Searching for a Fair Fare
Do a Google search for the word "travel," and you'll pull up links to an astonishing 1 billion websites, more than four times the links returned for a search for "sex."
Luckily for time- and choice-stressed travelers, tests of the major travel websites show that anyone who spends 10 or 15 minutes visiting as few as three or four sites--including steadily improving aggregator sites--can come pretty close to the nirvana of the best trip for the best price.
A good place to start is any one of the Google-like search engines that scour many airline websites and discount brokers.
In our searches for the best flights from Baltimore to Miami, www.kayak.com and www.sidestep.com emerged as the best choices for domestic flights. Sidestep, which checks Orbitz as well as many airline and broker sites, found the most alternatives, including low-cost connections from nearby airports.
But in the end, we preferred Kayak. It doesn't check Orbitz or the other big agencies, but it checks with discount brokers and gets many airlines' Web-only fares. Its results page allows travelers to find exactly the flight they want. And, best of all, the prices on Kayak were typically $5 or $6 cheaper than the prices for the same flights on Sidestep, because it doesn't pass booking fees on to you. The third major travel search engine, www.mobissimo.com , has a head start in searching out flights on low-cost European airlines. One caveat: Most search sites are still wrestling with bugs that sometimes tease a low price that doesn't exist.
If you want more services, such as human help, ratings from other travelers, and discounts for vacation packages, the Web travel agencies are worth a look. Tests by Consumers Union found no clear winner among the big three. CU likes the service and privacy guarantees at Travelocity best but found Expedia returned the most low first-class fares, and Orbitz found the most low-price international fares.
Before buying, fliers should also check out one or two other sites. For domestic travelers, a quick look at www.southwest.com can be worthwhile: Southwest is the lone holdout, refusing to allow any of the search engines or agencies to harvest information from its site.
And the websites of your chosen airline or hotel also are worth a price check. Booking directly may offer other benefits, such as frequent-flier miles. Is there a better way to start a vacation than with a bargain and a bonus?
HOT SITE: http://earth.google.com
Want to know how close that hotel really is to the beach? Google's popular feature lets you pick a location and look at it with satellite images.
This story appears in the December 5, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.