Planning a trip with multiple destinations can be quite stressful. There are dozens of flights to compare, arrival and departure times to synchronize, and baggage to get to the right spots.
To make things worse, some of the mega flight search engines try to trick you into buying more expensive flights – more on this later.
I’m going to show you how you can book the best flights for your trip with only a fraction of the cost and stress. For you to do this, you need to be aware of the tricks some flight search engines play on you and which engines you can trust.
Let me show you.
Google Flights VS Sky-Tours Showdown
Mega flight search engines play a tricky game when you try to book flights for a multi-city journey. Those systems aim to maximize profits. They show you fewer, more expensive options, rather than helping you find the cheapest tickets.
Let’s do a real-world test.
Here are the flights we’ll use to compare Google Flights and Sky-Tours:
- Geneva, Switzerland to Tallinn, Estonia
- Tallinn, Estonia to Sofia, Bulgaria
- Sofia, Bulgaria to Palermo, Italy
When I search for these flights on Google, I am given a list flight options. The least expensive fare for the first of three flights is $447 on a 6:45am flight. The next cheapest flights are at least twice as expensive.
Nothing seems fishy yet, but allow me to search for the same set of flights and dates on our own Sky-Tours multi-city booking option.
Our system presents me with a total price for all three flights of the journey. The lowest price option is $1,415 (taxes and fees included), which gives me several flight options that fit within that price point.
Notice the times of these flights. Not one of them is at 6:45am. They all fall in the early afternoon, a much less stressful time to fly.
Why doesn’t Google present these more approachable flight times? Because they want you to book a far more expensive option (like that $955 flight).
Let’s try to find that 1:00pm to 10:35pm flight with Air France (the second option on the Sky-Tours search) on Google Flights.
Google Flights lists the 1:00pm flight from Geneva to Tallinn at $775. This is over half the total of all three flights combined, according to the Sky-Tours itinerary.
Why is this flight option missing on the initial Google flight search, even when I order the results by price? Why does the Google search skip from a $447 flight to a $955 flight without showing me this more convenient $755 option?
I’m not sure – but it does cause me to lose trust that Google’s flight search is interested in helping me save money and find the best flights.
Let’s break down what we know so far:
Google Flights Multi-City Booking
- Shows fewer flight options
- Skips over inexpensive and convenient flights to encourage greater spending
Sky-Tours Multi-City Booking
- Shows a variety of flights within a variety of price points
- Prioritizes the most convenient and least expensive flights
Which Search Engine Provides Better Results?
Though Google Flights has raised some red flags, we need to see the final flights and price before we can know which search engine is better.
For this final comparison, I looked at the next set of flights on Sky-Tours for a slight price increase of $40. Despite the increase, Sky-Tours still beat out Google Flights on cost and convenience.
Google Flights Total Cost: $1,514
This is the least expensive set of flights, according to Google. Here’s what the flights look like:
Geneva to Tallinn, 6:35am to 12:30pm (4 hours and 45 minutes)
Tallinn to Sofia, 6:05pm to 12:15pm (18 hours and 10 minutes)
Sofia to Palermo, 7:25pm to 7:05pm (24 hours and 40 minutes)
Total travel time: 47 hours and 35 minutes
Sky-Tours Total Cost: $1,456
Geneva to Tallinn, 2:40pm to 10:35pm (6 hours and 55 minutes)
Tallinn to Sofia, 10:45am to 5:15pm (6 hours and 30 minutes)
Sofia to Palermo, 7:05pm to 10:40pm (4 hours and 35 minutes)
Total travel time: 18 hours
Which set of flights would you rather pay for?
The Best Multi-City Flight Search Engine
We built the Sky-Tours flight search engine to serve the traveler, not the airlines.
We designed our Multi-City booking option to be powerful, simple, and painless. Whether you’re planning a round-the-world adventure or just want to hop around Europe for a week, booking flights for a multi-city journey should be a breeze
With over 40 years of experience and an army of travel agents, Sky-Tours is the best place to find cheap and convenient flights around the world. We don’t call ourselves you personal online travel agent for nothing!
See our innovative multi-city flight search engine for yourself.
Happy flying!
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