flight numbers. (Sidestep is the exact same search engine as Kayak.)
- Booking Buddy - Pros - Simple and quick search criteria for flights. Can search over 50 airlines and websites. Cons - Each search opens a new window so the more sites you search the more windows open. Doesn't make it easy to compare prices on one screen. Where you find the total prices, taxes, and fees for arifare vary based on the site.
- Mobissimo - Pros - Quick summary of the round trip fares and the site to book from. Gives you lowest fare for alternate dates and the lowest non stop fare. Easy to search, get the basic information, and get a list of the best deals right at the top. Flexible search options for airline, flight and dates. Cons - Search options are both at the top and the side making it a bit more difficult to have to go to 2 different places to change search options. Gives limited information about the flight with summary of airline, departure times, arrivals, and number of stops.
- Vayama -Pros - Simple search which displays a map of your flight when you choose your departure and destination points. Doesn't give you any more information but it's a nice feature. Gives you results for round trip flights including airline, times, flight number, and aircraft. Also has buttons for airline info, fare details, and fare rules. Cons - Limited search options to change (stops and times). Not the most appealing presentation and prices seemed a bit higher than other sites.
The best deals?
In an attempt to see which has the best deal, I did a ample search for a flight for 2 from San Francisco to Boston leaving Tuesday, Nov 24th and returning Sunday Nov 29th. The prices listed are from the same or similar fligts and are the final price before purchase. While not a science, hopefully this example will give you an idea of which sites offer the best fares.
- Kayak -$638.38 (from Orbitz, Cheap Tickets)
- Vayama - $651.40
- Mobissimo - $638.38 (from Orbitz)
- Booking Buddy -$729.21 (from various sites, different flights, departure times)
Kayak, Mobissimo, and Booking Buddy all require you to book from another site. The essential to budget travel is to approach onward. When it comes along to family trips, globetrotting, well-deserved trips and/or going to see new spots we have never been before, the actuality of cost and budgeting is often in the back of our heads. Organizing and expending our travel budget wisely is a main concern for most families. Minimizing consuming and prices, while still taking pleasure in your vacation to its fullest, is the key to confirmed achievement and fiscal liability. Your pocketbook and family will thank you! The reasoning regarding economizing money while vacationing is simple: Even if your personal finances is extremely limited, you can still take a break and enjoy life! Simply put, life is just too short to never step out of the door or departing the homestead! Also recalling that while traveling, whether on a budget or not, even the smallest of things can all add op to a huge vacation or travel expenses!. Of these, Kayak and Mobissimo were the easiest to do. Vayama allowed you to book directly with them but weren't the cheapest. And Booking Buddy requires you to search multiple different sites, each opening a search in a new window which makes it really difficult to compare flights and prices from various sights. Also, none of the flights listed from the Booking Buddy searches had the same flights or departure times as the other three. The results also gave us the most expensive flight of all the aggregator sites.
Note how much prices for airlines can change from day-to-day as compared to the prices for these flights in Part I. In Part IV, we will embark upon some newer technology that may not only give us the best price but also let us know when the best time to buy may be.
Inspired to travel after checking out these sites? Check out some Fall Deals to Europe!
In Part III, we examine the travel web sites known as the discounters.
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