A comparison
The sites: Expedia ITASoftware Kayak
Orbitz SideStep Southwest Travelocity
The challenge: Which web site should be
used to shop for airline tickets for travel within the US? Which site quickly
and easily displays the best flight options and allows you to easily determine
the trade-off between total time of travel and cost?
Recommendation:
Use Kayak. Whether you have
specific departure or arrival time constraints, want to explore savings
by using alternate cities and flexible dates or are just looking for the
lowest price, Kayak is the easiest to use and includes a link to Southwest. If your
travel dates are very flexible, I recommend using ITASoftware's
Month Long Search, it's a great way to view multiple date options with one
inquiry. If your cities are served by Southwest, I recommend that you subscribe to Southwest's Click 'n Save fares.
Kayak's filtering capabilities (slide-bars & check
boxes) provide the best user-interface for quickly finding the flights
that offer the lowest price and the most convenience. You can
quickly see all of the trade-offs: total travel time vs. cost (non-stop
vs. connecting), long or short connections. Kayak easily
accommodates alternate cities and up to three days before and/or after for
departure and arrival.
Don't confuse shopping with buying. The
primary purpose of my tests is to determine the best shopping site.
Once you've found the lowest price or most convenient flights, I recommend
that you use the airline's web site to book your ticket. In many
cases, Kayak
takes you directly to the airline's web site so Kayak is often both a
shopping and a buying site. The reason to buy directly from the
airline is that ticketing fees are avoided and
finger-pointing is eliminated in case of a schedule change, an aircraft or price change
or you miss your flight. There are only a few instances where it is
advisable to buy a ticket for a web site other than the airline's.
Frequent flyer miles? Is it worth
paying more for or taking a less convenient flight to earn frequent flyer
miles? Due to
the increasing difficulty in redeeming miles (without paying double miles) and
that there are fewer first class seats available for upgrades, the
answer is a resounding "NO." I recommend that you select your flights
based upon price, comfort and schedule.
Almost all flights are full and with the exception
of a few airlines, coach seating is equally uncomfortable and amenities
are almost nonexistent. A few airlines have generous coach seating, free in-flight entertainment and even offer snacks or meals
without charge. Bottom line when it comes to airfare shopping: how
to quickly resolve the trade-off of price versus total travel time.
The results
Probability (%) of finding the lowest or most reasonable fare at the following
web sites for travel within the US:
|
Trip type |
Expedia |
ITASoftware |
Kayak |
Orbitz |
SideStep |
Southwest |
Travelocity |
|
Business
(short notice) |
30 |
80 |
100 |
50 |
80 |
60 |
40 |
|
Leisure
(plan ahead) |
60 |
100 |
90 |
70 |
90 |
70 |
80 |
Average |
45% |
90% |
95% |
60% |
85% |
65% |
60% |
Most non-airline owned sites
do not have real-time pricing and inventory. These sites re-fill their
inventory many times per day. When you attempt to purchase a ticket on
them, you will occasionally find that the price is no longer available.
Kayak buys SideStep: Kayak announced at the
end of 2007 that they are buying SideStep. They will be maintaining
the two separate brands and web sites but incorporating the user interface
from Kayak into SideStep. They will be adding the best features
to both sites. There are many enhancements that I would like to see at
Kayak. I hope that the efforts to integrate and upgrade SideStep will
not detract from these efforts.
Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity will no longer be
tested for air fare searches: Having included Expedia, Orbitz and
Travelocity in my comparisons for many years, I will no longer include them
in tests after 1/1/08. Their user interfaces are not competitive.
While it is possible to find the lowest priced and most convenient flights
at these web sites, it takes too long and too many mouse clicks. In
addition, trying to save by using their versions of near-by cities is much
more difficult than on other sites. I
will watch for improvements and re-evaluate them for inclusion in the future
but at this time, they're not worth the effort.
How to use Kayak: Kayak offers very powerful filtering after your
initial inquiry. You can adjust departure and arrival times, select or de-select
specific alternate airports, dates of travel, duration of lay-over, duration
of your trip, nonstop or multiple stop
flights and price limits. Be very careful of "Multiple Carriers"
flights as they may involve changing airlines in the middle of your trip.
Some airlines will not transfer baggage, so call the airlines if there is any
question about it. It's okay to take different airlines for the
outbound and return portions of your trip but not within the same segment
unless the airlines are 'code share' partners.
Kayak shows a link to a map of your departure and
arrival airports that also includes near-by airports. Unfortunately it
does not show the drive-time or actual distance. Kayak should
implement these functions or show near-by airports by drive-time with a
slide-bar filter.
Kayak's slide bars and check-boxes are the key to
filtering your results.
You should expand any that are not already fully open. Use them
to filter or eliminate the flights that are: not at the right time, to/from
inconvenient alternate airports, take too much time, cost too much money or
connect at the wrong city.
Kayak is excellent for making a "Plan B" to take with
you. Configure each leg of your trip as a one-way trip and sort the
results by time of departure.
This is the initial inquiry screen but with flexible
dates enabled. You also have the option of specifying preferred
airlines. Flexible dates are an option only to those who have registered
with Kayak. I recommend doing so (they don't spam you with junk email).
The results screen is below. Every column can be
"selected" and the results will be sorted by price, airline, departure time,
arrival time or duration. Note that Southwest Airlines is included.
Click on the "info" button and a window opens to the Southwest web site.
Below is the bottom half of the results screen.
It shows the slide bars that can quickly filter the departure and arrival
times. The default is to not show the "landing" slide bar but it is
displayed once the check-box is enabled. Duration and price filters are
also provided. You can also display layover airports. This can be
helpful in avoiding some notoriously delayed connection cities.
Southwest Airlines
has announced that their flights will be available for purchase on some of the
major air fare search sites in the near future. The date and sites are
not announced but their lowest (web-only) fares will still be available
only on their web site. Southwest's specialty
is on-time, high frequency and no dreaded Saturday night stay for their best
prices. Southwest does not charge a "change fee" to modify your
ticket, however you can not stand-by for an earlier flight if you are on a
discounted ticket unless you are willing to pay the fare difference. If Southwest serves your area (or is
close) sign-up for their Click 'n Save e-mail
specials. They offer a sale many times per year. The fare sales
are for
mid-week travel and do not include most fees and taxes. I consider $300 to
$350
round trip to be an excellent price for a flight of one stop or less. In some cases,
Southwest's prices were the lowest yet credit was awarded to other sites as
well because some travelers prefer advanced seat assignments and will pay more.
Business travelers (short notice, non-Saturday night) can pay a
LOT more than leisure travelers. However, high-fare & short notice prices are being reduced due to competition from
the low cost airlines that are now flying across the country non-stop. If you care about the money you're paying, check
the low fare airlines' (AirTran, Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit, etc.) web sites directly. They may also have weekly e-mail specials to
which you should subscribe or get via
SmarterTravel's consolidated newsletter or Kayak's Buzz.
Bought your ticket and the priced dropped? Buyer's
remorse is caused when you buy and the price drops.
Yapta is a service that alerts you when
this happens so you can apply for a refund or credit. Yapta does not
work for all airlines or web sites but it's a great tool.
Is a near-by city better for your trip?
If you consider the total travel time, total cost, opportunity for missed
connections and comfort, you should consider flying from or to a near-by city rather
than your original departure and destination cities. As an example, I've found that when
visiting relatives who live near Tucson, I prefer to fly to Phoenix and
drive to their home near Tucson (under two hours). This is because there
are no non-stop flights between Detroit and Tucson. Making a connecting
flight to Tucson adds the possibility of a missed connection as well as a high
probability of flying in a regional jet (which I will not do for more than 90
minutes) versus a non-stop, full size plane to Phoenix. Public
transportation may be available between the near-by city and your actual
destination (or close to it). Using the Tucson example, The Arizona
Shuttle has frequent van service between the Phoenix Airport and the Tucson
community. There may be a practical near-by city for your destination.
Some airlines (Southwest and AirTran) list their "alternate cities" on their
web sites. The elements to consider are total time in transit, total
cost, the risk of missed connections and the hassle & comfort factors.
Editorial: Travel is the largest selling product on the
Internet. People buy from a supplier because they trust them. Only
after you feel that you've thoroughly researched your options do you make a
buying decision. The purpose of this comparison is to see how easily and
quickly you can reach that degree of confidence. I believe that the
input options and output filtering flexibility of Kayak provides the highest
level of confidence in the shortest time.
Suggestions to the web sites: Every site should allow you to
limit the search to a maximum total
travel time. Sites
should allow you to exclude: specific airlines, connecting cities,
overnight flights, connections on non-partner airlines,
using different airlines for each part of a trip but not within a leg, set
maximum and minimum connection times and to limit the dollar amount
you wish to spend. Most of these abilities are available at Kayak,
ITASoftware and SideStep.
What can the sites do better? SideStep
needs alternate
dates for departure & arrival and should allow you
to select individual flights. The problem with Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity is that if you
don't ask your question the right way, you will not find the best answer, their air travel sites are very frustrating and waste a lot of your time. The only
serious limitation of ITASoftware is that it does not see "web-only" fares
(but ITA doesn't sell tickets anyway).
All sites should warn you if your travels will involve a flight longer than
90 minutes in a typical regional jet.
My notes while doing inquiries:
Shopping time is much faster on Kayak,
SideStep & ITASoftware.
SideStep needs a "duration" filter or sorting ability.
Sidestep needs the ability to handle alternate dates of travel.
Travelocity limits you to a maximum of 3 near-by cities & has a poor user interface.
Expedia has problems showing flights at the specific times
requested.
Expedia does a poor job of comparing near-by airports.
Southwest does not have "red-eye" flights to it was not possible to complete
some trips.
Southwest flights sometimes required two stops and were not considered.
Orbitz near-by cities options are very difficult to navigate because you can not
select individual cities.
Orbitz time selection options and near-by cities are too limiting.
Methodology
The primary criteria were whether I would take
a specific flight and how difficult it is to find that flight on each web
site. Credit was awarded for the lowest fare (or reasonably close).
If multiple web sites provided the same or similar low fare (or reasonable
alternative), credit was given. A 'reasonable alternative' is a
logical and short connection and/or a good price. No credit was awarded
for switching among non-partner airlines within a leg of the trip. No consideration was given toward
frequent flyer programs, hub city connections (Minneapolis in winter?), seating
comfort (JetBlue, Midwest, United, etc.) or lack of seat assignments (i.e.
Southwest), frequency of flights, etc. Southwest may not serve the city but may be
close.
There is a link at the bottom of this
page which shows the details & prices from each inquiry.
Note that this study looked only at airfare prices. Some of the web
sites offer other useful travel tools: Kayak's Buzz, Orbitz Deal Detector, extra frequent flyer
miles, package
deals, cars, hotels, cruises, etc.
Trip types (2 types of airfare searches):
business = mid-week travel, less than 21 days notice, depart weekday AM
return weekday PM, at least one night stay, no more than one stop and no more
than a 2 hour connection.
leisure = Saturday to Saturday, 21 days to three months in advance, depart
and return any time Saturday, one stop max.
Cities:
Omaha, NE to Seattle, WA
Boston, MA area to Los Angeles, CA area
Oklahoma City, OK to Columbus, OH
Tucson, AZ to Detroit, MI
Indianapolis, IN to Dallas, TX area
Ft. Myers, FL to New York City, NY area
Phoenix, AZ to Orlando, FL
Chicago, IL area to Denver, CO
New Orleans, LA to Boise, ID
Pittsburgh, PA to Houston, TX
Specific flight details and results are here.
