Hacker News Reader

Comment by skue | Hacker News Reader

This is a weak pitch... Kayak, Hipmunk, any almost any other site have an option to include nearby airports when searching.

I compared the route they screenshotted and apparently the only reason TripDelta come up with a $150 cheaper one-way option ($302 vs $455) is by flying Spirit from OAK to LAX with a 9 hour layover. Kayak probably assumes that layover is excessive and filters it out. Because really, if you're that desperate to save funds, just take Greyhound to LAX.

And if you book round trip, returning a week later, it's $779 on Kayak and over $1086 on TripDelta. Plus Kayak will also give you the probability that prices will drop in the next 7 days.

View on HN

Well, Kayak just failed for me on YVR - SFO. PriceDelta found BLI - OAK for $103 versus $200 on Kayak. That's pretty good! I've used nearby airports on Kayak, it doesn't always do a good job from what I've seen and it's +/- 3 days isn't so great.

Agreed, the price graph and price calendar in Google Flights are far more powerful and useful. Now if only they'd make a mobile app...

Have you tried just typing "sfo to hkg" into the Google Search App on your Android or iPhone?

Yeah, but it's so limited.

I really want them to add support for multi-airport "sfo, smf to hkg" and multi-city "sfo to lax to hkg" to the web search parser.

And the mobile web app is decent but compared to desktop very limited. For example, the dates grid shows just a few days vs. 7x7 for depart and return. I think that's one of the most important features. I find it frustratingly inefficient on mobile.

> just take Greyhound to LAX

Would be surprised if it gives you the same price, usually direct flights are more expensive.

Greyhound is a bus service.

If the traveler is very price sensitive, that is an option he would consider

Definitely. I regularly take a bus from Ohio to NYC for personal trips at ~$100 RT (with no price hike for booking at the last minute).

The cheapest flights in comparison are more like ~$450.

> The cheapest flights in comparison are more like ~$450.

There is nothing wrong with preferring the bus, but your cost estimate doesn't seem right. Did you try searching with the linked site? Or with Google Flights?

I don't know where you live, but looking a month out, I see lots of sub-$200 fares from Cleveland, Akron, and Columbus, as well as some sub-$300 fares for last minute.

Cincinnati, which is the curveball. We're one of the top 10 most expensive airports in the country [1].

Ex. On Google Flights, 2-day RTs from CVG <--> EWR over the next 3 weeks are: $407-621, then $371-520, then $375-593.

1. The Most Expensive Airports to Fly To: Business Travelers, Smaller Cities and Other Factors That Drive Up Prices; Sorry, Cincinnati http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527023039800045795760...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com