For savvy travelers, finding the best deals on airfare is an ongoing quest. Each year, numerous websites and search engines compete to offer the lowest prices and most user-friendly booking experiences. To help you navigate this crowded landscape, we’ve rigorously tested 15 of the top air travel sites, comparing their performance across 32 different flight itineraries. Our aim? To identify the Best Air Travel Sites that consistently deliver value, whether you’re planning well in advance or booking a last-minute getaway.
This year’s evaluation has revealed some surprising shifts in the rankings. While some familiar names remain contenders, our top three are all relatively lesser-known platforms that outperformed established giants. We’ve also uncovered a hidden gem for those seeking last-minute flight deals, a site that specializes in short-notice bookings and often beats out even our top-rated services for immediate travel. Notably, some previous favorites have slipped in our rankings, with Booking.com and FlightNetwork falling out of our top 10 altogether this year.
In this comprehensive guide, we present our top 10 best air travel sites for 2024. Each review highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these platforms, empowering you to choose the site that best fits your travel needs and preferences.
Airplane in the sky
Kit8.net / Shutterstock
How We Ranked the Best Air Travel Sites: Our Methodology
To provide a fair and objective comparison, we employed a robust testing methodology. We evaluated 15 different air travel sites using a total of 32 flight searches. These searches included a mix of:
- Last-minute flights: Departures within one week of the search date.
- APEX fares (advance purchase): Bookings made approximately three months in advance.
- Major and secondary gateways: Routes between major hubs (e.g., NYC to LAX, LAX to Hong Kong, NYC to Paris) and less common city pairs (e.g., Philadelphia to Tampa, Chicago to Rome, Miami to Rio de Janeiro).
- International and domestic routes: Including a curveball itinerary (Dallas to Dubai) and a European route without North American legs (London to Barcelona).
Our priority was to find realistic and practical flight options. We disregarded extremely low fares that involved excessively long layovers, multiple stops, or illogical routings that significantly increased travel time. Specifically, we rejected any itinerary that added more than 50% to the expected total travel time.
To quantify performance, we used a weighted scoring system. Sites were awarded points based on their ability to find the lowest fares: three points for the best fare, two points for the second-best, and so on. Conversely, sites were penalized with negative points if their prices were higher than the average price found across all tested sites. We considered fares within 1% of each other to be equivalent. This rigorous approach allowed us to objectively rank the best air travel sites based on their pricing competitiveness and overall search effectiveness.
Woman looking at flight information
rachel_pics / flickr.com
Key Considerations When Choosing Air Travel Sites
Before diving into our rankings, it’s crucial to understand a few fundamental aspects of online airfare searching:
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The Aggregator-OTA Relationship: It’s important to distinguish between Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and aggregators. OTAs like Hotwire, Kiwi, and CheapOAir directly sell flight tickets. Aggregators, on the other hand, such as Google Flights, Skyscanner, and Kayak, don’t sell tickets themselves. Instead, they search across numerous OTAs, airline websites, and other airfare sources, compiling results in one place. When you find a flight on an aggregator, you are then redirected to the actual seller’s site (often an OTA or the airline) to complete the purchase.
The quality of an aggregator heavily relies on the reliability of the OTAs it includes in its search. While reputable aggregators strive to filter out untrustworthy ticket sellers, it’s always wise to exercise caution when dealing with unfamiliar companies. Before booking through an OTA you haven’t used before, perform a quick check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to look for complaints or red flags.
Be aware that some less scrupulous OTAs may display enticingly low “lead prices” that slightly increase once you click through to book. Additionally, some might misleadingly label flights with stops but no plane changes as “nonstop.” Even the most reliable aggregators can sometimes lead you to a site where the initially quoted fare is no longer available due to the dynamic nature of airfare pricing. If we encountered frequent discrepancies during our tests, we’ve noted it in the reviews.
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Southwest Airlines’ Unique Booking System: A significant exception in the online air travel landscape is Southwest Airlines. Southwest restricts the distribution of its fares, preventing most third-party OTAs and aggregators from displaying their flights. The only exception, as of recently, is Google Flights. Therefore, to ensure you’re seeing all available flight options, especially within the US, you must always check Southwest.com directly in addition to using air travel search sites.
Google Flights Interface
Google.com
#10: Google Flights
Aggregator
Google Flights is a powerful search engine, but its performance in finding the best airfares is surprisingly inconsistent, placing it at the bottom of our top 10 best air travel sites list.
Strengths: Google Flights excels in speed and user interface. It rapidly refreshes results as you type destinations or adjust filters. Its interactive calendar displays average prices for different dates, making it easy to identify the cheapest days to fly. Notably, Google Flights made headlines in spring 2024 by becoming the first aggregator to include Southwest Airlines’ fares in its search results, expanding its coverage significantly.
Weaknesses: Despite its strengths, Google Flights’ price competitiveness is erratic. It only found the absolute lowest fare in our tests once (Miami to Rio), a feat matched by several of our top-rated sites. It underperformed significantly in finding the lowest fares for major routes like NYC to Paris and LA to Hong Kong, even for direct flights where prices tended to be average at best.
A recurring issue was that Google Flights often displayed flights at slightly higher prices (5-15% more) than other sites, even for identical itineraries. In one particularly striking example, for a last-minute Dallas-Dubai flight on Emirates, Google quoted a price $673 higher than our top pick and $250 more than several other sites.
Verdict: Google Flights is a valuable tool for quickly exploring flight options and comparing dates. However, for price-sensitive travelers seeking the absolute lowest fares, it’s not consistently reliable and should be used in conjunction with other top-performing air travel sites.
Pros: Fast search speeds, user-friendly calendar with price averages, detailed filters, allows exclusion/inclusion of specific airlines or airports, displays in-flight amenities.
Cons: Average price performance, rarely the cheapest, sometimes significantly more expensive than competitors.
Hotwire Website Interface
Hotwire.com
#9: Hotwire
OTA
Hotwire marks its return to our rankings after a period of absence, but with a critical caveat: avoid using it for last-minute flight bookings.
Strengths: Hotwire used to be known for its “Hot Rates” – opaque fares offered at deep discounts. While those are gone, Hotwire performs reasonably well for advance-purchase fares. Although it never found the absolute lowest overall fare in our tests, it often secured lower or even the lowest prices for direct flights when booked in advance.
Weaknesses: Hotwire’s performance on last-minute flights was abysmal, consistently delivering the highest fares among all sites tested – a staggering six times. While it had a couple of better-than-average fares, these were offset by multiple worse-than-average results.
A major flaw is Hotwire’s apparent inability to effectively incorporate budget airlines into its search results. For example, on a New York-to-Paris route, it found a $745 fare on Scandinavian (with a stopover), while other sites readily found direct flights on budget carriers like Flybee for $666-$687. Hotwire’s best direct flight option was a significantly pricier $987 on Norse.
Furthermore, Hotwire’s default search setting of single airports hindered its ability to find cheaper flights from nearby alternative airports. On a London-to-Barcelona search, Hotwire insisted on a British Airways fare that was four times more expensive than booking separate flights on budget airlines like Ryanair, easyJet, and Vueling from different London airports – a strategy recognized by almost every other site. This blind spot also plagued its last-minute fare searches on the same route.
Hotwire’s filters are also lacking, notably missing a crucial feature to set maximum flight duration or layover times – a standard feature on most other platforms. On a positive note, Hotwire conveniently displays fare variations for dates three days before and after your chosen dates, visible above the search results.
It’s worth noting that Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity essentially use the Hotwire engine for their flight searches. Searching on Expedia today is effectively searching on Hotwire.
Verdict: Hotwire can be considered for advance-purchase fares, particularly direct flights. However, its disastrous performance on last-minute bookings and limitations with budget airlines make it a risky choice overall.
Pros: Decent prices on advance purchase (APEX) airfares.
Cons: Extremely poor last-minute fares, subpar filters, largely ignores budget airlines.
Hopper App Interface
Hopper.com
#8: Hopper
Aggregator
Hopper, a mobile-first travel app known for its user-friendly and visually appealing interface, has dropped significantly in our rankings this year, falling from #3 to #8 among the best air travel sites.
Strengths: Hopper showed mixed results in our price comparisons. It performed adequately for advance-purchase APEX fares, achieving slightly better-than-average prices about a third of the time. Interestingly, it performed better than average on our challenging Dallas-to-Dubai itinerary.
Hopper retains its price prediction feature, offering advice on whether to book now or wait based on historical price trends. However, this feature has been significantly scaled back from its previous iterations, which offered detailed bar graphs, historical pricing data, baggage fees, seat pitch information, and amenity costs. Now, it primarily links to the airline’s baggage policy page (though even this link was sometimes broken).
Hopper’s color-coded calendar remains a useful feature, highlighting the cheapest travel days for two months at a glance, facilitating flexible travel planning.
Weaknesses: Hopper’s last-minute fare performance was notably poor, ranking second-worst only to Hotwire in consistently displaying high prices. Its filters are limited, offering only a handful of basic sorting options (price, duration, stops, etc.).
Hopper aggressively promotes its add-on services, such as fare freeze options (for a fee), flight protection, and cancel-for-any-reason insurance. The app requires multiple steps to decline these add-ons, which can be perceived as pushy. (Note: it’s generally recommended to purchase travel insurance from a third-party provider, not directly from the booking site).
Verdict: Hopper can be considered for advance-purchase fares and its price prediction feature might be helpful for some users. However, its weak last-minute fares, limited filters, and persistent upselling attempts detract from its overall appeal.
Pros: Decent advance purchase fares, price prediction advice.
Cons: Limited filters, excessive upselling, substandard last-minute fares.
Kiwi.com Website Interface
Kiwi.com
#7: Kiwi
OTA
Kiwi.com, a Czech-based booking site, has experienced a significant drop in our rankings, falling from #2 to #7 in just two years.
Strengths: Kiwi’s price performance was generally average, with most fares slightly above or below the median. It did find the cheapest last-minute fares for Miami to Rio and Chicago to Rome.
Kiwi excels in catering to flexible travelers. Its default departure date is “anytime,” allowing users to easily identify the cheapest travel days. Pop-up calendars display prices for two months, and the results page includes a fare grid for dates around your chosen travel dates, as well as a price trend graph for a dozen days out. Uniquely among the sites we tested, Kiwi also integrates train and bus options into its search results. It boasts a robust set of filters, second only to our top-ranked site.
Weaknesses: Kiwi performed poorly on advance-purchase direct flights, scoring below average or worst-of-all on six out of eight itineraries. While it found the cheapest overall fares for NYC to Paris and LA to Hong Kong (with connections), so did many higher-ranked sites.
A significant concern with Kiwi is its reputation for poor customer service. Numerous user complaints and a low Better Business Bureau rating raise red flags. Some travelers might prefer to use Kiwi to identify ideal itineraries but book through a different, more reputable provider.
Verdict: Kiwi offers excellent features for flexible travel planning and has a strong filtering system. However, inconsistent pricing and customer service concerns limit its overall ranking.
Pros: Includes baggage fees in fares, powerful filters, excellent for flexible itineraries, compares flights with trains and buses.
Cons: Inconsistent in finding the lowest fares, reports of poor customer service.
Priceline Website Interface
Priceline.com
#6: Priceline
OTA
Priceline makes a comeback to our top 10 best air travel sites list after falling off entirely in our previous ranking. Priceline has seemingly addressed some previous shortcomings, improving its filters, adding daily price comparisons to its date-picker calendars, and now including budget airlines in its search results.
Strengths: Priceline’s advance fares were its strength in our tests, lifting it to the middle of our rankings. It demonstrated ingenuity in finding cost-saving itineraries, such as identifying a $40 saving on a Chicago-to-Rome flight by including a short layover in Istanbul. Priceline was also one of only two sites to recognize a 35% saving on a last-minute NYC-to-LA trip with a brief layover.
Priceline continues to offer its signature “Express Deals” – opaque fares where you choose dates and airports but only learn flight details (times, airlines, layovers) after booking. While advertised savings can be up to 40%, typical discounts are closer to 10%.
Weaknesses: Priceline’s last-minute fares were its weakest point, underperforming even Kiwi on this metric. Its overall price performance was average, not consistently delivering the lowest fares.
Verdict: Priceline is a solid mid-range option with improved features and occasional flashes of brilliance in finding cost-effective itineraries, particularly for advance bookings. “Express Deals” can offer savings for flexible travelers willing to accept some uncertainty.
Pros: Opaque fares (“Express Deals”) potentially offer savings, decent filters, sometimes finds inventive, lower-cost itineraries.
Cons: Middle-of-the-road pricing, especially for last-minute fares.
Tripadvisor Flights Interface
TripAdvisor.com
#5: Tripadvisor
Aggregator
Tripadvisor maintains its position at #5, proving its airfare search functionality remains consistently decent, even as the platform evolves beyond just travel reviews.
Strengths: Tripadvisor offers a useful option to include nearby airports in searches, potentially uncovering significant savings. Its robust filter set includes a feature to limit search results to only trusted booking sites.
Weaknesses: Tripadvisor’s primary drawback is its slow search speed. While its prices are generally decent, whenever it found the cheapest or better-than-average fares, our top three sites consistently matched or surpassed its performance. Tripadvisor’s last-minute fares were consistently average across the board, lacking any standout deals. It also annoyingly opens search windows for partner sites unless you manually disable this option and sometimes suggests impractical itineraries in pursuit of marginal savings.
Verdict: Tripadvisor is a reliable aggregator with decent prices and helpful filters, particularly for considering nearby airports. However, its slow speed and lack of exceptional deals keep it in the mid-range of our best air travel sites list.
Pros: Decent prices, good variety of filters, includes nearby airports option.
Cons: Average last-minute fares, slow search speeds, automatically opens partner site search windows, occasionally suggests impractical itineraries.
CheapOAir Website Interface
CheapOAir.com
#4: CheapOAir
OTA
CheapOAir is the highest-ranking OTA on our list and stands out as the king of last-minute airfares among the sites we tested.
Strengths: CheapOAir excels at finding the best prices for flights departing soon. While some competitors occasionally matched its lowest fares, CheapOAir did so more frequently than any other site.
Its popup date-picker calendars conveniently display airfares for each day, making it easy to spot the cheapest days to fly. CheapOAir also provides a helpful summary chart at the top of search results, showing non-stop and cheapest fares for the top airlines. Its filters are quite good, including options to consider alternative dates and nearby airports for potential savings.
Weaknesses: CheapOAir’s performance on advance-purchase fares was inconsistent, ranging from competitive to worse-than-average. If we solely considered advance fares, CheapOAir would rank lower at #7. It also suffers from excessive popups, earning it the “Most Annoying Popups” award in our tests, and is the slowest site among our top contenders, often experiencing glitches.
Verdict: CheapOAir is a must-check for last-minute flight bookings. However, for advance-purchase fares, its performance is less consistent, and the website can be frustrating to use due to popups and slow speed.
Pros: Excellent for last-minute airfares, makes it easy to consider alternative dates and airports.
Cons: Inconsistent results on advance-purchase fares, slow and glitchy, excessive and annoying popups.
Skiplagged Website Interface
#3: Skiplagged
Aggregator
Skiplagged, a relatively young aggregator, is a powerful tool, albeit one that requires careful usage to avoid potentially problematic “hidden city” fares.
Strengths: Skiplagged is known for “hidden city” fares, which exploit airline ticketing loopholes to potentially offer lower prices. However, these fares violate airline terms and carry risks (e.g., luggage restrictions, potential penalties). For our tests, we disabled the “Skiplagging” option to exclude these fares.
With hidden city fares disabled, Skiplagged proved to be particularly strong at finding low prices on direct flights. Its pricing performance was generally on par with our top two sites. Skiplagged’s user interface is exceptionally clean and intuitive, allowing for easy comparison of trip lengths, including layover durations. Its “Anywhere” destination search feature displays visually appealing photos and prices for various destinations. Skiplagged’s popup calendars show precise fares for each day over two months, a level of detail not offered by all competitors in our top rankings.
Weaknesses: Skiplagged sometimes directs users to less-than-reputable OTAs for booking, and prices can occasionally increase upon clicking through. Its filter options are limited, it doesn’t display baggage fees upfront, and it rounds down prices (though this is a minor issue). It also still defaults to showing “hidden city” fares, which users need to actively disable.
Verdict: Skiplagged is a top contender for finding low fares, especially on direct flights, with a user-friendly interface. Be cautious of “hidden city” fares and double-check OTA reputation before booking.
Pros: Excellent at finding low fares on direct flights, fast search speeds, unique and user-friendly interface, precise prices on date calendars.
Cons: Mediocre filters, no flexible dates search option (but has a price trend graph), doesn’t show baggage fees, still promotes potentially risky “hidden city” fares by default.
Skyscanner Website Interface
#2: Skyscanner
Aggregator
Skyscanner remains a top performer in our rankings, consistently delivering competitive prices and essentially tying with Skiplagged for the lowest fares on advance-purchase tickets among the best air travel sites.
Strengths: Skyscanner excels in price competitiveness, particularly for advance bookings. Its “Explore Everywhere” feature allows users to discover destinations with the cheapest fares globally, extending beyond North America unlike similar features on some competitor sites.
Skyscanner provides star ratings and user reviews for third-party booking sites, aiding in vetting unfamiliar OTAs. It offers options to include nearby airports and search for destinations within an entire country. While its initial date-picker calendars show relative price categories via color coding, a “Show whole month” link leads to a page displaying estimated prices for two months, facilitating flexible travel planning.
Weaknesses: Skyscanner’s last-minute fare performance is merely average. Its filters are limited, and sponsored results are mixed with organic results (though clearly marked). Baggage fees are not included in displayed prices.
Verdict: Skyscanner is a consistently excellent aggregator, particularly strong for advance-purchase fares and exploring destinations globally. User reviews for OTAs are a valuable trust signal.
Pros: Excellent price performance, especially for advance-purchase tickets, price variety from multiple OTAs/airlines, two-month fare view for flexible dates, searches nearby airports, notes codeshares, finds lowest fares to numerous destinations.
Cons: Doesn’t include baggage fees, sponsored results mixed with organic results, mediocre filters.
Momondo and Kayak Logos
#1: Momondo / Kayak
Aggregator
Momondo and Kayak jointly claim the top spot as the best air travel sites in our 2024 rankings. These sister sites, owned by Booking Holdings, consistently outperformed all competitors in our price tests and offer a comprehensive set of features.
Strengths: Momondo/Kayak demonstrated exceptional price competitiveness, frequently finding the absolute lowest fares across our 32 test itineraries. Their combined performance was noticeably stronger than any other site.
Kayak’s “Flexible Dates” search is outstanding, allowing users to search for the cheapest fares within a +/- 3-day window around their desired dates. Both sites offer comprehensive filter options, including flight duration, stops, times, airlines, and even aircraft type. They also include baggage fees directly in the displayed prices, providing a more transparent cost comparison.
Kayak, in particular, offers price alerts, notifying users of fare changes for tracked routes. Both sites provide a vast selection of OTAs and airline websites to choose from, increasing the chances of finding the best deal. Momondo and Kayak also have user-friendly interfaces and fast search speeds.
Weaknesses: While minor, sponsored results can sometimes be mixed in with organic results, though they are clearly labeled.
Verdict: Momondo and Kayak are our top picks for the best air travel sites in 2024. Their consistent price competitiveness, comprehensive features, flexible search options, and transparent pricing make them indispensable tools for any traveler seeking the best flight deals.
Pros: Consistently found the lowest fares, excellent “Flexible Dates” search (Kayak), comprehensive filters, includes baggage fees in prices, price alerts (Kayak), vast selection of booking sources, user-friendly interfaces, fast search speeds.
Cons: Minor issue of sponsored results mixed with organic results.
