Kayak Review

www.kayak.com

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Writer

Rainmaker
Marietta, GA

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Inconsistent Results

a researcher, Internet User, Avid Traveler

Pros

You can type things just once

Cons

If you do you may not get the best fare

OCT

2007

I found out about this metasearch engine by reading a Viewpoints review when I was planning domestic travel over the summer. I was pretty excited. It saved me $40, or almost 20% of my fare, so I was eager to get the same result on my upcoming trip to Japan. The trip was a push, so I was feeling in need of a bargain. No such luck! The whole point in a metasearch engine is that you type in your parameters just once and let the computer do the walking. The meta site is supposed to check the other sites like Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia and deliver a best price at one of those sites with minimal difficulty. I was pleased with the result once, but I always have a compulsion to double check my results, especially on a fare that costs more than a grand. This time Kayak let me down. It was not less than the other sites and this time the difference was bigger. Kayak didn't even match the price on other sites this time and it showed a preference for CheapTickets.com. Even though the price on CheepTickets was higher than it was if you searched the other sites individually, it showed up on the Kayak screen listed as the best price. I didn't buy my tickets through the Kayak site this time.

I always wonder what happens when I get a result like this. Was it an affinity relationship? Was the search engine malfunctioning on that particular day? Are international flights somehow treated differently? I did check back again just prior to writing to see what it would say. There as no longer a preference for CheapTickets.com showing up on my screen, but I'm not being offered the lowest price either.

So the moral to the story is that, when it matters, you should check all the sites. Unfortunatley, this is completely counter to the purpose in a metasearch, but since I am currently running 50/50 with Kayak, like it or not, I'm just using it as an alternative resource to check rather than the metasearch engine that it is supposed to be.

Last edited on Mar 10, 2008

Kayak is recommended by Rainmaker

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Comments about Rainmaker’s Review

mrkstvns wrote on Nov 29, 2007 at 9:01AM

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I'm glad I'm not the only person who gets exasperated by travel sites that provide poor features and service for customers trying to research and buy international tickets. Why CAN'T international flights be treated exactly like domestic???

jazzybean01 wrote on Oct 10, 2007 at 4:38PM

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I hate when you double check something like that and it gives you very differnet results. What a pain.

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Kayak Review

www.kayak.com

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