Google Flights, Kayak, or ? or ? Which is "better"

I use Kayak for searching only. I never ever book a flight through a third party reseller. If you are not bound to a specific date for a certain trip I like the matrix feature showing the total price for going back/forth for different combinations of departure and return dates.

I admit that Kayak is overloaded with other features (bus and train travels, hotels, etc.) now. It happened to be slim and faster some years ago, but I guess this is the result of having been acquired 2012 by Priceline Group (Booking.Com). Kayak itself purchased the software for the search engine 2011 from an Austrian company having developed it in 2005. In Austria it is still available under its old, well known brand https://www.checkfelix.com/ which is the most popular there.

The software that Google flights uses is ITA Matrix. It was a private company but is now owned by Google.

The software is used by numerous airlines including Ameican, Delta, United, Virgin Atlantic and your beloved Turkish Airlines.

I use it.

Kayak is owned by the parent company of Priceline. Skyscanner is Chinese owned.

Google Flights makes most of its money by selling the software to airlines and travel companies and a small amount from bookings. Kayak and Skyscanner make their money from ticket sales via their website.

And Google has the same matrix for fares that kayak has, but on ly works on direct and round Trip fares, not open jaw.

And Google has the same matrix for fares that kayak has, but on ly works on direct and round Trip fares, not open jaw.

Google Flights has a multi-city option, as well as round-trip and one-way.

But the matrix showing the cost for various arrival and departure dates does not work with open jaw tickets.

ah ok.....

ITA Matrix does have open jaw options called "multi city". I use it looking for flights as we mostly fly open jaw.

I purchased flights to Europe prior to the pandemic through an outside flight merchandiser. The flight was cancelled and the middleman company did nothing to help me get a refund. They wouldn't even answer their phones for months. It was a very negative and nerve racking process. I now only purchase flights directly from the airlines.

ITA Matrix does have open jaw options called "multi city".

Yes, but that's not what I was referring to. With RT and one way, in Google Flights, you can click a button and it will show you a matrix of dates around the dates you input and it will show you the cost of all the arrival and departure date possibilities. You can see, for instance, if you leave a day earlier and return 2 dats later there is a cheaper flight. This matrix isn't available on multi city flights. But you can do sort of the same by researching it as two one way tickets, finding the cheapest date for each, then doing the multi city search with those dates.

Scroll down, click "DATES" https://www.google.com/travel/flights/search?tfs=CBwQAhojEgoyMDI0LTA4LTI4agcIARIDQlVEcgwIAxIIL20vMDZuOGoaIxIKMjAyNC0wOS0wM2oMCAMSCC9tLzA2bjhqcgcIARIDQlVEQAFIAXABggELCP___________wGYAQE&hl=en-US&gl=US

The problem with both is the prices they show are somehow recently reported, however they obtain said info, so if you are fixated on price, prepare to be disappointed when you click through and find those prices are no longer available...and FWIW, I found this to be more of a problem on Kayak than Google Flights, and for that reason alone I exclusively use Google Flights to research flights, and I always book through the airline anyway...

Kayak is also more prone to showing problem connections, like landing at LHR and make your connecting flight at Gatwick, impossible connections to actually make...be very careful using Kayak, especially if you go with their offering (which I would never do).

That and you can't fine tune the lowest price you want. Like lowest economy with a checked bag.

But it's a tool, not the end all solution. You still gotta go to the airline and research each "low" fare. But it does present a narrower list of options to research.

Be aware that your search may create a cookie that an airline can use to increase their price to you. Best practice is to search in incognito mode so that no cookie is created and placed on your device. When you are ready to book, switch out of incognito mode to simplify signing in to an airline account if you are a member for their rewards program.

https://www.going.com/glossary/cookies.

https://thriftytraveler.com/guides/searching-incognito-for-flights/

https://www.skyscanner.net/news/tips/do-cookies-increase-flight-prices

Cookies and flight prices

Cookies and flight prices

Mr E is correct, that is urban legend. Airline pricing is dynamic, changes constantly, the airlines are not spying on you and manipulating the prices when you make inquiries.

Last summer I searched hundred plus times for flights. And, I finally found a really incredibly low business class flight, after all those searches. So I agree, the airlines are not tracking our searches.

Even if this cookie legend had some germ of truth to it., it could not be tracking through Google Flights/ITA matrix. They are the user searching fares per parameters given. There could be thousands of users at that moment making the same search request via Google. Google is not going to put something in their cookies regarding tis, and the airlines searched on ly know that Google is looking at their current listed prices. And Google flights not only gives the price it sees at the airline, it even sometimes give combinations through two partners that cannot otherwise be obtained fromm either of their sites directly. Now, Kayak, for exam pie could be tracking a user request as they ahve a vested interest in trying to sell tickets through themselves.

Google Flights uses ITA Matrix; Google Flights is much faster because it caches data. This means that sometimes Google Flights will show you an itinerary but when you select it and go to the airline website it is no longer available-- it has been sold out, either that fare bucket or possibly the entire flight.

OTOH, Google Flight does allow you to set up a price alert for a specific itinerary, and get emails when the price goes up or down. I've not found this to work, however, for open-jaw.

Even if this cookie legend had some germ of truth to it.,

Nope, no germ of truth. Not on Kayak, or Google Flights, and not on the airline sites, either.