Secrets Of Flight Metasearch Engines

Metasearch engines are the favorite way of many travelers to find the cheapest flights. Unless you have a lot of time to look at airline by airline, this is undoubtedly the ideal method to get the best prices.

In fact, sometimes metasearch engines offer you cheaper prices than those of the same airlines. Why? It is because there are travel agencies that buy tickets en masse, at excellent prices, and then resell them also at a good price.

These agencies circulate their offers through metasearch engines. For the same reason, the probability that you will find the best prices on flights is much higher in these search engines than in other ways. As in everything, there are always some not-so-known facts that are worth knowing. Here are some of them.

1. Incognito in metasearch engines?

This is a not so secret secret that, anyway, raises doubts in many travelers. In many pages it is suggested to use a private window to search for the cheapest flights in the metasearch engines. However, many believe that it is a myth.

To clear up doubts, we did the test (you can do it). We search for an offer through normal browsing and simultaneously enter another computer incognito. The result left no room for doubt: some routes appeared with the same price, but in others there was a significant difference. By browsing incognito you will find better prices.

2. Yes: the more you search, the more prices go up

Perhaps you have already had the experience that you start looking for a cheap flight and as you do, you notice that the fare  goes up day after day. If the flight date is close, this is normal. On the other hand, if the date is distant, what actually happens is something else.

Metasearch engines, and also airlines, detect an insistent search as a ‘desperate search’. If they notice that you have a lot of urgency to travel, they will surely increase the cost of tickets. At the end of the day, it is a business in which both parties want to get the most out of it.

Therefore, again, it is still advisable to do a search through private browsing or change computers if you notice that costs rise non-stop. It is good that you have the means of payment at hand, since you could find an excellent offer that is no longer available after five minutes. If you see a bargain, don’t hesitate: buy.

3. Fares error

One of the great contributions of metasearch engines is that they help you find error rates much more easily. If you have not heard of error rates, we tell you that it is, as the name suggests, rates that airlines publish by mistake. It also happens with hotels and car rentals.

Prices for practically all flights change every day. The new price data is entered by a machine, by one person or by both. Anyway, the truth is that this process is not without errors because the volume of data is immense. This leads to errors in these prices from time to time, for example, due to the absence of a zero.

If you have a price alert configured in one of the metasearch engines, that significant drop in a price will be notified to you immediately. Likewise, you must buy immediately. If the error is very large, it is likely that the airline will cancel the ticket. However, in most cases they respect your purchase and assume it as a normal loss within their activity.

4. Destinations in flight metasearch engines

As a general rule, multi-destinations are cheaper than trips to a single destination. You have to do several tests before you find the best price. Choose one and another city that is in your journey and try, you can get big surprises.

Likewise, when a destination is very expensive, it is good to try to find flights in another nearby destination. Sometimes the rates are significantly lower and both at the point of departure and arrival you can travel in a cheaper means, such as a bus or a low cost line .