Best Travel Sites for Cheap Flights
There are a plethora of ways to search for flights online, from online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia, Priceline, and Orbitz, to a host of newer OTAs and flight search engines, to searching on your preferred carrier’s website.
Despite the numerous options, there are a few OTAs and search engine sites I recommend most often because they have the best tools and typically reveal the best fares. I’m going to break down the most popular flight search sites and OTAs and give you my take on each - plus some tips on when to use each depending on your flight search needs.
Google Flights
Google Flights is my preferred method of searching for cheap flights and is one of the most comprehensive and user-friendly flight search engines around. It offers plenty of features to fine tune your selections, allowing you to choose number of stops, airlines, baggage allowances, fare, etc. I usually recommend people to start their search on Google Flights - especially if they’re flexible on dates and locations.
Why I love Google Flights
Google Flights is so comprehensive and has multiple features to make finding cheap flights as easy as possible. My favorite features are:
Map - allows you to explore prices from your home airport to destinations across the entire world
Low-price calendar - helps you find the cheapest flight if you have flexibility with your dates (my preferred method)
Multi-city search function - you can check for the best prices between 7 origin airports and 7 destination airports at one time.
Shortcomings
While Google Flights is my preferred site for finding cheap flights, it sometimes misses the cheapest fares, as it pulls its data from the airlines - though it does miss Southwest, Aeromexico, and Hong Kong Airlines.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner may be the second most popular search engine for cheap flights. It’s a UK-based flight search engine that is ideal for travelers with flexibility in their travel plans - as you don’t need to search for flights from or to specific destinations. Instead, you can choose an origin as broad as an entire country (great to use in Europe) and a destination as broad as “everywhere.” Skyscanner then redirects users to book through the airlines or an OTA.
Pros of Skyscanner
Skyscanner’s “Everywhere” tool makes it easy to find the best deals over specific travel dates - which is ideal if you’re trying to travel more often and get “more bang for your buck.” Similar to Google Flights, there’s also a flexible date calendar if you’ve already picked your destination, plus a multi-city search function to find the best deals for a given area. They also have a great mobile app.
Cons of Skyscanner
Like many flight search engines, Skyscanner sometimes misses the lowest price because it doesn’t search every OTA. Prices sometimes ghost, too, which means that even though a low price is displayed on Skyscanner’s results page, when you go to book, that price is no longer available (this also happens sometimes on Google Flights). Additionally, the monthly calendar does not live-update, rather it’s based on users’ searches. So while it displays accurate pricing for dates on popular routes, it may not show updated information for less-searched routes.
Momondo
I love Momondo though it isn’t as easy to navigate as Google Flights. It pulls data from numerous OTAs, including lesser-known ones that sometimes offers the best deals, which means it often unearths the best prices (though not always). As with other flight search engines, you don’t book directly through the site but are redirected to an OTA or airline.
Pros of Momondo
Since Momondo searches many smaller OTAs as well as the larger ones, you’re usually able to find better deals than the ones that show up on Google Flights or major OTAs like Expedia or Priceline.
Cons of Momondo
While Google Flights and Skyscanner return results almost immediately, Momondo is much slower, usually taking more than 30 seconds to appear. This is because the site is searching hundreds of OTAs at once. Momondo also lacks extra search features, so while it’s great for finding the lowest prices between specific cities on specific dates, there’s no way to search multiple dates or multiple locations. For this reason, I recommend starting on Google Flights or Skyscanner and then double-checking prices on Momondo.
Kayak
Kayak is not only a flight search engine, but also a hotel, cruise, and car rental search engine. So if you’re looking to book several parts of your trip on one site, this is a great resource. You can also search for airfare and hotel packages for bundled deals. All bookings are done via third-party sites - either through the airlines or an OTA. Though I’ve never used Kayak, I’ve heard great things about it.
Pros of Kayak
Kayak searches a large number of OTAs, so you’re likely to find deals from smaller agencies. Plus, you can easily book hotels and car rentals via the same site, making trip planning quite easy. It also has a flexible date function and “explore” options that help you pick destinations based on price, trip duration, or even theme! You can also set fare alerts on Kayak.
Cons of Kayak
Like Momondo, Kayak is slower, which can be frustrating. It also doesn’t have the most intuitive experience for users, and there are advertisements which can muddy the interface. While Kayak searches many OTAs, it does skip a few, so you might ultimately be able to find cheaper flights via Momondo.
Priceline
Priceline is a true OTA, meaning that all of the deals will be booked directly through their site. You can search flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and vacation packages.
Pros of Priceline
Priceline’s interface very clearly states prices and cancellation information and it offers a Best Price Guarantee - so if you find a better deal elsewhere, even after booking, Priceline will refund you the difference. Its Express Deals can save you quite a bit on flights if you’re willing to be adventurous… meaning you book without knowing all of the details (like exact flight time and airline). Priceline also has one of the better cancellation policies, allowing you to cancel or change your flight for free until 11:59 ET the next business day on many flights.
Cons of Priceline
There are some limitations to Priceline’s search features - you can’t search multiple cities and flexible dates are restricted to a three-day window (one day before and one day after your search dates). you also can’t book direct with airlines, thus limiting the amount of help you can get if something goes awry.
Skiplagged
Skiplagged is a search engine for hidden city fares, which is when travelers book connecting flights that go one point beyond their final destination and skip the last flight to stay in the layover city. These fares can be cheaper than booking direct flights between origin and destination (ex: flights Memphis to Miami, with a layover in Atlanta, may be cheaper than Memphis to Atlanta.)
Pros of Skiplagged
Skiplagged is a great tool for travelers whose destination is a hub airport that is a common layover point. No other search engine or OTA searches for hidden city fares, which can sometimes be much cheaper, especially at the last minute.
Cons of Skiplagged
While technically legal, there are many caveats to booking hidden ticket fares. For instance, you won’t be able to check a bag, since the bag will end up in the final city on the itinerary, not the layover city. Also, once you skip a leg, the rest of the flights on your itinerary will be cancelled, so you need to book two one-ways, or only skip the final leg of your journey.
Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity
Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity are all OTAs that belong to the same parent company (Expedia Group). They’re all very similar sites that offer deals for airfare, hotels, car rentals, and vacation packages that are all bookable directly on the sites. Because they’re all part of the same group, they have similar features and typically return the same results.
Pros of Expedia Group
All three are great one-stop shops for vacations as it’s easy to bundle flights, hotels, and car rentals into one booking. Orbitz and Expedia also have reward programs, so loyal users can earn points and save.
Cons of Expedia Group
All three OTAs are not as robust as the sites listed above. There is limited ability to search multiple cities and dates, so you are not likely to see all your options at the best prices. But if convenience is key, this might be a good option for you. Their customer service can also be lacking.
Overall, all sites have pros and cons. So I recommend finding which works best for you, and also finding a secondary option to cross-check in order to find the cheapest fares for you. Being flexible is also key to finding cheap flights, so keep that in mind :)
Which is your favorite site to use?