The Ultimate Guide to Travel Web Sites

With dozens of new travel sites appearing every year, it's hard to keep track of which ones really deliver. William J. McGee, a former editor at Consumer Reports, has put hundreds of them to the test to reveal the best online sources that will help you save money, travel smarter, and enjoy your journeys more

SEARCHING FOR AN AIRLINE TICKET
WINNER: Kayak.com

WHEN TO USE IT: You know where you'd like to fly and want to spend as little as possible to get there.

WHY WE LIKE IT: While it doesn't allow you to book your ticket, Kayak makes quick work of leading you to the Web sites that offer the lowest prices. It casts a wide net and delivers the best combination of itineraries, prices, and ease of use. It also has terrific tools, including filters that allow you to sort results by airline and airline alliances; takeoff and landing times in both directions; number of stops; flight and layover durations; sites searched; and price. On certain routes, a chart with 90-day historical fare data is provided, as well as the cheapest departure dates.

CAVEAT: Kayak doesn't provide all the fare options offered by the airlines, so it always pays to search carriers' own sites before booking through a third-party site.

TIP: If you're not sure where you'd like to go, the Buzz feature has trip suggestions based on best fares found in recent searches, sorted by categories as varied as "Top Family Resorts" and "Best Nude Beaches."

RUNNER-UP: ITASoftware.com
In our comparison of ten domestic and international itineraries, we found ITA Software provided the lowest fares for seven out of ten routes, with Kayak ranking second overall. So why not name ITA the winner? Most of ITA's low fares come from cobbling together itineraries on multiple carriers or with quirky connections that only a travel agent can book.

KNOWING WHEN TO BOOK FOR:
WINNER: FareCast.com

WHEN TO USE IT: After you've scoured the Web to turn up the absolute rock-bottom fare. Prices change constantly and the cost of that ticket could drop—a lot—tomorrow, or even in an hour. So the key question is when to buy. The Big Three sites (Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz) and Kayak all offer features designed to address this issue, but the most innovative responses have come from new entrants, including FareCast.

WHY WE LIKE IT: It uses historical pricing trends to determine whether a fare is likely to drop soon. The site searches 90 days in advance for the lowest fare on a given route, then advises to "wait" or "buy." How accurate is FareCast? After a three-month audit, Navigant Consulting found the predictions were correct 75 percent of the time, and users saved an average of $55 per pair of tickets.

CAVEAT: It currently covers only domestic flights to 24 cities.

TIP: Consider purchasing the Fare Guard service for $10 per itinerary. If you delay buying a ticket because FareCast predicts the price will drop within the week, Fare Guard protects you from paying more than the current price—of course you may pay less if the fare drops.