Last week, I mentioned that Orbitz had removed the flexible search option from its website. It turns out that the search function has been hidden from the main pages, but it’s still on the sitemap, and you can reach it (for now) via this deep link. It’s one of the better search tools out there, so it’s good to have it back.

(Thanks to reader Tom!)

Why has Orbitz gotten rid of its flexible search?

I’ve put in a call to Orbitz to find out, and I’ll post the response when/if they respond, but the bottom line is, their once-powerful fare engine has been severely limited. You need to know specific travel dates to do their flight search. Thumbs down.

Orbitz runs on ITA Software code in the back office. It’s a really powerful booking engine that I often recommend (click “login as guest” to use free), since it lets you control the variables like no one else. Two other sites that use ITA, continental.com and the recently released beta-version of united.com, are both more flexible. So why is Orbitz killing this feature?

One alternative is to use an aggregator, many of which do have good flexible-date searches. Among the aggregators, I generally recommend Kayak (see April 2006 reviews here), which recently introduced flex-searches (registration required, though).

Another aggregator, PriceGrabber, has a decent interface, too. Alas, no flexible search, but they just added a neat feature: a list of amenities on each flight, such as seat pitch, in-flight entertainment options, in-seat power availability, and on-time statistics. On the searches I conducted, the amenity information was correct, even for many codeshared flights. The site still has its downsides — its results didn’t find the lowest fare on any of the searches I conducted — arguably the ultimate test of a fare engine — but it’s getting better!

Related:
- Disaggregating fare aggregators
- Disaggregating the aggregators, Part 2: Rating the hotel metasearches
- Online travel search improvements
- Flexible-date search alternatives for international destinations

Reader David S. writes:

Have you heard of the site airfarewatchdog.com? They list some very good fares. However I sometimes have a difficult time finding the fares that they list. What do you think about the site?

Indeed, I’m certainly familiar with George Hobica’s Airfarewatchdog. He and his team scour the internet for low fares and post regular updates, both listing the best fares in America, and the best fares for individual departure cities. It’s a great overview. His site has pointed to some good stuff, and I’ve linked to him before — like the $750 round trip business class fare on Maxjet back in March. He offers e-mail subscriptions, too, though the mailings are sometimes erratic.

Meaning no disrespect against Airfarewatchdog, but I find FareCompare’s alerts to be faster and more consistent. E-mails go out as soon as lowered fares hit the databases. If that’s too much information, you can get a good snapshot of fares from your city with the site’s Destination Deal Maps (effectively the same as Travelocity’s recently downgraded Dream Maps — except it functions both domestically and internationally.)

To see the Deal Maps, go to FareCompare.com and enter your departure city in the middle of the page.

To join the fare alert list, go to FareCompare.com, click on the Deal Maps or run a search for city pair, and then click on the “FareCompare AirFare Email Early Warning System” box in the upper left corner.

The downside of FareCompare is that it doesn’t cover Southwest or JetBlue, since those airlines don’t participate in the big global fare networks (GDS’s). So a human touch is necessary to test those fares.

It’s a case of machine vs. man. FareCompare’s automated system offers faster response than the more human search of Airfarewatchdog. But the ‘dog includes airlines that the machines can’t.

Travelocity has disabled its flexible search function for international destinations. According to SmarterTravel.com, the online agency pulled the option because the U.S. Department of Transportation argued that the existing search did not offer sufficient price transparency. The culprit: fuel surcharges.

Indeed, this was my own pet peeve with Travelocity’s flexible search. You start with a great fare to Paris and when you finish clicking, your fare went up $300 — $100 in taxes (expected) and $200 in fuel surcharges (suprise!). Often, Travelocity would come back with a message like “We found a lower fare for you than the one you selected.”

(The change also affects the international component of Travelocity’s Dream Maps. Interestingly, you can still see fares to international locations posted on the maps, but you can’t go the next step to find airlines or book them.)

I part company with SmarterTravel’s blame game: I actually think the DOT was right in pressuring Travelocity to offer a more transparent fare search. The existing product was misleading. It’s Travelocity’s fault for not configuring their fare search product in a way that includes surcharges. Fuel charges are a specific, identifiable line item in building a fare. Why can’t it be included in a search?

But for those who loved that flexible international search, now gone, what are the alternatives? Here are my picks, ranked in terms of similarity to Travelocity’s defunct search.

1) Zuji
(Update: Zuji has killed the old flexible search-by-fare feature. The original post remains below for the sake of posterity, but this feature has been disabled. It is replaced by a +/- 3 day flexible search, which is not nearly as powerful. Skip it.)
Outsource! Zuji is Travelocity’s Singapore-based subsidiary, and it looks and feels much like the American site. And guess what: the international flexible date search is still there. The site is in English, and results are in US dollars. (If you’re based in the US, choose “other” for a country on the first page.) Some airlines are missing (but they were missing from the flex search on the US site in the last few months, too). Suggestion: Run your search on Zuji, then actually book the specific flights you find on Travelocity or elsewhere. Booking on Zuji may work, but you’ll incur higher booking fees plus extra charges for using a credit card overseas.

(Update July 29: A reader e-mail asks about Zuji and Dream Maps (referenced above). I can’t find a Dream Maps equivalent on Zuji. However, since Dream Maps will still show base fares (for now), but won’t let you click through to see airlines or schedules, here’s my advice: Use Dream Maps to find a good base fare in your desired region. If you see one, do a flexible date search on Zuji for that particular destination.)

2) FareCompare
On the plus side, FareCompare’s search acts much like Travelocity, except it’s organized by fare, not by airline. The downsides: It doesn’t show total prices (will it be targeted by the DOT next?). It also doesn’t let you book directly, but refers you to the big online agencies, where the price is often very different from what FareCompare quoted. Finally, it’s missing a number of smaller (but still mainline) international destinations.

3) ITA
The engine behind Orbitz, Continental, and others, allows you to search for fares to just about anywhere in the world, and it shows final prices including all taxes. It also finds codeshares and mixed-airline itineraries that are often good values. Its “month-long search” isn’t as broad a search as Travelocity’s, especially because you need to specify the length of your stay within narrow ranges, but it’s worth checking. But … it won’t let you book anything. You’ll need to go to an airline website, online agency, or traditional travel agent to buy the ticket.

4) Kayak
Kayak allows flexible search to international destinations, but only within 3 days of your specific dates. Some reliability problems here, too, for international fares that are quoted well below what the target sites actually charge. It’s not the free-for-all price-first dates-later approach of Travelocity (or Zuji) but it’s an option to consider.