Finding the best deals on flights can feel like navigating a maze. With countless websites promising the lowest prices, how do you know where to start? At compare.edu.vn, we specialize in comparing everything, and Airfare Compare Sites are no exception. This year, we’ve dived deep into the world of online flight booking to bring you an expert guide to the best airfare compare sites for 2024. Our comprehensive testing and analysis reveal some surprising frontrunners and essential insights to help you save money and time on your next flight.
Gone are the days when household names dominated the top spots. Our rigorous evaluation process, pitting 15 different sites against each other across 32 flight searches, has uncovered some fresh leaders in the airfare comparison arena. We’re excited to introduce you to our top three – names you might not immediately recognize, but sites that consistently delivered exceptional results. Furthermore, if you’re chasing last-minute flight deals, we’ve pinpointed a dedicated website outside our top trio that excels in this niche. Interestingly, some former favorites, like Booking.com and FlightNetwork, didn’t even make our top 10 this year, highlighting the dynamic nature of the airfare comparison landscape.
Each of the top 10 sites we’ve identified brings its own set of strengths and weaknesses to the table. Below, we break down our detailed reviews, offering a clear picture of what each site offers to help you make informed decisions. Notably, two platforms that previously ranked lower have significantly improved their services, surging into the top ranks. In fact, one previously underperforming site has remarkably climbed all the way to the number one position.
We’ve meticulously narrowed down a broad spectrum of options to present you with the 10 best airfare sites of 2024. Let’s explore them.
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Our Testing Methodology: Finding the Best Airfare Deals
To provide you with the most reliable recommendations, we conducted extensive testing across 15 airfare search sites. Our methodology involved 32 diverse flight itineraries, encompassing both last-minute flights (departing within a week) and advance purchase fares (booked three months ahead). We included major travel hubs like New York City (NYC), Los Angeles (LAX), and international destinations such as Hong Kong, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, and Barcelona. Our routes spanned from popular domestic routes like NYC to LAX and Philadelphia to Tampa, to complex international journeys like LAX to Hong Kong and Chicago to Rome. We even introduced a curveball with a Dallas to Dubai route and a European flight (London to Barcelona) to assess each site’s ability to handle low-cost carriers within Europe.
Crucially, we prioritized realistic and practical flight options. We disregarded exceptionally cheap fares that involved unreasonable travel times due to lengthy layovers, excessive stops, or circuitous routes. Our benchmark was to reject any itinerary that increased total travel time by more than 50%. While airlines might consider these as options, we focused on providing recommendations for itineraries that are actually desirable for travelers.
Our scoring system was rigorous and weighted to accurately reflect performance. Sites received three points for finding the lowest fare, two points for the second-lowest, and so on. Conversely, sites were penalized with negative points if their prices were higher than the average price across all tested sites. Fares within a 1% range of each other were considered equal, ensuring fairness in our evaluation.
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Key Considerations When Using Airfare Compare Sites
Before we dive into the rankings, it’s important to understand a few fundamental aspects of airfare compare sites.
- Aggregator Quality Depends on OTA Network: It’s crucial to distinguish between Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and aggregators. OTAs like Hotwire, Kiwi, and CheapOAir directly sell flight tickets. Aggregators, on the other hand, don’t sell tickets themselves. Instead, they search across numerous booking engines, airfare sites, and OTAs, compiling results in one place. When you find a flight on an aggregator, you’re typically redirected to a third-party site to complete the actual purchase.
The effectiveness of an aggregator hinges on the quality and reliability of the OTAs it searches. Reputable aggregators strive to filter out less trustworthy ticket sellers, but occasionally, problematic agencies might slip through. Therefore, when you are directed to an unfamiliar OTA, it’s always wise to perform a quick check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and search for online reviews and complaints to identify any potential red flags before booking.
Furthermore, some OTAs may employ tactics like advertising enticingly low “lead prices” that slightly increase once you click through to book. Others might misleadingly label “direct” flights – flights that do involve stops but don’t require changing planes – as “nonstop.” Given that airfares can fluctuate rapidly, even the most reputable aggregator might direct you to a site where the initially displayed fare is no longer available. If we encountered frequent discrepancies during our testing, we’ve noted it in our reviews.
- Southwest Airlines Requires Direct Search: A significant exception to aggregator searches is Southwest Airlines. Southwest restricts its flight listings from being aggregated or sold through most third-party OTAs. The only exception to this, which we highlight later, is a specific site that has partnered with Southwest. Therefore, to include Southwest flights in your airfare comparisons, you must search directly on the Southwest.com website.
Google.com
#10: Google.com/flights – The Search Giant’s Flight Search Struggles
Aggregator
Google Flights, despite Google’s dominance in online search, ranks at the bottom of our list for airfare comparison.
Google Flights does offer some appealing features. It’s remarkably fast, updating results dynamically as you type in destinations or adjust filters. Its calendar display helpfully shows average prices for different dates, making it easy to identify the cheapest days to fly. Notably, in Spring 2024, Google became the first aggregator to include Southwest Airlines fares in its search results, a significant addition.
However, Google’s inconsistent price performance is a major drawback. It only found the absolute lowest fare in one instance (Miami to Rio), and even then, four of our top five sites matched it. Google significantly underperformed in finding the cheapest fares for major routes like NYC to Paris and LA to Hong Kong. Even for pricier direct flights on these routes, its results were only average.
Frequently, Google presented the same flights as other sites but at slightly higher prices – often by 5% to 15%, but sometimes by surprisingly larger margins. For example, for a last-minute Dallas-Dubai flight on Emirates, Google quoted a price $673 higher than our top-ranked site and around $250 more than several other competitors.
In conclusion, while Google Flights is useful for quickly identifying available flights and dates, it’s less reliable for securing the absolute best prices.
Pros: Incredibly fast search; helpful price calendar and graph; detailed filters; allows inclusion/exclusion of specific airlines or connecting airports; lists in-flight amenities (legroom, power outlets, entertainment, Wi-Fi).
Cons: Average price performance – rarely the cheapest, sometimes the most expensive.
Hotwire.com
#9: Hotwire – Proceed with Caution, Especially for Last-Minute Bookings
OTA
Hotwire has returned to our rankings after a hiatus following the discontinuation of its Hot Rates (opaque, deeply discounted fares). However, it comes with a significant warning: avoid Hotwire for last-minute flight bookings.
Hotwire performed exceptionally poorly for last-minute fares, consistently presenting the highest prices in six out of our tests. While it did find a couple of better-than-average fares, these were offset by instances of worse-than-average pricing on other routes.
Hotwire showed more balanced performance for advance bookings, generally achieving average results. It rarely found the absolute lowest fare overall, but it often secured lower or even the lowest prices for direct flights.
A notable weakness of Hotwire is its failure to incorporate low-cost carriers effectively. For example, on a New York to Paris route, Hotwire suggested a $745 fare on Scandinavian with a stopover, while other sites found direct Flybee flights for $666–$687. The best direct flight Hotwire offered was a $987 fare on Norse.
More critically, Hotwire’s default single-airport search missed numerous cheaper flights from nearby alternative airports, especially from budget airlines. For a London-Barcelona route, Hotwire insisted on a British Airways fare significantly more expensive than booking combinations of low-cost carriers like Ryanair, easyJet, and Vueling from different London airports – a strategy recognized by most other sites. Hotwire made a similar error on last-minute fares for the same route, offering Air France tickets at twice the price of available low-cost options.
Another drawback of Hotwire is its limited filter options. Notably, it lacks the ability to specify a maximum total flight time or layover duration, a standard feature on most other platforms. However, we appreciated the display above the results showing price variations for flights three days before and after your chosen date.
It’s worth noting that Expedia, along with its sister sites Orbitz and Travelocity, are not independently ranked here because Expedia now utilizes the Hotwire engine for its flight searches. Searching Expedia for flights essentially means you are using Hotwire.
Pros: Reasonable prices on advance purchase (APEX) fares.
Cons: Extremely poor prices for last-minute flights; limited filters; overlooks low-cost carriers; tendency to miss cheaper fares from alternate airports.
Hopper.com
#8: Hopper – Intuitive Interface, Inconsistent Performance
Aggregator
Hopper, known for its user-friendly and visually appealing interface, has dropped five places from #3 in our rankings this year.
Hopper’s performance in finding cheap airfares was inconsistent. It performed adequately for advance purchase APEX fares, offering slightly better-than-average prices about one-third of the time. However, this was offset by poor results in the last-minute category, where Hopper frequently presented some of the highest prices, second only to Hotwire. Surprisingly, it performed better than average only on our Dallas-to-Dubai route.
Hopper still offers price prediction advice, suggesting the best time to book based on historical trends. However, this feature has been significantly scaled back. Previously, it provided detailed insights like bar graphs, historical prices, baggage fees, seat pitch, and amenity costs. While these details are now gone, Hopper does link to the airline’s baggage policy page on the final booking page (although sometimes the link is broken).
Some useful features remain. The date selection calendar is color-coded to highlight the cheapest travel days for two months, aiding in finding savings through flexible travel dates. Beyond basic filters like price, flight duration, and number of stops, Hopper offers categories like “Basic” (cheapest), “Standard” (economy with carry-ons and seat selection), “Enhanced” (more legroom, priority boarding), plus “Premium” and “Luxury” for higher-class travel.
A valuable addition is Hopper’s option to filter results for flights with no change fees.
However, Hopper heavily promotes its add-on services, such as fare freeze options (for a fee), flight protection, and cancel-for-any-reason insurance. Annoyingly, you have to decline these offers on multiple screens before proceeding. For security reasons, we generally recommend purchasing travel insurance from third-party providers, not directly from the travel vendor.
Pros: Consistently decent fares for advance purchase; price prediction advice based on historical data.
Cons: Limited filters; excessive upselling of add-on services; subpar last-minute fares; reduced detail in price prediction features.
Kiwi.com
#7: Kiwi – Flexibility Features, Customer Service Concerns
OTA
Kiwi.com, a Czech-based booking site, has fallen from #2 to #7 in our rankings in under two years. While most of its fares were close to average, it did find the cheapest last-minute flights for Miami to Rio and Chicago to Rome routes.
Kiwi’s score was negatively impacted by its poor performance on advance purchase direct flights. It scored below average or worst-of-all in six out of eight itineraries for direct flights booked in advance. While Kiwi did find the cheapest overall fares for NYC to Paris and LA to Hong Kong with connecting flights, so did many higher-ranked sites.
Kiwi does have strengths. It caters well to flexible travelers. The default departure date is “anytime,” allowing you to easily see cheapest days. Pop-up calendars display indicative prices for two months. The results page shows a fare grid for three days around your chosen dates and a price trend graph for about two weeks out. Uniquely among sites we tested, Kiwi also includes train and bus options in search results. It boasts the second-best set of filters, rivaled only by our top-ranked site.
However, there are concerns. Kiwi has received negative reviews regarding customer service issues when travel disruptions occur. Frommer’s has received reader complaints about Kiwi, and its Better Business Bureau rating reflects customer service concerns. Travelers might consider using Kiwi to identify ideal itineraries but then booking through a different platform due to these customer service considerations.
Pros: Option to include baggage fees in displayed fares; powerful filters; excellent features for flexible travel dates; comparison of flights with train and bus options.
Cons: Inconsistent in finding the lowest fares overall, particularly for advance purchase direct flights; reported issues with customer service.
Priceline.com
#6: Priceline – Revamped and Back in the Game
OTA
Priceline had previously fallen out of our top 10 after years at the precarious #10 spot. However, Priceline has made significant improvements, enhancing its filters, adding daily price comparisons on date-picker calendars, and now including low-cost carriers in its searches. This, combined with solid price performance, has brought Priceline back into our rankings in a respectable mid-pack position.
Last-minute fares were Priceline’s main weakness, underperforming even Kiwi on this metric. Advance fares were Priceline’s strength, lifting it to #6. Priceline showed ingenuity by identifying a $40 saving on a Chicago-Rome flight by including a short layover in Istanbul. It was also one of only two sites to find a 35% saving on a last-minute NYC-LA trip with a brief layover.
Priceline continues to offer its signature “Express Deals” – opaque fares where you select airports and dates, but flight details (times, airlines, layovers) are revealed only after purchase. You’ll know the takeoff time (morning, midday, evening) and the number of plane changes (0–1) beforehand. These deals claim savings up to 40%, though typical discounts are closer to 10%. Express Deals are suitable for travelers comfortable with uncertainty for potential savings.
Pros: Opaque “Express Deals” potentially offer savings (up to 40%, typically less); decent filters; sometimes identifies creative, lower-cost itineraries.
Cons: Middle-of-the-road price performance, especially for last-minute fares; opaque fares involve uncertainty in flight details.
TripAdvisor.com
#5: Tripadvisor – Solid Performer, But Not a Leader
Aggregator
Tripadvisor maintains its fifth-place position, proving its airfare search capabilities are consistent.
Tripadvisor offers a useful option to include nearby airports in searches, which can uncover significant savings. Its filters are comprehensive, including an option to limit searches to trusted booking sites.
Tripadvisor’s drawbacks include its slower search speed compared to top competitors and its inability to consistently outperform the top three sites in finding the absolute lowest fares. When Tripadvisor found cheap tickets, our top three sites usually matched or surpassed its performance, and did so more frequently. Tripadvisor’s last-minute fare performance was also unremarkable, with mostly average results.
Pros: Decent prices; good range of filters; option to include nearby airports; ability to filter by trusted booking sites.
Cons: Slower search speed; average last-minute fares; doesn’t consistently outperform top sites; automatically opens search windows for other sites unless deselected; occasionally suggests less practical itineraries for minimal savings.
CheapOAir.com
#4: CheapOAir – The Last-Minute Flight Champion
OTA
CheapOAir is the highest-ranked OTA on our list and stands out as the best site for last-minute airfares.
CheapOAir frequently found the lowest prices in our last-minute flight tests, outperforming all competitors in frequency. While a few rivals occasionally matched the lowest price, CheapOAir did so most consistently.
However, CheapOAir’s performance is less consistent for advance purchase fares. It sometimes offered worse-than-average prices in this category. CheapOAir’s performance can be described as “all or nothing.” If we were to disregard its exceptional last-minute performance and rank sites solely on advance bookings, CheapOAir would drop to 7th place.
Other downsides include excessive pop-ups and slower, sometimes glitchy website performance. CheapOAir earned the “Most Annoying Popups” award in our testing.
On the positive side, its date-picker calendars automatically display fares for each day, making it easy to spot cheaper travel dates. CheapOAir also provides a helpful chart at the top of results summarizing nonstop and cheapest fares for the top airlines. Its filters are also quite good, including options for alternate dates and nearby airports, both valuable cost-saving features.
For travelers planning immediate flights, CheapOAir is a must-check, but it’s still advisable to compare prices with our top three sites to ensure you’re getting the absolute best deal.
Pros: Excellent for last-minute airfares; simplifies considering alternative dates and airports; helpful fare calendar and airline comparison chart.
Cons: Inconsistent performance on advance purchase APEX fares; slow and glitchy website; excessive and annoying pop-ups.
#3: Skiplagged – Direct Flight Specialist with a Unique Approach
Aggregator
Skiplagged, a relatively new site, is effective if used correctly. It gained notoriety for “hidden city” fares, which exploit airline ticketing loopholes. While these fares can sometimes be cheaper, they are risky and not recommended due to potential airline penalties or policy violations. Hidden city fares involve booking a flight to a destination beyond your intended stopover city, and disembarking at the stopover, which is technically against airline terms.
However, Skiplagged allows users to exclude hidden city fares by unchecking the “SKIPLAGGING” box, which we did for all our tests.
With hidden city fares excluded, Skiplagged excelled at finding low prices on direct flights. Our top three sites were very closely matched in overall price competitiveness, so Skiplagged’s ranking is influenced by its other features. Its user-friendly interface visually compares trip lengths, including layover durations. When you enter a departure airport, the arrival is defaulted to “Anywhere,” offering a page of visually appealing destination photos with prices for travel inspiration.
Skiplagged’s pop-up calendars show precise fares for each day across two months, simplifying price comparisons across dates. (The top two sites only show price ranges, not exact fares, on their calendars).
Skiplagged has some drawbacks. It occasionally directed us to less reputable OTAs, and sometimes prices increased after clicking through. Skiplagged’s filters are also basic, it doesn’t display baggage fees upfront, and it rounds down prices (minor, but feels slightly deceptive).
Pros: Best for finding lowest fares on direct flights; fast search speed; unique and user-friendly interface; precise prices on date calendars.
Cons: Basic filters; no flexible dates search option (but offers a price trend graph); doesn’t show baggage fees; still offers “hidden city” fares (can be disabled).
Skyscanner.com
#2: Skyscanner – Comprehensive Search with Broad Reach
Aggregator
Skyscanner remains a top performer in price and essentially tied with Skiplagged for lowest fares on advance purchase tickets. Like Skiplagged, its filters are not the most advanced.
Skyscanner performed only averagely for last-minute bookings.
Skyscanner edges out Skiplagged for a few reasons. Its “Explore everywhere” destination feature displays a grid of destinations with the cheapest fares. Unlike Skiplagged’s similar feature (limited to North America), Skyscanner’s “Explore everywhere” includes destinations across continents as you scroll.
A significant advantage of Skyscanner is its star rating system for third-party booking sites, along with user reviews, helping travelers assess unfamiliar sites’ reliability.
Skyscanner also allows searching nearby airports and entire countries as destinations, not just cities. While its initial date calendars show price categories (not precise fares), the “Show whole month” link on the results page provides a two-month view of estimated prices for flexible date planning.
Pros: Excellent prices, especially for advance purchase tickets; displays prices from numerous OTAs and airline sites; two-month fare calendar for date flexibility; searches nearby airports and countries; identifies codeshare flights; finds lowest fares to many destinations at once.
Cons: Doesn’t include baggage fees; mixes sponsored results with organic results (clearly marked); basic filters.
#1: Momondo/Kayak – Unbeatable Airfare Comparison Powerhouse
Aggregator
Momondo and Kayak share the top spot in our rankings, and for good reason. These sister sites (both owned by Booking Holdings) consistently outperformed all others in our tests.
Momondo/Kayak found the lowest fares most often across all 32 itineraries, both for advance purchase and last-minute flights. They excelled at finding the absolute cheapest fares and consistently ranked among the top sites in nearly every search. While their interfaces might appear slightly less modern than some competitors, their price-finding prowess is unmatched.
Kayak offers a price trend graph to help you decide when to book, and both sites provide flexible date search options. Their filters are the most comprehensive we tested, allowing you to refine searches by numerous criteria. Kayak also includes hotel and car rental searches, making it a comprehensive travel planning tool.
The slight edge goes to Momondo/Kayak due to their consistently superior price performance. For travelers prioritizing the absolute lowest airfares, Momondo and Kayak are the definitive go-to airfare compare sites in 2024.
Pros: Consistently finds the lowest fares; comprehensive filters; flexible date search options; price trend graphs; Kayak includes hotel and car rental search.
Cons: Interface might be considered less modern than some competitors.
Conclusion: Choosing the Right Airfare Compare Site for Your Needs
Our extensive testing has revealed the best airfare compare sites of 2024. While Momondo/Kayak stand out as the overall price leaders, CheapOAir excels for last-minute deals, and Skiplagged is a strong choice for direct flights. Skyscanner and Tripadvisor offer robust search capabilities and a good balance of price and features. Sites like Priceline and Kiwi have improved, but come with caveats. Hotwire and Google Flights are best used with caution, especially for last-minute travel.
Ultimately, the “best” airfare compare site depends on your specific needs and travel style. For consistently low prices, start with Momondo or Kayak. For last-minute trips, check CheapOAir. If direct flights are your priority, Skiplagged is worth exploring. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each site, you can confidently navigate the world of online airfare comparison and secure the best deals for your travels.
