Nov 20, 2007
Because the airfare aggregators achieve such excellent airfare results, I'm testing your patience by referring to them one more time
I've mentioned this odd noun on several occasions -- aggregator -- but the function they perform is so very important that it deserves repetition. Too many travelers continue simply to visit the various airline websites--or the booking engines such as Orbitz, Travelocity, or Expedia -- and accept the prices they find. Instead, I say start your search with an airfare aggregator such as Momondo (www.momondo.com), Mobissimo (www.mobissimo.com), or Kayak (www.kayak.com), which perform highly complex searches on your behalf.
These meta-search engines canvass individual airline sites, booking engines both large and small, specialist travel agents, and airfare consolidators. Each then presents the results to you in lists that are highly customizable, allowing you to, say, choose to see only those flights that don't require a transfer, or leave only from certain airports in your area. You can also usually limit the results to certain airlines, or ask for a search that covers fares leaving or returning within a several-day window (often, if you leave a day earlier or later you can save big). It's like having a virtual assistant go and perform 250 individual web searches on your behalf -- a powerful tool indeed in the hunt for the cheapest airfare.
What's more, they also tend to be far more inclusive than the major booking engines, searching even the low-cost and no-frills airlines (the Southwests and Ryanairs of the world) that most booking sites ignore. Between this and the fact that the aggregators often find the same flight being offered for drastically different prices from different sources, I have found that you can often save up to 40% on your airfare.
These sites won't book the ticket for you; they merely ferret out all the going rates. It is then up to you to click over to the result with which you are happiest and commence the booking process.
Write and read comments about this post.
These meta-search engines canvass individual airline sites, booking engines both large and small, specialist travel agents, and airfare consolidators. Each then presents the results to you in lists that are highly customizable, allowing you to, say, choose to see only those flights that don't require a transfer, or leave only from certain airports in your area. You can also usually limit the results to certain airlines, or ask for a search that covers fares leaving or returning within a several-day window (often, if you leave a day earlier or later you can save big). It's like having a virtual assistant go and perform 250 individual web searches on your behalf -- a powerful tool indeed in the hunt for the cheapest airfare.
What's more, they also tend to be far more inclusive than the major booking engines, searching even the low-cost and no-frills airlines (the Southwests and Ryanairs of the world) that most booking sites ignore. Between this and the fact that the aggregators often find the same flight being offered for drastically different prices from different sources, I have found that you can often save up to 40% on your airfare.
These sites won't book the ticket for you; they merely ferret out all the going rates. It is then up to you to click over to the result with which you are happiest and commence the booking process.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: websites
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
