I recently listened to a webinar on self-travel, and it turns out that many people still don't know about such a thing as an online flight search engine. Although it seems to me that this is so obvious ... So one of the most popular search engines at the moment is the Skyscanner service. It appeared a very long time ago, and when I had not yet blogged and knew very little about travel sites, I used it for my rare travels (on vacation). Now, of course, many services of this kind have already appeared, but there is a feeling that they simply copy all the functionality. Yes, their bases may differ, or the principle of how they work, but the result is approximately the same, well, except, perhaps, some specific areas.
Skyscanner - online flight search engine
The content of the article
- one How Skyscanner works
- 2 It is safe and convenient to buy tickets online
- 3 What are the disadvantages
How Skyscanner works
In short, the whole point of such a site is that it analyzes prices on hundreds of airline sites and gives you them in ascending order. In addition to the standard parameters (departure and arrival cities, dates), you can set additional criteria (number of transfers, flight duration, etc.) for displaying results. This is very convenient, because if such a site did not exist, you would have to browse through many airline sites in order to find cheaper tickets. And imagine, if the dates are not fixed yet, then such a search may take more than one day. Immediately, in a few clicks, we get a list of all flights of all airlines. And just, if the dates are flexible, then there is such a thing as «show prices for the whole month» or even a year.
Search results - criterion month
You cannot buy tickets on the site itself, this is only a search engine, akin to Yandex and Google. And the purchase is carried out either on the airline's website, or on the website of the agency that sells tickets. Skyscanner works with several dozen agencies, and their prices vary slightly, so you can select a specific agency in the search results list. As far as I know, they are all proven, and if people had problems, it was rather out of ignorance.
It is safe and convenient to buy tickets online
For the last two years, my friends and I have been buying tickets in this way, over the Internet. It is convenient and safe, we have never encountered any problems. I can hardly imagine buying an air ticket through a standard ticket office with a trip across the city and a waste of time in several hours. And, if this is abroad, then it is generally not clear how to do it. Therefore, sitting at home or in a hotel, it is much easier to do this, because all you need to buy is the Internet, and a bank card.
Of course, you should approach everything with your head and in advance inquire about your fare, return rules, baggage allowance on the flight. Usually, people have questions of this particular plan, and not related to the fact that they were sold «left» ticket. So, such information is most relevant on the airline's website, and not somewhere else, so do not blame other third-party services. I remember that I had to call around 5 airlines in order to clarify with them the luggage allowance for hand luggage, since I was carrying with me a whole backpack of photographic equipment.
What are the disadvantages
Naturally, there are no drawbacks anywhere. And the most important of them is the obsolescence of flight information. There is a flight at this price in the search results, but in reality it is not there and you cannot buy it.
Everything is simple and there is no deception here. The fact is that due to the large amount of information, flight data is shown not in real time, but for the last 24 hours, and only those flights that users have already searched for. I don’t know more details, but this is how it works. Over the entire period of use, I literally came across missing tickets a couple of times.
P.S. By the way, not so long ago Skyscanner updated its design (along with some functional improvements) and added hotel search, car rental, useful information on airlines. And also released an application for mobile devices. Are developing, however.
