Kip Tips
How to Find Quality Flights
A new Web site gives air travelers a lot more information than just the price of a ticket.
By Cameron Huddleston, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger.com
May 20, 2010
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When it comes to booking flights, I'm motivated by price (and flight duration because I have small children). But I'm sure plenty of you care about more than just getting the cheapest flight. You want quality -- legroom, on-time departures and arrivals, baggage that isn't lost.
Now there is a Web site that includes these factors, in addition to price, when you search for flights. InsideTrip.com officially launched May 20 (it's been in a test phase the past two years) and rates airlines on 12 qaulity elements. It partners with Orbitz for the airfare search -- and sends you to the Orbitz site to purchase your tickets. But you'll get more information about flights at InsideTrip.com than other travel search engines.
Here's how it works:
You select a departure and arrival city, travel dates and number of travelers as you would with any other airfare-comparison site. You'll also be prompted to enter how many bags you expect to check in and whether you'll have any beverages on the flight so these fees can be calculated, too -- a cool feature that helps you gauge the true cost of a flight. InsideTrip.com then generates a list of flights based on price and overall trip quality.
It rates flights based on speed -- number of stops, travel duration, on-time performance, "sophisticated analysis of TSA data" to determine security wait time (however, no TSA data was available for the flight I selected); comfort -- legroom, aircraft type and age, load factor; and ease -- connect time, routing quality, lost bags rank, gate location.
You can click on the rating for each flight to get more details about each of these factors -- such as how many stops a flight makes. Or you can create your own score by deselecting factors not important to you in the TripQuality dashboard at the top of the page.
We're still evaluating InsideTrip.com as we prepare the next version of top travel sites story. We have to wonder what kinks took two years to work out in the "testing phase." So test the process at InsideTrip.com, and let us know what you think about this site in the comments box below.
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Reader Comments (4)
Posted by: Nomen at 05/20/2010 09:20:12 PM
I usually go on lowest price and pick the earliest flights of the day and a maximum of two stops. Morning flights are usually on time and delays get more frequent and longer as it gets later in the day. We long ago learned to get by with a single carry-on bag each to avoid the baggage fees and delays. For really long trips we pick the night flights and sleep. And no, an extra two inches of leg room and a bag lunch isn't worth an extra hundred dollars for a two hour trip.
Posted by: Diana at 05/22/2010 04:16:46 PM
After a nightmarish flight back from Hawaii where a guy reclined his seat into my face during the meal while the airline did nothing, quality matters. Also, I hope the person who thought reclining seats gets an awful and itchy disease, as do those who justify seat reclining. I am most definitely willing to pay a premium to avoid assault by entitlement and airline seat.
Posted by: hs at 05/23/2010 04:55:40 PM
It's the airline's responsibility that the person in front of you reclined their seat?
Posted by: Logan at 06/01/2010 05:18:34 PM
Well, the two-year 'testing phase' clearly wasn't enough. I tried twice to use that website and each time doubled. 'shadow' displays were shown, the information was incomplete and garbled and the THIRD time I accessed it, the site caused my computer to go blue-screen and experience a 'serious error', according to Microsoft. I think I'll pass. I can figure out which airline I want to travel without THIS kind of grief from a 'helpful' website.