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Eager to secure the cheapest airfare for your next trip?
As I travel just about all the time, I’m always looking for the cheapest flights and discounts. My favorite site to use is
www.kayak.comKayak.com finds some of the best and cheapest flights of any of the online airline ticket search services I’ve used. Searching for tickets to fly one way from Mobile, Alabama, to Seattle, it was $470. But Kayak.com helped me find a ticket from Gulfport, Mississippi, an hour drive away, for $125. I’d call that ticket prices worth investigating.
You probably know the usual sites like Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. But have you
heard of Kayak? With Kayak you book via the individual airline sites so you really get the best
fares and you don't have to pay a service charge.
Among the travel search engines, Kayak.com showed the largest increase in market share, with visits up 6,019 percent in the past six months. Other travel engines are gaining significant ground as well: Yahoo! Farechase up 659 percent; Mobissimo up 350 percent; and Cheapflights up 56 percent. How it works ... Access www.kayak.com Kayak doesn't have as many features at SideStep, but it's easy to use. One interesting feature is a tool that lets you see the lowest airfares from any airport -- helpful if you're looking for a budget-minded vacation destination. Like SideStep, Kayak also searches some international travel sites, so you can find flights within Europe or Asia. Kayak.com, for instance, also searches for hotel rates (and car rental deals). But instead of showing the cheapest lodgings first — as it does with airfares — the company solicits "bids" (read that money) from hotels seeking prime listings. Thus, a $169 Hyatt Regency rate may appear 11 spots ahead of a $49 Hearthside Suites rate, as I found during a search for Dallas lodgings. Some other search engines have adopted similar policies, perhaps a financial boon but hardly consumer-friendly. A number of leading media outlets, including the New York Post, BusinessWeek Online and U.S. News & World Report, have recognized Kayak.com as one of the Best Travel Web Sites of 2005. On December 27, 2005, the New York Post ran its annual Web Guide of the top travel Web sites and selected Kayak.com as the “Best New Web Site” with the following review: “First there were Expedia and Travelocity. Then there was Orbitz. Now, a team that had its fingers in all three is giving the world of discount travel a sound thrashing with the development of this 11-month old meta-search engine ... It doesn’t book your travel—it just leads to the sites where you can. It’s also possible to look for air, hotel and car rental deals. Each search utilizes more than 100 sites ... Viva la revolucion!” Editors of U.S. News World Report recognized Kayak.com in the December 5 “Best of the Web ” issue noting that the site outperformed other travel search engines in a series of tests, “In the end, we preferred Kayak. 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 ... because it doesn’t pass booking fees on to you.” Editors of BusinessWeek Online also named Kayak.com as one of the three top travel Web sites in their September 25 “Best of the Web” survey. Kayak.com was also recently recognized by Flavorpill, a publisher of email magazines about culture and lifestyle in major urban areas, which awarded Kayak.com a spot on its coveted list of “Up-and-Comers.” Flavorpill applauded Kayak Buzz for its unique and industry leading destination map features by stating, “There are loads of services that track down cheap airfares, but this is the only one we’ve seen so far that mashes it up with Google maps. Drop in your departure city, the region you’re traveling to, and even a theme (skiing, golf, or gambling of course) then map it all out.” Kayak.com also topped the charts on two other distinguished awards in 2005, including Laptop Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award (August) and MasterCard’s Usability Excellence Awards (August). Kayak.com is the first travel search engine to integrate user-created reviews, ratings and other relevant travel information with real-time prices and availability. Kayak.com enables users to refine their search criteria, see immediate results and filter through hundreds of fares/rates and flight/hotel options. Consumers can also use Kayak-branded interactive sliders to filter prices or flight schedules. "Online travel has quickly become a $55 billion industry, but the fact remains that most consumers are frustrated by having to look at dozens of sites to find the best deals or itineraries," says Steve Hafner, chief executive officer, Kayak.com. Kayak.com also announced a distribution partnership with USATODAY.com. Under terms of the agreement, Kayak.com will operate a co-branded travel price comparison tool accessible to visitors to the site. "We are thrilled to add new partners to Kayak.com's growing affiliate network. Not only will visitors to USATODAY.com Travel benefit from Kayak.com's advanced travel search engine, but Kayak.com's travel suppliers will receive greater exposure to more consumers -- it's a win-win situation for everyone," says Keith Melnick, vice president, business development, Kayak.com. So, ideally, if I put together a dream list on Kayak of a trip around the world and destinations I wish to visit, Kayak suggests available flights to each locale and hotel room prices for sleeping. Then, I can send that list to all of my friends, plan a group trip around it, or maybe someone else will see the list and embark on the vacation themselves. Community should work well for Kayak.com, as other sites like TripAdvisor and services such as Yahoo Travel are built around it. This is also a springboard for user registrations as well as user generated reviews on airlines, bungalows, and crusies. “Trip Ideas is the first phase of what we call ‘Kayak Alive’ which emphasizes user-generated content that can be shared with friends and other Kayak.com users,” said Dean Harris, CMO of Kayak.com. “Similar to popular hotel review sites, Trip Idea lists are third party endorsements of destinations, hotels, events and more. Consumers will use Trip Ideas to research vacation options, share favorite destinations, or discuss travel plans with friends and family.”
Kayak lists these steps for creating lists: * Go to the “Fare Buzz” tab on Kayak.com. * Users can create an original list or use an existing list found elsewhere on the Web. * To add a new Trip Idea, consumers complete a simple form with Trip Idea name, category and a list of three or more destinations. * Fields for additional content, URL and photos are optional. Consumers can easily browse Trip Ideas by the following topics: recently posted, most popular, category (beach, family, romantic, skiing, singles, etc) or enter a specific search term such as “Whale Watching” or “Caribbean.” All lists can be emailed to friends and family or saved in “Your Trip Ideas” for later viewing and use. Created by co-founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, Kayak.com is a comparison-shopping Web site that helps consumers make informed decisions in their travel planning. The site, which launched February 7, 2005, offers a comprehensive search engine that scours over 100 travel sites, providing prices and itineraries for hundreds of airlines, more than 103,000 hotels and all leading rental car companies. Kayak.com is the first to integrate consumer and professional reviews and other relevant travel information with real-time prices and availability. Kayak.com's investors include Sequoia Capital, America Online, Inc. and General Catalyst Partners. For more information, please visit http://www.kayak.com
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Be flexible with your dates.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are historically the cheapest days of the
week to fly. Also, flying during non-peak times of year, such as October through
April to London, or April through October to New Zealand, can save you
money.