Kayak, Mobissimo, and Bing Travel: Comparison part 3 - international fares

June 25, 9:34 AMChicago Cheap Travel ExaminerAmanda E. Snyder

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Travel to London for less than $800.

We’ve given you a run down of three big travel meta sites – Kayak, Mobissimo, and Bing Travel. We’ve compared their effectiveness with finding you the best domestic fares. Now it’s time to look at what kinds of deals they can find you on international fares.

CHICAGO to LONDON
(dates searched: July 30-Aug. 6)

Kayak: $850 on Scandinavian Airlines (SAS); Kayak showed three options of providers for this price: Orbitz, Cheaptickets, and Priceline...only when we clicked through to Orbitz and Cheaptickets, the price showed as being $913 on United. The SAS price was actually $1563! A search directly on Scandinavian Airlines garnered a fare of $1251.
Mobissimo: $771 on American Airlines via JetCombo.com. (Note: You don’t see which airline you’ll fly on JetCombo until you get to the payment page.)
Bing Travel: $839 on Lufthansa/United via Vayama.com; Bing's Farecast says wait to purchase, fares will drop or hold steady in the next seven days. Did it? Read about Bing Travel's findings a week later.

The winner: Mobissimo! So while we might wait a few days to purchase this because of Bing’s Farecast feature, we'd still end up completing the purchase via Mobissimo.
 

Who had the cheapest fare to Tokyo?

CHICAGO to TOKYO
(dates searched: July 30-Aug. 6)

Kayak: $914 on Delta via Orbitz and Cheaptickets; one stop-over each way
Mobissimo: $916 on United Airlines via ebookers.com (direct flight each way); Kayak and Bing Travel didn’t even register this fare – just $2 more than their lowest fare, these United flights are direct, while Kayak’s and Bing's Delta offering had a stop-over each way.
Bing Travel: $914 on Delta; one stop-over each way direct from Delta.com; no Farecast price predictor here.

The winner: Mobissimo again! Who wouldn’t fly direct for just $2 more?
 

Travel to Argentina on the cheap.

CHICAGO to BUENOS AIRES
(dates searched: July 30-Aug. 6)

Kayak: $1089 on Delta Airlines via Orbitz, Priceline, and Delta.com
Mobissimo: $1050 on Delta Airlines via Air Projects
Bing Travel: $1089 on Delta Airlines via Delta.com (actual price on Delta.com: $1093) (no price predictor)

The winner: Mobissimo…hmmm, we’re sensing a trend.

THE OVERALL WINNER: Mobissimo! The little search engine that could plainly kills the competition when it comes to international fares. We’ll never purchase another international fare again without performing a search here.
 

Read about the general comparison of each site’s look and feel.

Read about our comparison of domestic fares found on the three sites.

A note on how the search was conducted: All fares were found on June 24, 2009. Searches were conducted as originating in Chicago; destinations always included an “all airports” option for each city. No restrictions were placed on the search (i.e. we did not request direct flights only); however, no fares included flights with more than one stop-over. Each price was checked/confirmed by clicking through directly to the airline’s website or other travel provider site, such as Orbitz, Priceline, etc.