American Airlines vs Kayak
American Airlines is accusing airfare search engine Kayak of leading consumers to their affiliate Orbitz to buy plane tickets instead of directing them to the AA site. As a result of the argument and failure to come to agreeable terms, Kayak will no longer be allowed to display airfares from American Airlines as of August 1st.
I find this really annoying for a number of reasons. For one thing, Kayak almost always provides links to the airline websites alongside those to other booking engines. Also, like most people, I use Kayak fairly exclusively and this is going to ruin my ability to one stop shop. Finally, AA is still allowing their fares to be displayed on other airfare search engine sites like Mobissimo and Farecast that literally do the same thing as Kayak, only not as well.
You failed to mention Dohop.com, which can often show better results for longer flights
Comment by Andri — July 30, 2008 @ 9:31 am
I’ve never used Dohop before, but I’ll be sure to check it out. So far, I haven’t found another site as reliable and easy to use as Kayak, but I’m always looking.
Comment by alena — July 30, 2008 @ 10:25 am
I don’t get the popularity of Kayak actually. I think they must offer far better deals for American flyers. But they’re definitely not the best for world travellers.
I’m based in Dubai and I travel mostly (for work – I’m a travel writer) in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. When I search Kayak for a flight between these continents they either don’t bring up the flights that exist that I know are on offer, or they bring them up and the fares are just not competitive at all.
I’m constantly booking flights online and constantly comparing deals and I consistently find buying online direct from the airline is the best way to go – I ALWAYS get the lowest prices and most flexible fare arrangements. Priceline is consistenly overpriced. Travelocity can be too. Expedia is a hassle if you need to change or cancel – I can’t tell you how many times they’ve sold me seats or hotel rooms that don’t exist and then it’s a nightmare to get your money back – I refuse to use them now. Perhaps if Kayak extends their reach, they’ll be useful to non-US travellers.
Comment by lara dunston — August 8, 2008 @ 5:24 am
That’s really interesting. I search for airfares all the time too and even though you are right that Kayak does sometimes miss flights, I still haven’t found a site that’s better. I’m always looking though!
Comment by alena — August 8, 2008 @ 9:47 am