[Swissdiver]

[postquote quote=981637][/postquote]

Fully agree. The idea to book via Kayak never occurred to me. Still I am under the impression I have to customise the search each time to avoid some flights possibilities to be put forward to me fo no real reason. Hence my post.

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=981637][/postquote]

Exactly my model. Look up on Kayak, book direct.

When things go wrong these online agents are about as useful as a pair of shorts at the North Pole.

[TominScotland]

SimonS1, South Pole but same difference…..

[capetonianm]

Swissdiver : The order in which flights are displayed is determined partly by the filters that you select but there are other criteria which Kayak can use for their own reasons (= $ £ € etc!) to bias the displays. What worries me is that people will often book the cheapest flight displayed and then only later do they realist that it involves an 18 hours stopover overnight somewhere, or 3 changes.

Some of the information is cached, so you might see a fare for £920, you go to book and it says : “Your fare has changed and is now £1320” but some people don’t read that and blunder on.

Online booking is full of traps for the unwary, and that is why there are professional travel agents who will often give you as good or better prices, and most importantly, backup if something goes wrong.

[IanFromHKG]

capetonianm, your first point is why I like Hipmunk. You can instantly see the operating airlines, stopovers, duration AND time of departure and arrival. They even sort results by “Agony” level so that the more punishing itineraries are pushed further down (although you can choose results to be presented in other orders instead). An example below:

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=981712][/postquote]

Ha I like that. I suppose there will always be someone who strikes it lucky, but man/lady on right looks less convinced…..

[FaroFlyer]

I still like ITA Matrix as it gives you the option of multiple airports, within the same country of departure. You can also have a much greater flexibility of dates to search. Hipmunk does not seem to, nor does Kayak. I just did an identical search on Hipmunk and Kayak and there was little in common with the results, which I found interesting

In the past I have used Skyscanner as a booking agent, for 1 way domestic China flights, but they seem to only offer payment by Visa and I want Amex for the travel insurance offered.

[juniors717]

Sometimes they simply cancel they flights and you don’t know about that till the latest moment. Annoying as hell.

[capetonianm]

Kayak does allow you to select multiple airports.
You can either select : ‘include nearby airports’ or you can add up to 3 of your choice in the ‘from’ and ‘to’ boxes.
Kayak also allows you select a range of dates with options from ‘exact date’ up to ‘+/- 3 days’.

Hipmunk is one I hadn’t looked at for a while, I’ve just looked at it. I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t seem to give you a choice over which OLTA it takes you to for the booking, and I randomly selected three flights to book and in each case it told me they had ‘sold out’ when I went to the next step.

As for the ‘agony’ factor, that’s a bit pointless. For me a long stopover in any of several European cities would be a plus, whereas even a ‘convenient’ and short connection via DXB would be quite honestly my idea of hell.

In its favour, it does show a lot of useful information, although that leads to a somewhat cluttered screen. I suppose it’s a matter of what you get used to and I don’t often use these sites as I have access to an airline GDS, which I appreciate is a benefit that not everyone (other than airline/TA people) can enjoy.

[IanFromHKG]

Dear capetonianm, as I pointed out in my original post (not the later one that you are replying to) I have never used Hipmunk as a booking engine. Never. To me it is a useful tool to options and airlines I might not otherwise have thought of, or to exclude quickly airlines that clearly don’t work from a timetabling perspective. So while I acknowledge your criticisms, I would add that (as I mentioned in my later post) you can choose other filters than “agony factor”. I mentioned that in direct response to comments about the way in which other sites don’t clearly disclose layover information, because I think it is one area where Hipmunk distinguishes itself from the competition.

It is true that the Hipmunk screen contains a lot of information, but to me that is a bonus – and I do particularly like the chronographical presentation. For example, it is an ongoing bugbear for me that I search on airline sites for flights on a particular date but – given that I live in Asia but much of my LH flights are to Europe – the best flights can be before OR after midnight so I don’t always know which is the best date to enter. Hipmunk helps me to determine which flights to search for.

If it is not to your taste, so be it. Just because I am a fan, that doesn’t mean you have to be 🙂

[Chris in Makati]

Another option is KVS Availability Tool

http://www.kvstool.com/

It’s a paid service, but along with comprehensive timetable information, you also get access to a lot of data on frequent flier award/upgrade availability and other air travel related information.

[Swissdiver]

[postquote quote=982464][/postquote]

“While the KVS Tool is a native Windows application, it has been specifically designed to be emulator/VM-friendly.”

But…

“Note: Compatibility restrictions apply”

Probably not a reasonable option for Mac users…

[juniors717]

Swissdiver, I fly not so often between continents, but when I do I prefer the best service and the lowest price, as we all do, right? That’s why recently I’ve ordered a flight by using this AirBusinessClass Travel to Asia service, which has pretty nice searching tickets algorithm and prices offers as well. They do know how to bring attention from potential clients.

[Swissdiver]

[postquote quote=981854][/postquote]

The app announces today that Hipmunk says goodbye from today…

[IanFromHKG]

Nooooooooo!!!

What a shame….

[Author]

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