Rating Summary
“perfect for flexible and not so flexible travelers alike”
- avid reader, love to travel, researcher by nature, a bargain lover, twenty something
Kayak.com —
I started using Kayak.com when I was in college and looking for cheap flights home during holidays, and the site has only become more and more useful since then! Some of its best functionalities:
1) Easy-to-use filters: They have the "weekend only" option on the front page, but once you do your search, you can tailor the results down to what you really want: specific takeoff/landing times, no red-eye, certain airlines, no turboprops, layover times, etc. etc.
2) Email alerts: Since I fly frequently to certain airports, I set up alerts to tell me when prices drop below a certain price ceiling.
3) No booking fees: For the majority of the flights I find, Kayak takes me straight to the airline's website, so there's no additional charges.
4) Fare chart: There's a small link to the left of your search results that actually brings up the history of prices for the particular search, as well as what the fares look like on the other dates. Which brings us to...
5) The glory of flexible date searching: You have to create an account to do this, but it's well worth it. You can search for flights up to 3 days before and/or after certain dates, which is great for people who don't have a determined schedule.
Of course, some other travel websites have already implemented some of these functions, but to me Kayak still remains the most accurate and easy-to-use site.
(P.S. For students, I would also recommend studentuniverse.com, even though it only offered a lower price than Kayak once out of the 30+ times I've put the two head-to-head)
Kayak.com
