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Finding Flights Becomes Much Easier With Google Flight Search Results On Google.com [News]

Yaara Lancet — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:00:30 +0000

Google is getting deeper and deeper into the flight-search business, and is now offering immediate flight search results on Google.com. The service currently supports only US domestic flights, and only selected routes within those, but more routes should be added in time, hopefully worldwide ones as well.

The flight search service is not a new one, it had been introduced back in September, and offers route and price comparisons for many US domestic flights, complete with booking links from the airlines themselves. This is not to be confused with the flight schedule service, which has been around since May, and offers information about non-stop routes around the world in 11 languages.

Until today, when performing a search such as “flights from Chicago to Las Vegas”, you were shown flight schedules in the regular search results, and had the option to choose “Flights” on the left-side toolbar to access the flight search service. It has now becomes even easier. In the next few days, you will notice that when you perform a search for one of the available routes, the results page will already include a table with the available flights, prices, etc.

If you can’t see this yet, don’t worry – Google, as usual, are announcing things as they roll, and you should see the feature in your search results within the next few days. Hopefully, this will be expanded to include worldwide flights soon, which will make it useful for a lot more people.

Source: Inside Search Google Blog

Image Credit: Shutterstock

3 Lesser Known Flight Search Engines That Will Help You On Your Quest For Cheap Flights

Yaara Lancet — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:31:10 +0000

Searching for flights is a confusing business. There are numerous websites and airlines, and even when I think I’ve found the best option, I never know what I actually missed.

We all know websites like Expedia, Kayak and Orbitz, and sometimes these big websites are more than enough. But from all those other smaller websites out there, how do we know which are good and which are less convenient? Which ones offer cheap airline flights and which ones are a waste of time? Personally, I also dislike websites that compare prices over numerous windows. I want to see everything in one simple window within the website I’m using.

Here are 3 travel websites which are less known, but offer low fares, single windows and and some extra spark in the form of an interesting UI or useful information about the flights. I find that many times, when I search for flights, I’d rather use them over the big shots.

FareGeek

FareGeek had me at “geek”. Really. How can I not use a website with a name like that?

Having said that, FareGeek does offer something beyond the cool name. It offers some of the lowest fares I’ve seen (sometimes, anyway). The search interface is rather ordinary. You get to choose destinations, dates etc., and you can also specify that your dates or airports are flexible. I love the flexible dates option, because sometimes flight prices change dramatically within a day.

The search results layout is also nothing special, but the fares this website finds are, as I mentioned, pretty good. Here you can see that the best price it gave me for a flight from Toronto to London is $1,112 CAD (approx. $1,153 USD). Quite expensive, but it’s that time of year. On the left side you have a big “modify your search” button, which you can use to easily change just one part of your query or all of it. One glitch in FareGeek – it gives the price in the currency of the starting point, and I found no way to change that.

The flexible dates matrix is simple and easy to understand and browse, and you can use it to discover how fares sometimes change dramatically when you change your travel dates by one day.

Hipmunk

Hipmunk is a totally new take on flight search. True, it is quite well known, but it’s not as big as others, and you got to love the user interface – and the chipmunk. Other than that, Hipmunk doesn’t provide a lot of options when it comes to the search interface. Other than the usual things, you can also have it search flexible dates by telling it to search for flights in the days before or after the dates you specified.

But the search results, now there’s something different. This is not your simple list of trips, but a whole chart of flight bars. Each colored bar represents a flight, and you see each leg of the flight in a separate chart. You can easily see the length of the flight and the length of the stopovers, and choose the leg you like best. You can sort the flights easily, the default sorting being by “agony”, which is a combination of the price, duration and the number of stops.

When you’re done selecting your first leg, go on to select the next one. You can start a new search in a new tab, and your previous search will be saved in its tab so you can go back to it at any time. I love this interface. The prices you get here are not always the cheapest (I got $1,170 from Toronto to London), but it’s still worth a search, even if you just want to clearly see what’s available.

Lately, Hipmunk added the option to see which flights have Wi-Fi. Another welcome addition to this fun website.

InsideTrip

InsideTrip might be the least known of these websites, but it’s worth getting to know. InsideTrip’s gimmick is a score each flight gets, which is comprised of different aspects of interest.

You start by searching for your flight as usual, and you immediately get an average score for the whole market of your selected route. It’s interesting, but still not very useful, as you usually don’t choose your route by how fun it is, but more by necessity. But it could be helpful if you’re actually still debating where you should go. You can compare the results with several other websites if that’s your thing, but you can choose not to compare at all. The flexible date option is sorely missing.

The flight matrix you get in the search results is interesting. Each flight gets a score.

You can use the dashboard to select what this score will be calculated by. If the most important thing for you is legroom and lost bags rank, you can rate the fights according to those things only. You can also screen your results so you see only flights with a certain score or above. This is great to play with.

The prices I found were not bad either ($1,164 for Toronto to London), but again, you can use this website just to know more about these airlines, even if you don’t use it for your final booking.

Conclusion

Information is almost as important as the final price, and these websites provide some useful information, on top of some decent prices. They might not always provide better prices than the big ones (but check out FareGeek, which many times does), but by the time you finish playing with them, you might know a bit more about flights and airlines. Not to mention that they make flight searching fun!

Let us know in the comments if you know of some good flight websites that are less known.

Google Search Now Shows Flight Schedules [News]

Angela Alcorn — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:37:51 +0000

Just in time for the summer holidays, Google has begun to offer flight schedules in search results. This makes it a whole lot easier to quickly see regular flight scheduling, analyse how often your desired route is offered and which airlines offer the route you’re looking for.

It’s a move which is also reflected worldwide, including international routes and the smaller airports, which enables everyone to quickly ascertain their available holiday flights and which airlines to approach in order to purchase tickets. The results do not show pricing, but merely allow you to understand how often the flights run and how long they will take.

In order to search for flights, simply type in “flights” followed by your two end-points. For instance, “flights paris amsterdam” will show you flight schedules for the Paris to Amsterdam route.

In the basic results, you can easily see the airport codes, airlines which take this route, how long a direct flight will take and how often flights run per day. If you click on “Schedule of non-stop flights” you’ll also see details of the hours these flights generally run and their flight number.

It’s also possible to search for all flights from a certain location in order to find an easy holiday destination. To do this, search for “flights from XYZ” and replace XYZ with your local airport.

If you’re interested in cheap flights, you might also like to read about the 3 best websites to find cheap flights and the best sites for cheap travel deals for your next vacation.

Did you just search flights leaving your local airport? Has it got you thinking about possible trips to those locations? How do you think this will affect the travel industry? Let us know in the comments!

Source: MacWorld

5 Websites On Aircrafts & The History Of Flight

Saikat Basu — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:31:05 +0000

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; that wasn’t just the title of the 1965 British comedy film but also the title that should be bestowed on those fearless men who made the modern miracle of flight possible. Today, we take airplanes and flying for granted. But where it not for developments beginning early (in fact earlier) last century, we still would have been grounded on terra firma.

Studying the history of flight makes us appreciate the events that made it all possible. The history of aircrafts and flight is also the success story of human adventure. It is not only educational but also inspirational. Thanks to the web we can today easily take a peek into the past and learn about the turn of events that shaped aviation. Then there are the interactive ‘simulators’ like the Wright Brothers 1903 plane which gives us a ‘virtual’ feel of the first flight.

Fly out to the five websites listed below.

Century of Flight

You can start off with the Aviation Timeline. The site records the complete history of aviation from early flight myths to today’s cutting edge space exploration. The site is very simply organized with the menu on the left. Some sections of special interest could be the one on the early aviation pathfinders and the collection of classic aviation posters.

The Aerodrome

Probably nothing captured the popular imagination than the flying aces from the First World War. This website documents those wonderful flying men and their flying machines. Through articles, photographs, medals awarded, books, and timelines explore aviation history of that eventful period. For instance, the World War I aircraft timeline is a well illustrated look at how the development of the fighter aircraft really took off because of the war. The information is well categorized and there are multiple ways by which you can narrow down on a specific item. The site also has an online discussion board where you can talk shop with other aviation buffs. Go through the Links section and the one on Today in History.

Air Force Historical Research Agency

The agency and the site documents the development of the U.S Air Force since the days of the Second World War. Today, it consists of over 70,000,000 pages devoted to the history of the service, and is the world’s largest and most valuable organized collection of documents on US military aviation. You can dive into the site or target specific documents using AFHRA’s search engine. Many information records are provided as downloadable PDF guides. The site also has a superb collection of photographs like the ones on the early Wright Brothers flying machines. There’s also an Art Archive with an interesting section by Disney.

Chasing The Sun

This cool website is courtesy the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) program that chronicles the history of commercial aviation. The website directly offers or links to interactive sources which explore planes through the years and the innovators behind them. You can peek into aviation history with the help of old newsreels on plane flights and launches. Check out the Aviation Timeline and the Resources section for other informative links. For instance, you come across NOVA (PBS’ science program) website which has a really cool animated interactive Wright Brother’s Flying Machine from 1903. You can ‘pilot’ the plane thanks to the Flash player.

To Fly Is Everything

This is a virtual museum that’s all about the invention and development of the airplane. Aviation history buffs will love the movies & photos database while more serious students of aviation history would dive into the text intensive library. Me…I am busy downloading and playing the 1903 Wright Brother’s Shockwave simulator and notching up some airtime.

Just five websites on the more than a century’s worth of the history of flight! Not at all; there are lots more out there. For instance, you can go to the History channel website and try out a search on aviation related content. So, let us know if you are an aviation buff and your favorite site for reading up on the stuff that takes us up into the air.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

6 Best Sites to View Maps of Airline Flight Paths + Bonus Mobile Apps

Dave Drager — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:30:55 +0000

If you have ever waited anxiously for a family member or friend to arrive at your airport after a long flight you will understand the need to receive reliable, up to date information about where a plane currently is located and when they are estimated to arrive. I covered some sites for tracking flights back in 2008 but much has changed and also there is a greater focus on mobile apps since smartphones are now more prevalent.

The way I see it, you have two reasons to need to view maps of an airline flight path: You are waiting for a family member or friend to arrive at the airport safely – let’s call this informational only, or you are waiting at the airport/driving in to pick up that person. These are two totally separate uses and a website does not do you much good if all you have is a smartphone or even just a regular phone. The sites below are reviewed based on these two parameters: informational sites for casual viewing and must-have information for those traveling to the airport for pickups.

FlightStats

FlightStats is my favorite website for tracking flight information on the web. It provides comprehensive flight information for all flights originating in the United States and also fairly comprehensive coverage for overseas flights in Europe. For other countries, the data you receive is hit or miss.

The content it provides (on US flights) is comprehensive. You can see the flight path on a variety of maps, all powered by Google Maps. You can also overlay radar which is a nice feature that the other flight tracking sites do not provide.

Flightstats.com does not have a free iPhone app; however there are some paid ones if you are interested in that (I list some great free alternatives below). They do have a suite of Android apps; including FlightStats for Android Lite which is free.

Finally, the killer feature that is unique to Flightstats is automatic notification via cell phone text or email when a flight is delayed or its status is updated at all (for example, when it arrives at the gate). This allows someone picking up a flyer to know when they get there without relying on a call; it also provides gate information.

Flightview

Flightview offers much of the same information as Flightstats above. You get a live map (although not as pretty as Flightstats) time and delay information, and more. The website isn’t quite as polished but it is still very informative for the flight traveller.

The one area where Flightview really shines is mobile apps. They offer free mobile flight tracking apps for iPhone [iTunes link], Android, Blackberry and other platforms. Their mobile app for flight tracking is one of the highest rated in the iTunes app store and it is easy to see why: flights are easy to find, gate information and a maps at your fingertips.

Flightwise

Flightwise, formerly our favorite named fboweb, has some compelling features you might want to look at. They are geared more towards the technical information about a flight so if you are an aviation enthusiast you might want to choose them over the other sites. They have a free iPhone app, but information like the arrival Gate is left out for the paid versions.

Flightwise offers one of the coolest visualizations of a flight on a map. One click and you can see the flight you are interested in, and nearby flights, in near-realtime 3D.

This visualization is both interesting from a “cool” factor and also from an educational viewpoint. Elevation, speed and location are all mapped onto the earth in real-time, it doesn’t get much cooler than that!

FlightArrivals

FlightArrivals has the information listed above, but also adds some interesting other visualizations of airlines. You can select an airport and see all of the flights out of that airport to other cities and countries.

Flightaware

Flightaware has another neat visualization to add to the list above. In addition to receiving specific flight tracking for a commercial or private pilot flight, it also has a real-time map of US flights. Although it doesn’t display specific information for all of the flights, you can get a general idea as to the activity of the current airspace. They have historical information which is pretty neat to look at and watch.

Flightaware also has a free iPhone app that will help you track and store flights.

HelloFlight

HelloFlight offers some interesting maps of airline flight paths. On their site they show all current positions of SouthWest airplanes in flight, as well as providing tracking information for any other commercial US flight.

They have a mobile site up at http://m.helloflight.com/ which would be handy if you are mobile and need to retrieve flight information.

Whichever site you choose to use, you can get some really cool visualizations whether at home or on the go. Flight paths are available both for commercial airlines and private pilot trips (depending on if they are travelling IFR or VFR) and this information is both useful and fun.

Many of the sites mentioned above have a “Show a random flight” link, if you don’t know of any current flight numbers try those to get a sample of what they have to offer, that way when you do need to use the sites you will know which one will work the best for you. Happy travels!

The 10 Best Free International Travel Guide Websites

Saikat Basu — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:31:42 +0000

It’s said that there are no great adventures anymore. The spotlight of information and far reaching connectivity has left us with no strange places to discover. Or so the popular opinion goes. Travel guides and travel websites have brought some wondrous places close to us; either with their enticing photographs or with first hand traveler accounts. Today’s online international travel guides are also proving handy for the budget traveler who can plan for each dollar.

In the years before the web spun the world around, travel tips came through word of mouth. Now, you can just log on and be a voyeur as travelers carry you along each step of their journey. Which are these websites that allow you to be your own traveling guide?

Let’s pack our bags and take a free trip with the ten free international travel guides mentioned below.

Frommer’s Travel Guide

The word this top travel website throws about is ‘candid’. That describes the travel tips they have collected over the years. If you can’t buy one of their travel guides, then this website is just as good a resource for getting to know any destination on the map. By the way, there is a large red map that you can navigate on the site. The articles on each location cover everything that you would care to know, from nightlife information to side trips. You can jump to the Frommer’s forums too and engage in a discussion with travelers. Short of travel ideas? Explore their inviting slideshows. Also look into the Trip Ideas section.

Trip Advisor

Trip Advisor is all about reviews and advice on hotels, resorts, flights, vacation rentals, vacation packages, travel guides etc. On each destination’s page you can check out information like top rated hotels, things to do, vacation rentals, restaurants etc along with videos and images. As it is a popular website, expect to read a lot of reviews on each aspect of your planned travel. Subscribe to the free newsletter which sends you the latest information on your chosen location. Traipse over to Advice from real travelers section for valuable tips. You can also download a free PDF city guide for the destinations.

Virtual Tourist

We covered this cool travel guide website which covers nearly 60,000 worldwide destinations just at the turn of last year, so I won’t go into too much detail here as Bakari has shown How To Use Virtual Tourist For Planning Your Next Trip.

Let’s Go

If there’s a domain name which eggs you on to catch the next flight out, this is it. The tips on the site are about traveling on a budget. The company has been known for its budget travel guides over the last 50 years. If you are searching for bargains on your sojourns, this site is worth a visit. The stories on destinations around the world make interesting reading and just might make you change a plan or two for the better.

BootsnAll

The “˜indie’ in their catchphrase is meant for the independent traveler. The site has a complete guide listing where you can browse to the destination of your choice. Also check out the Adventure Destination guides featured on the site. The site also has a pretty active forum for travel chit-chat.

World Travel Guide

Gets lots of free international travel guides to destinations around the world. The guide is available in English, German, French and Spanish. The site has a nice “˜Holiday Ideas’ section for some inspirational travel ideas. The homepage features a neat globe browser for pinpointing places worldwide. Catch the best deals and the latest events too on the dedicated pages for each location.

Rough Guides

The neatest feature on the site (apart from all the travel content) is the Rough Guide to The World picture mosaic map. There’s a movable “˜World Lens’ which you can hover on any location and check out the experiences as pictures. Also subscribe to the free Rough Guides Podcasts every month. Another useful audio download is the free phrasebook available for select languages. Or you can forget about all that and play the Rough Roads Game!

ViaMichelin

For international travelers coming to Europe, this site is a handy one-stop place for mapping, route plans, on-line hotel booking, Michelin Guide hotel, restaurant, tourist recommendations and weather and traffic reports. The site is brought to you by the renowned tire brand ““ Michelin. The route guides provided are the most informative you can find anywhere.

Concierge

If you frequent the web, then you will be familiar with the names of their network websites (Wired.com. Ars Technica, Epicurious, Reddit etc). The site has a large list of international travel guides covering all the hotspots around the world. You can browse them by name or click on the interactive map to start exploring with articles, pictures, and videos. Then there’s an established community too for sharing travel tips.

Atlas Obscura

Sometimes places off the beaten track make for great adventures. You could discover one on this site which according to the site’s own words is a collaborative project with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist. Exploring places by category is the way to go here.

If you are wondering why we left out a site like Lonely Planet, then worry not. The so well known international backpackers’ site as well as a few others has been covered in a previous article on The Best Free Online International Travel Guides. Just goes to show that we have your back covered when it comes to travel, hotels, and flights.

Are you packed?

Image Credit : Shutterstock

The Best Free Online International Travel Guides

Tina Sieber — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:31:58 +0000

Most of us have safely arrived in 2010. With the holidays behind us, it’s time to look forward to the upcoming highlights of 2010: the Winter Olympics in Canada, the Soccer World Championships in South Africa, and of course your individual vacation wherever.

No matter where you want to travel in 2010, preparation is key. You should know what is expecting you, pack the right gear, and bring enough funds to spend an enjoyable vacation. On Amazon or your local book store, you’ll find a huge selection of international travel guides.

To save some money for your trip, skip the expensive guides and begin to research online, where most material is available for free. I have compiled the best free online international travel guides that will provide inspiration and comprehensive information to prepare your trip.

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is the biggest commercial online travel websites. Pick a region from the Destinations tab and dive into the introduction. The sidebar on the left provides a menu, the top picks, eventually fast facts, related groups, and possibly blogs.

The menu leads to in-depth information about places in the area, its history, the climate, getting around, and much more. The map opens from the top and all other destinations are marked with a little flag.

If you have found an interesting place that you would like to keep in mind, you can save the destination, provided you are logged in.

Lonely Planet makes it to the top of the list because not only does it cover a vast amount of destinations with comprehensive articles, it’s also easy to navigate, contains stunning pictures, lets users save their personal highlights and they can contribute to the site through participating in various groups, blogs, and more.

Lonely Planet was also mentioned in my article Cool Online Resources to Plan Your Next Vacation, along with Spotted by Locals, InfoHub, and World Travel Guide.

NileGuide

If you enjoy interactive websites that let you compile information your way, and play with the content, don’t miss out on NileGuide!

To “Get Started”, search for your desired destination. The first thing you’ll see is a “Snapshot“. You’ll notice that the “Overview” provides guides to download. All available guides are listed under the respective tab.

To start customizing your own guide, head over to “Things To Do”, “Restaurants“, or “Bars, Clubs & Nightlife” and play with the filters for the types of things you want to see or do. For example you could set your personal preferences, such as outdoors, off the beaten path, or must-see. You can also select neighborhoods and types of activities. If there is something you must do or see, click “Add To List” and it will appear in a little list in the sidebar on the left.

You can organize your trip and produce your own custom guide. Create a schedule, attach items from your list to each day, and share the result with your friends or other users. The most popular guides appear in the Snapshot Overview. However, the best is, you can print your personalized Guide-to-Go or create a PDF from it. Simply click the “Print My Guide To Go” button on the top right, while in the customize section.

A major draw of the site is its speed. It’s rather laggy and thus requires a bit of patience. Also, at this point the destination archive isn’t very big compared to other free online guides. Nevertheless, the flexibility and interactivity it offers is a killer argument in its favor.

Arrival Guides

These free travel guides are maintained by professional journalists. All information is available online, but each guide can be downloaded as a PDF for free. Some guides are available in several different languages, which is a huge plus of this site.

This page lists the continents and the countries featured on the site. When you click on “View destinations >>” next to a country, you will reach a page that lists its destinations and the available guide languages.

Curiously, there are three different download buttons: one for girls, one for boys traveling with girls, and one for boys. I compared a few of them and wasn’t able to spot a difference. Maybe it depends on the destination or it’s for statistical purposes.

Wikitravel

Wikitravel is a user-driven project. At this point the site comprises over 22,000 destination guides and articles maintained by Wikitravellers from all over the world. If you feel inspired, you yourself can update articles and help keep Wikitravel the most complete and reliable worldwide travel guide.

Wikitravel resembles the structure of the well-known Wikipedia, as it is also powered by MediaWiki. From the Main Page you can search for your travel destination, select a region, discover one of the featured destinations, or load a random page from the navigation menu on the lefthand side. In the toolbox, found at the bottom of the sidebar, you can open a printable version for each page.

The basic organization of the articles is similar to what you will find in commercial guide books. Wikitravel’s edge is the wealth of information, the amount of small places covered, and of course the chance to add your own experience and instantly correct mistakes. All for free!

Wikitravel was featured together with Dopplr in an article by Anthony on 3 Must-Check Traveller Websites Before Your Next Trip.

In Your Pocket

In Your Pocket focuses on destinations throughout Europe. Besides providing free online city guides, the site features articles that highlight various topics of interest to travelers, for example where to ski in Eastern Europe, what souvenirs to bring from Slovenia, or a guide to the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.

While all of the information is available online, buttons in the upper right corner of a destination indicate other means of access. Over 50 comprehensive city guides can be downloaded as PDF’s for free. Many of them can also be viewed as iPaper or you can download an Instant (brief overview) PDF.

MakeUseOf has previously published travel information and advice.

If you’re planning a lengthy trip, check out my article on How To Stay Digitally Charged and Connected On The Road. Before you go, also be sure the Create A Free Travel Packing Checklist With Packwhiz. My post about Hello Backpacker introduces a website with travel information tailored to backpackers and Dean wrote A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks.

Aibek’s post on 10 Travel Websites That Should Be Bookmarked includes a travel itinerary planner, a global ATM locator, a guide for camping at an airport, and a website concerned with clean bathrooms. Guy wrote about TripSay, a social travel guide that connects you to people that share your interests, in order to find travel recommendations that match your taste.

Are you searching for great deals? James explained on How To Find The Best Hotel Deals Online. David introduced 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites, and John covered Top 5 Sites To Search For Cheap Online Car Rentals.

Are you going to use public transport? Karl wrote about MetrO, the ultimate public transport guide for your phone. Ellie compiled 6 Subway Map Tools To Navigate Your Way Through NYC.

What did we miss?

Image Credits: rolve

Flying on a Dime: The 3 Best Websites To Find Cheap Flights

Karl L. Gechlik — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:01:32 +0000

The holiday season is upon us and many of us are planning trips. A question I get all the time is how can I find a cheap flight? To answer that question, I will cover 3 cheap flight websites for your flying escapades ““ 2 of them have worked great for me flying from the United States to all over the world and the last one was suggested by the MakeUseOf founder Aibek Esengulov for being a great website for finding flights from Europe to elsewhere.

So hopefully we have got you covered with these 3 sites:

CheapFlights (US only) ““ CheapFlights is my first go-to cheap flight website to start looking for inexpensive flights. I have probably used them over 100 times in the last 5 or 6 years. I consistently find good deals and most of the time at the last minute.

The beauty about CheapFlights is that you can let the site tell you when it would be the best time to fly. By checking the check box on the homepage that says your dates are flexible, it will do the leg work for you trying to discover the best date and time to fly for the best price.

Go ahead and fill out where you are coming from and going to select your flexibility and hit the find deals now button.

Once you hit that button, the site will do its magic searching like so:

You will see the dates are scattered over the next month or so ““ see if one floats your boat and click on it to go to the corresponding site and book it!

Next up is Cheapo Air. Cheapo Air has international flights both ways. When you get to their homepage it will look like every other major air flight finding service but it will find you some seriously cheap flights ““ there might be 2 or 3 stops or even a layover ““ but if cheap is your goal here you will find a flight.

You have to specify an exact date and time range to where you are going and it will find you the cheapest rates available.

Cheapo Air returned cheap flights as you can see below:

$219! That beats our original site by $70. For someone looking to to save some money, not bad! The trip includes 1 hour and 2 minutes of a layover in Atlanta and they switched my home airport from JFK to Newark, not bad!

Our last site is called SkyScanner which does United States flights as well as European flights. SkyScanner should be your site of choice for booking flights that start or end outside of the United States.

Fill out your information and let’s see what she returns”¦

So going from the United States to the Bahamas costs a lot more from here, but looking for airfares from the United Kingdom to New York we see some great deals:

They let you build your round trip by selecting one flight from the left and one from the right.

You can find some great deals from all three of these sites. But I’m sure there are plenty of other sites where you get your cheap flights from. Feel free to share your favorite sites in the comments!

Help Predict Airport Flight Delays & Save Time With Flightcaster

Karl L. Gechlik — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:01:15 +0000

Do you fly on a regular basis? If you do chances are you know how much it SUCKS when your flight is delayed. And more likely than not your flight’s status will not be marked as delayed until a few minutes before the plane was scheduled to land or arrive.

This severely limits your abilities to change your plans or make an educated decision on how you want to handle things.

When I am flying, it’s mostly for work and I need to be where I need to be when they need me there ““ dig? So a tool like FlightCaster is invaluable to me. You can check it out by going to FlightCaster.com.

Once you are there you can search for your specific flight number or for a specific route. The best part about FlightCaster is that they make flight delay predictions based on scientific data. It works on the notion that if flights before your flight are delayed that will trickle down to you. They also have access to past problems and other information that let them create algorithms that magically tell them if the flight is going to be delayed or not.

According to their blog, flights are delayed all the time. Check out this data:

June Stats

Some informative (or at least interesting) stats on airport flight delays for June 2009.

Raw data from the Department of Transportation (crunched by FlightCaster):

-Most delayed flights (everyday flights, in average time late):

1) American Eagle 4823, Boston – New York LaGuardia

2) Delta 147, Newark – Atlanta

3) Comair (Delta Express) 6662, Charlotte – JFK

4) Mesa (United Express) 7281, Washington Dulles – Austin

5) Jetblue 547, Newark – West Palm Beach

-Least delayed major route: Las Vegas to Kansas City (averaged 2 minutes late all month)

-Most delayed major route: Miami to JFK, averaged 48 minutes late in June

Pretty mind blowing huh? Let’s see how FlightCaster works and how it can help learn what the FAA doesn’t want you to know!

Go ahead and type in a flight number and airline and you will get a page that looks similar to this (hopefully you won’t see red!)

There will be a big red or green box announcing if your plane will or will not be delayed. Then they go on to give you the percentages of what will happen. Awesome for a betting man! (Does that make anyone else think of that episode of Friends?)

Below that will be the mitigating factors in the answer. You can see the break down below. They are Other delays, airport status for departure and arriving airports, official airline status, departing weather and arriving weather.

And now lets check on my friend’s flight today”¦

Awesome it seems that there is an 85% chance it will be on time! Woot.

You might be also interested in Top 5 Airline Flight Tracking Websites that Dave covered earlier. There are also a few similar websites listed under flights section on MakeUseOf Directory.

How do your keep up with airport flight delays? When your flight is delayed what do you do? Wait or reschedule? Let us know in the comments!

6 Sites To Make Flying A Whole Lot Easier

David Pierce — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:01:34 +0000

Flying’s no one’s favorite thing. Unless you’re a pilot. But for most of us, flying’s little more than a hassle. Most of the annoyance of flying is due to the airport – checking in, security, terrible food, no outlets, and the like.

Time spent getting a ticket and waiting for your flight (which is often many, many hours) can be miserable, but it doesn’t have to be. Using these five tools, you’ll be able to make your time in the airport a little more bearable, and maybe even a little shorter.

A disclaimer: as I’m in the US, I can’t vouch for all of these tips working anywhere else. Most of them should, but some sites and policies are different outside the US.

1. Book It

Instead of using the airline sites, try using Tripeedo. Tripeedo’s an easy way to search most of the major airlines for tickets, as well as some of the best bargain sites like Kayak, Travelocity, and Orbitz.

Finding a flight’s as easy as typing where you’re coming from and going to, and Tripeedo does all the searching for you. You won’t buy your ticket from Tripeedo, but it’ll put you on the page you want to see – unlike most airline sites.

For more, check out Tripeedo’s directory listing.

2. Check Your Flight

If your flight’s going to be delayed, it’s often going to happen well before you even get to the airport. Luckily, there are several ways to check your flight status before you even leave.

You can check your airline’s website, but the status page is usually hard to find. Instead, try Googling your airline and flight number, like “Delta flight 365″ for a quick status check at the top of your search results.

If you want to know much more about your flight, try FlightAware. You’ll get a map of the flight’s path, with how far away it is, how fast it’s going, and a whole bunch of other useless but fun information.

3. Check In Faster

Most airlines these days allow for online check-in. That means you avoid the long lines, the obnoxious people, and the terror of almost missing your flight when the attendant is inhumanly slow.

Go online, check in and print your boarding pass, and head straight to the gate. In just a few minutes of research, I found that American Airlines, United, Continental, Delta, Alaska Air, Frontier Air, Southwest and Spirit Airlines all offer online check in – and that’s just the first page of Google! To find your airline’s site, Google “online check in” plus your airline, and you’ll be good to go.

4. Fly Through Security

Airport security’s a pain, but there’s just no way around it. You can, however, make the process go a whole lot faster by following some critical steps. Wired Magazine created a how-to Wiki called “Fly Through Airport Security.”

Among the useful tips are things like checking the TSA website to find out the average wait times, and only using two bins for your stuff. Got a great tip? You can add it to the Wiki right on the Wired site.

5. Find An Outlet

Outlets are a precious commodity in the airport. Though I recommend to always bring a power strip, or at least a power splitter, to the airport when you travel, I nearly always forget to do so.

Thanks to my failure of a memory, I rely on the Air Power Wiki. The Wiki is a guide to airports all over the world, letting you know where to look for a free outlet. It’s often updated, and you can even update it yourself- either way, it’s a killer way to find a power source anywhere. Best of all, the outlets are often in places I wouldn’t think to look otherwise, like this one in Dublin: “At the Gate Clock bar: turn left in the main bar door, look for tables on the left: the table just past the elevator has a pair of sockets near it on the bar side.”

6. Find Wi-Fi

You’re through security, ready to get on your flight – and your flight gets delayed for 8 hours. Problem? Not if you know where to look! Free or cheap Wi-Fi is out there, just waiting to be found.

Before you leave for the airport, check a couple of these sites to find out your Internet situation. First, try the list of “Free wifi airports” compiled by SmallBusiness that tells you which airports, and where in those airports, you’ll find free Wi-Fi. If you can’t find free, find cheap. TravelPost has a guide to 219 US airports with Wireless locations, types and prices for each one. For the most complete list, though without prices, try weather.com’s “Airports with Wi-Fi” list. You’ll be able to see just about every location in every American airport that will offer you Wi-Fi, free or otherwise.

Armed with a boarding pass, the right amount of time, the right security tips, Wi-Fi and a power source, the airport won’t seem like such a hassle anymore. Flight’s delayed for 3 days? Who cares, you’ve got Wi-Fi! Just don’t steal my outlet.

Photos: Travelin’ Librarian, alist, catcubed, futureshape