Kayak incomplete on open jaws?

[mountainhouse]

I'm checking fares on SFO>ZRH, AMS>SFO. Kayak is showing the lowest Lufthansa as $1768 (this involves other airlines). But if I go to Lufthansa.com, I see an all-Lufthansa itinerary priced at $1580. I saw a similar case with Air Canada. I'm starting to think airfare search engines are not reliable for open jaws. Anyone having similar experiences?

[ab0si]

Several possibilities.. one is that Kayak is including all fees and taxes and the airline's sites are not (until you get to the purchase page.)

[mountainhouse]

No. Double checked that. Next screen on Lufthansa.com asks for my booking info. They show $606.69 in taxes.

 

973.00 +606.69 x1 Adult=$1579.69

 

Is that you on QRZ? :)

[paul929207]

Also, verify that with Kayak, you are sorting by fare.

[mountainhouse]

Yes. "Price (low to high)*".

[Globaliser]

Anyone having similar experiences?

I can't reproduce your problem, but then I don't know which dates or flights you're looking at so I can't hazard any guesses as to why that might occur.

 

Except to mention that the Lufthansa site is sometimes very picky about the way you enter dates, so you might want to check that you're actually pricing exactly the same dates there rather than flights in a completely different price season.

[6rugrats]

I'm checking fares on SFO>ZRH, AMS>SFO. Kayak is showing the lowest Lufthansa as $1768 (this involves other airlines). But if I go to Lufthansa.com, I see an all-Lufthansa itinerary priced at $1580. I saw a similar case with Air Canada. I'm starting to think airfare search engines are not reliable for open jaws. Anyone having similar experiences?

 

Your answer is in the bolded part of your post. The price changes because of the mixture of other airlines.

[mountainhouse]

My concern is that the lufthansa.com itinerary priced at $1580 is not showing up on Kayak. I just reran the Kayak search, and restricting it to a FRA layover, I don't see any all-Lufthansa itineraries over the 8 screens worth.

[6rugrats]

My concern is that the lufthansa.com itinerary priced at $1580 is not showing up on Kayak. I just reran the Kayak search, and restricting it to a FRA layover, I don't see any all-Lufthansa itineraries over the 8 screens worth.

Why is this important?

[mountainhouse]

I normally assume searching Kayak covers all the lowest fares. If it's incomplete, then I really should be searching each of the individual airlines. Just more time consuming when I check fares.

[6rugrats]

Just use these sites as a guideline and then go to the airline's site. It's never guaranteed that the fare will be the lowest, or even be available, but it's a good place to start your research.

[ab0si]

No. Double checked that. Next screen on Lufthansa.com asks for my booking info. They show $606.69 in taxes.

 

973.00 +606.69 x1 Adult=$1579.69

 

Is that you on QRZ? :)

 

Yep, dat's me at my old QTH. Have since moved to Florida to take care of my in-laws and have not been active (living in a condo). Like my Puff and Sip CW method? <grin>

 

OK, my guess was wrong in re the price differences. You did notice, though, that I covered myself by including "possibilities" in my response. My father was a lawyer, my brother is a lawyer .. it's a CYA gene, I think.

 

73

 

Paul aka guido aka AB0SI

[alidor]

And to toss in some more confusion - a good travel agent can often beat any travel site. Consumers are lead to believe that one particular site over another or online sites in general provide the "best" possible air fare and that can't be further from the truth. Often, the bottom price is the bottom price but there can be so mary variables that a good travel agent can get for you.

[mountainhouse]

Yep, dat's me at my old QTH. Have since moved to Florida to take care of my in-laws and have not been active (living in a condo). Like my Puff and Sip CW method? <grin>

 

Thanks for the help, Paul. 73.

[mountainhouse]

Thanks, everyone! It's never the easy answer, 6rugrats. Darn! :)

[6rugrats]

Thanks, everyone! It's never the easy answer, 6rugrats. Darn! :)

Is that mountainhouse as in Mountain House by Tracy?

[mountainhouse]

I'm not far from Tracy, but that was not reason for the name. It's not really a secret, but I don't mention it online since it would be a bit too much personal information. :)

[Globaliser]

I normally assume searching Kayak covers all the lowest fares. If it's incomplete, then I really should be searching each of the individual airlines. Just more time consuming when I check fares.

If we could see what you can see, we might be able to work out why there's this discrepancy on your dates/flights. But we can't because we don't know which you're looking at - I can only guess that this is some time in (or including) July 2012 because of the cruise you're going on. The $1700+ price broadly matches what I can see, but the Lufthansa site matches Kayak every time.

[ab0si]

If we could see what you can see, we might be able to work out why there's this discrepancy on your dates/flights. But we can't because we don't know which you're looking at - I can only guess that this is some time in (or including) July 2012 because of the cruise you're going on. The $1700+ price broadly matches what I can see, but the Lufthansa site matches Kayak every time.

 

 

Perhaps the cheaper fare was NOT a Lufthansa fare, but a bucket fare. Alternatively, one of the fares could have been from a partner airline (either higher or lower fare). The advantage of not having complete information is that it is SOOO much easier to come up with possible explanations.

[FlyerTalker]

I normally assume searching Kayak covers all the lowest fares. If it's incomplete, then I really should be searching each of the individual airlines. Just more time consuming when I check fares.

Unfortunately, there is no one all-encompassing site that can track and search EVERY possible combination of flights. I have tended to find that ITA is one of the best, but even then, you should take the multi-track path and do searches on several meta-sites, and then follow up with individual airline sites for carriers that service the city pair you need.

 

Even a simple routing like LAX to LHR -- a site could look at the non-stop routing and give you a fairly comprehensive answer. Now think of all the different ways you could get to LHR connecting in the USA. Add in connecting through Canada and/or Mexico in North America. Add in connections through European hubs. Add in connections through an NA hub plus a Euro hub. Or multiple hubs in both continents.

 

Now figure that for each of those routings, you could have multiple components available....say LAX-DFW-LHR. How many different LAX-DFW segments could you utilize?

 

Very quickly, it becomes a huge number of possibilities. Can one system find EVERY one to compare? Probably not.....so you go in with the knowledge that you have to use several sources to reduce your possible gaps. Then toss in the human intel of knowing certain quirks of schedules and operations. And even then you will never know if you had it all covered.

 

OTOH, Schrodinger's cat has the complete knowledge of all fares. But you can't be sure where to find it.

[mountainhouse]

Good point, FlyerTalker. The huge number of possibilities has started to hit me as I look at more sites. Thanks!

 

After looking this week, we decided to go for it. I think itinerary was key for us. Taking Swiss non-stop SFO-ZRH will be nice, and then Lufthansa back from AMS. Both arrival times suit us too. I admit to a mild interest in planes, so this will be our first time on an A380. :D

[Globaliser]

I admit to a mild interest in planes, so this will be our first time on an A380.

Nice! Congratulations - it should be good.