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New York (AP) -- A lot has changed since I reviewed travel
websites four years ago. Now the best ones reflect the new
realities of travel, and offer to include luggage fees in fare
calculations. That helps because $15 or $25 applied each way can
turn a good deal sour.

      Four years ago, I recommended travel-focused search engines,
particularly Kayak, as a one-stop shop for airline deals. These
services check multiple sites at once and let you book directly
through the airlines. By contrast, online travel agencies such as


 did the booking for you - and tacked on several
dollars in service fees.


      I'm pleased to say that those fees are largely gone, partly a
response to rising competition. Yet after trying all the sites
again, I am still sticking with the search engines for their ease
of use. Sometimes the search engines still refer me to an online
travel agency for the best deal, but at least they've checked
around for me.

      And I can more easily use the search engines to narrow my
choices based on departure times, frequent-flier programs and other
criteria.

      Before I get into why TripAdvisor was slightly better than Kayak
and Bing Travel, I'll note that they all work similarly. Start by
typing where you are leaving from and where you are going. Then
pick the departure and return dates and hit "search" or "find
flights."

      You'll get a list of flight options, which you can sort by price
and other criteria. If you prefer non-stop flights, you can uncheck
boxes for one or more stops. If you need to get there by noon, you
can adjust an on-screen slider to eliminate afternoon and evening
flights.

      Kayak and TripAdvisor let you filter out airlines that aren't
part of specific frequent-flier alliances, so you can be sure
you'll earn miles. Kayak also lets you choose whether you want only
flights with Wi-Fi wireless service.


      Let me step back to say that no search engine is complete. It
all depends on deals a search engine makes with the airlines and
travel agencies. Kayak and Bing, for instance, can incorporate
fares from Orbitz, but not Expedia, while TripAdvisor can pull
fares from Expedia, but not Orbitz. None of the ones tested
includes Southwest Airlines fares.


      As a workaround, these search engines do offer easy ways to
search those excluded sites in a separate window. Bing also
includes Southwest flight schedules in its results - just not the
fares.

      Based on all this so far, Kayak would win because it offers more
filtering choices than the others. But that conclusion would miss
nifty features elsewhere.


      Bing, run by Microsoft Corp., has Visual Search Galleries that
help identify the best options based on whether you're looking for
a family vacation or a honeymoon destination, what time of year you
want to travel and how long you are willing to sit on an airplane.


      Bing also lets you search for multiple destinations at once, not
just multiple airports in a region. If you're being indecisive
about whether to fly to Chicago, Miami or Boston this summer, plug
in all three and let Bing pull up all the options.


      Charts and graphs help compare fares by departure date and
length of stay. They are based on what Bing calls "observation
queries" - daily checks of millions of flight and date
combinations, all analyzed and stored in a database awaiting your
query. By contrast, other sites that recommend the cheapest travel
dates generally use data from what their users recently searched,
so the results are typically incomplete.

      Once you've settled on where and when to go, Bing can predict
whether fares are likely to go up or down if you wait. It's based on the Farecast technology that Microsoft bought in 2008.

      I tested it by performing the same dozen flight searches seven
times over a week. Had I followed Bing's recommendation to buy or
wait on Day One, I would have spent a total of $210 more on four
flights but saved a combined $400 on seven others (The price on the
12th was unchanged). Not bad.


      That said, Bing didn't always produce the lowest fares. That
honor goes to TripAdvisor, based on test searches for a half-dozen
different trips. TripAdvisor once even found a lower fare on
Expedia than Expedia's own site did.


      Three of the travel agency sites - Orbitz, 

 - sometimes appeared to have a better fare by rounding
down, but basic math calls for rounding $169.70 to $170 - not $169.
I discovered that only by clicking on the fare - in Priceline's
case, after entering my name and selecting a seat as well.
TripAdvisor didn't try to hide that dollar.

      I also liked TripAdvisor's tool for calculating bag fees and
other add-ons. Simply enter the number of bags you are checking,
whether you are have an elite frequent-flier status (which
sometimes comes with free bag checking) and whether you'd like to
buy food, alcohol or headphones on the flight.

      TripAdvisor estimates and adds the fees to your base fare for
comparison. A JetBlue flight might suddenly come out as cheapest
because it lets you check one bag for free.

      Kayak has such a feature, too, but it's less versatile and
harder to find.

      Some travelers may prefer the comfort of travel agencies such as
Orbitz, which sometimes offer rebates when fares go down and send
text messages informing you of delays and gate changes. These
travel agencies also offer discounted flight and hotel packages.
You might also get good deals by signing up for fare alerts and
Twitter feeds that airlines, 

 and many other
sites offer. Hotwire also offers cut-rate prices - but you might
have to buy before you find out the airline and flight time.

      Nonetheless, the travel search engines remain a good starting
point. I've long been a fan of Kayak, but this test has opened my
eyes to other options out there. I like Bing's tools for helping me
decide where and when to go - as well as when to buy. But once I've
made that decision, nothing beats saving money. TripAdvisor came
through.

Gallery

Lifestyle

The best sites reflect the new
realities of travel, and offer to include luggage fees in fare
calculations.

Top travel search websites reviewed

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