Previously, if you needed to buy a plane ticket, you bought it at the airline ticket office or travel agency. With the development of the Internet, it became possible to do this without leaving the monitor, through the airline's website. True, this raised the question of which airline the ticket would be cheaper. I had to open the websites of all companies and compare prices..
Around 2007, websites began to appear that make it easy and quick to find cheap air tickets and buy them online without leaving home using a Visa or Mastercard. You just have to print the ticket on the printer, and you can go to the airport for boarding. At the end of the 2000s, there were quite a few such sites, they could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Now there are much more of them. What service should I look for? In this article, we will tell you about the most popular ones. On all sites, we will search in one direction - from Moscow to London on January 20, 2013.
Ozon.Travel
Now the Ozon company not only sells books, but also helps us fly somewhere cheaper. Moreover, the company is doing well, this can be judged by the daily turnover in June 2012, which amounted to 30 million rubles. According to the developers, 3000 clients travel daily with the help of Ozon.travel . The company was founded on April 7, 2009, and two years later the service received the Runet prize in the Health and Leisure category..
Let's see how things are in practice. Let's try to find an air ticket from Moscow to London for January 20, 2013, see the offered prices and then compare with other similar services. The site has the ability to indicate the class of flight - economy or business. Let's choose the first option.
87 options were found. The minimum cost is 4003 rubles , including all taxes and fees. Opposite the cost of the flight, the time of departure and arrival is indicated, which is very convenient. By clicking on a suitable option, you can also find out the model of the aircraft. Pretty good. What are some useful features?
- Choosing an airline,
- Possibility to specify only direct flights,
- The price is shown with all taxes and fees,
- You can see the model of the plane,
- Conveniently provides information about the time of departure and arrival,
- Search in two classes (economy and business),
- Possibility to specify a route (add several flights at once).
As a result, Ozon.travel is gaining 7 points - rather weak. Comparing with other services, we can say that the functionality of this site is very modest, and the minimum ticket price is one of the highest..
Momondo
Momondo is another metasearch engine. Momondo.ru does not sell tickets, but only searches for them so that you can buy them later on another site. This is a Danish company (Copenhagen city), which was founded in September 2006. On the page about their company, they write that they are small, but very cool - now this is popular. They are recommended for searches by media outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, CBS, and the Daily Telegraph. Is the site really as good as people say it is? The minimum cost of a ticket in our direction is 4411 rubles .
Available functions on the site:
- Choosing the maximum travel time,
- With transfers or direct flights,
- Choice of departure and arrival times,
- Selecting the airport of departure and arrival,
- Choosing an airline,
- Sorted by price and travel time,
- Flight information,
- Possibility to specify an additional route.
I don't understand why foreign media recommend it - the functionality is not the richest, for example, you cannot specify the class of service, and the minimum ticket price is the highest of all, 408 rubles more expensive than the Russian Ozon.travel.
SkyScanner
SkyScanner is quite popular on the Runet: according to the statistics of the Yandex search engine, this brand is searched for at least 100 thousand times a month, which is quite a lot. Therefore, let's take a closer look at it.
The system began to be developed back in 2001 by three IT specialists, among whom was a ski lover. He was tired of looking for cheap flights to ski resorts - this was one of the reasons to make his own search engine for cheap tickets, which soon gained worldwide fame.
The site has a monthly audience of over 4 million people, which generate sales of about $ 30 million per day. SkyScanner has received numerous awards in tourism-related nominations. Let's start with a standard aptitude test and find out the minimum cost on the Moscow → London route.
The minimum ticket price is 3495 rubles , which is only 50 rubles more than in AviaSales. I think that an experienced user noticed that this is not an online booking system, but a metasearch engine that searches for offers on other sites, aggregates them and shows them to you. Suggested functionality:
- 4 types of service (economy, business, first, premium),
- The ability to track prices,
- Flight with and without transfers,
- Departure time range,
- Choosing an airline,
- Arrival and departure airport selection,
- Indicate the desired travel time,
- Comparison of airlines,
- Low price calendar.
In total, there were 9 points, which is slightly less than AnyWayAnyDay, but the latter has a slightly higher ticket price. The skyscanner can be compared to the Russian Aviasales. And I would give preference to the latter, tk. his interface is much more convenient and prettier, and searches are no worse.
AnyWayAnyDay
Having sold its first ticket in August 2008, after 4 years the company has achieved great results in this market. In 2012, AnyWayAnyDay ranked 4th in Forbes magazine among the 30 most successful Russian Internet companies with revenue of $ 189 million in 2011, ranking first among airline ticket sellers.
As far as I remember, this service is a pioneer among the search engines for cheap flights on the Runet, but I could be wrong. Let's move away from rewards to search itself. We will look for the same direction Moscow → London on January 20. Let's see what one of the market leaders finds for us.
AnyWayAnyDay found a ticket for 3753 rubles , 250 rubles cheaper than Ozon.travel - the difference is small, but the fact itself is pleasant. The functionality is very rich, you can see the price dynamics, specify the range of preferred departure times and much more. It will be clearer if all this is listed in the list:
- Price dynamics available,
- Departure and Arrival time range,
- Selecting the airport of departure and arrival,
- Direct flights only or with transfers,
- Grouping prices by airline,
- Flight information is available without additional clicks,
- The model of the aircraft is indicated,
- You can specify an additional route,
- Choice of service class (economy and business),
- The ability to view the terms of the tariff (the possibility of a refund, etc.)
Based on this information, we can conclude that AnyWayAnyDay is better than Ozon.travel: it found it cheaper, next to each offer there is a link to the fare conditions, there is information about the possibility of refunding or exchanging a ticket before or after the departure of the aircraft. In addition, more flexible and convenient search settings.
AviaSales.ru
The last nominee for the title of the best search engine for cheap flights will be AviaSales.ru , which from a simple blog, where Konstantin Kalinov published offers from airlines, has grown into a service with a billion-dollar turnover. The date of foundation of the project can be considered 2007, although the service began to work at full capacity from the beginning of 2009. The company is headquartered in Thailand.
It should be noted that this is not a service for booking tickets, but a metasearch engine - it searches among all popular services for online booking of air tickets. London is waiting for us on January 20! How much will we be able to fly there if we look for tickets through Aviasales?
The minimum cost of the flight is 3445 rubles , which is 308 rubles cheaper than AnyWayAnyDay.
Let's calculate the points:
- 3 types of service class (economy, business, first),
- Low Price Calendar,
- Price map showing the cost of the flight,
- Departure time range,
- Specify the duration of the transplant,
- Specify the duration of the flight,
- Choose a payment method,
- Select the airport of departure and transfer,
- Direct flights, with one or two,
- The model of the aircraft is indicated,
- Flight information is available without additional clicks,
- Search across multiple booking services,
- Tracking the change in the price of the flight.
In principle, all the functionality is standard, but there is no customary opportunity to indicate an additional route - minus 1 point. In total, we get 12 points, and AviaSales takes the lead from AWAD with a margin of 2 points.
OneTwoTrip
OneTwoTrip is quite young - it was founded in September 2011, but has already gained respect among the owners of such services. OneTwoTrip is often cited as an example because of its convenience and functionality. The company's monthly turnover is $ 36 million, which equates to 35% of the Russian market. The average ticket price is $ 400.
The secret of the project's success lies in the fact that its CEO is Petr Kutis, one of the co-founders of the already familiar AnyWayAnyDay, who until recently was the leader in our rating. Let's see if Petr Kutis's new service does as well as AWAD in finding a flight from Moscow to London.
As you can see, the cheapest option that the service has found costs 3642 rubles , which is 111 rubles cheaper than AnyWayAnyDay, but 197 rubles more than AviaSales.ru. It turns out that this service is still in second place in the rating. Can he claim leadership? To do this, you need to evaluate its functionality:
- Conveniently saves previous searches in tabs,
- Has a rating of the selected flight (percentage of delays and delays, aircraft age, etc.),
- 2 classes of service,
- The dynamics of price changes for the direction,
- Choice of departure or arrival time,
- Selecting the airport of departure and arrival,
- Choosing an airline,
- Possibility to specify only direct flights,
- The model of the aircraft is indicated,
- Conveniently provides information about the time of departure and arrival,
- Possibility to specify an additional route,
- Arrival / departure city temperature,
- The ability to see the airport on the map,
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