I don’t know why, but for some reason travel sites like Expedia and Orbitz make it difficult to find flights. These travel search sites are bizarrely slow, they only check a few airlines, and they tack on a fee. It doesn’t seem like a good way to do business. It seems like this market is begging for a new leader. Well I think I’ve found it.
Kayak.com looks like it’s the best travel flight search out there. The others barely put up a fight.
What makes Kayak.com so great is that it searches the most airlines that I’ve seen any travel site search. Their goal is to “search every airline in the world”, and I think they’re awfully close. They have a list of all the airlines they search, and I count 359 airlines. When I search from Kayak, I’m confident that I’m finding as good a price as I’m going to find anywhere.
The only airline I noticed missing is Southwest Airlines. Kayak.com explains that Southwest does not allow any travel flight search engines to search for Southwest flights. So after you check Kayak, make sure to check Southwest too.
With one click, Kayak.com even gives you the option of opening a separate window that brings up the results from Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, or Priceline, just to be sure you’re getting the best price.
Once you search for your flight and have your list, you can narrow the options by takeoff time, landing time, layover duration, stops, flight duration, price, and airlines. And these aren’t basic narrowing options like at the other sites, which might let you choose morning, afternoon, or evening times (and for some odd reason always seem to ignore my choice and show me other times). Kayak.com has a slider, so you can narrow by 5 minute increments.
Like most of the other travel search sites, Kayak lets you search for hotels, cars, and cruises. In fact, while you’re searching for your flight, there’s a box you can check that will also open up a search for hotel information, so you don’t have to fill the information in again.
Next time you’re searching for a vacation flight, I strongly recommend Kayak.com. Just don’t forget to check Southwest.com on your own. Then you’ll have everything covered.
