Frequently Asked Questions

When I clicked on a search result, that website did not have the same product and price as was shown on Kayak.
Kayak does not sell tickets ourselves, rather we instead send your search to dozens of sites, and then when you select a result, we send you to that website for you to make the purchase.
Due to the nature of travel pricing and availability changing by the minute, all online travel sites will sometimes show you a purchase option to only then have that option no longer available when you try to complete the purchase.
We know this is frustrating, and we are working as hard as we can to minimize these errors.
Please send us feedback on any problems you encounter so we can investigate right away.


Can you help me with my reservation? I tried to book a trip and have some questions. Or I have a special request to make for my trip.
Kayak does not sell tickets ourselves. Kayak is simply a search engine, to help you find the best deal from amongst dozens of search sites.
If you have questions about your reservations, please contact the site you chose when you purchased the ticket.
See also our reservations page.


My browser does not seem to work well with Kayak.
Please see our list of supported browsers. We currently support the vast majority of browsers used on the Internet. Please consider upgrading to one of those browsers if you can. We do constantly evaluate browser usage and we might add support for even more browsers in the future. If you would like to make a request to support your favorite browser, please send us feedback.


Sometimes when I run a search on Kayak, it appears to be working, but then no results are displayed.
Kayak has developed sophisticated JavaScript display technology which allows you to filter through hundreds of results very quickly. You might have configured your browsers, anti-popup, anti-spyware, anti-virus or firewall software to block JavaScript.
There are also some browser extensions, such as FireFox GoogleBar, that can interfere with Javascript. If you turn off such mechanisms one at a time, you can sometimes figure out which one is a problem. When you can isolate such a problem, please send us feedback with details, so we can try to fix the problem.
See also instructions on enabling JavaScript.


I am having trouble signing in to Kayak.
You do not need to sign in to Kayak. Anyone can use Kayak for free without becoming a member.
However, if you want Kayak to remember your travel preferences, you do need to create a free login account using your email address as your login name. You can create a free login account here.
If you have previously registered but have forgotten your password, you can reset your password here. Be sure our spam-blocker does not block the password reset confirmation email that Kayak will send to you in order to confirm your account.


The buzz alert shows a different fare than when I actually do the search. What gives?
At the time we send out the buzz alert, we believe the flights to be available based upon recent search activity of Kayak users. However, a carrier's fares and availability change constantly throughout a day.


Where can I submit my feature requests?
Please send us feedback.


How can I delete my Kayak account?
Please send us feedback requesting that your account be removed. Make sure you include the email address that was used to create the account.


I would like to stop receiving email from Kayak.
To suspend all email from Kayak, click here.


What is Kayak's Basic Mode and how do I use it?
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Air Search

How many airlines does Kayak search?
Our goal is to search every airline in the world. See our airlines page to see the airlines our users found in the past seven days. This list changes based on which routes are searched.


How do I search for passengers other than adults (e.g. children, infants, seniors)?
Kayak does not yet allow you to do this, but some of the air provider websites will let you specify this after the search on Kayak. Click here to read more.


What do you mean by nearby Airports?
The primary airports are either the airports you specifically requested or the ones identified as being within the region you specified. For example, JFK (John F Kennedy Airport), LGA (LaGuardia Airport), and EWR (Newark Airport) are all primary airports for the New York City area. If you entered NYC or New York City, you will see those as your primary airports. However, to ensure you get all airline and fare choices possible, we also search within the surrounding areas for flights that might be leaving or returning at other nearby airports. Those are the nearby airports. We don't display those by default, but you can turn them on if you want to look for additional options.


Why do I sometimes see a "Check Flights at" Airline link in the Flight Details screen?
When Kayak can't find a flight from a major airline but we suspect it's there, we offer you the opportunity to go to the airline site and look for that itinerary. To help you find the flight you're looking for, we pass along your search information so the airline site can display the right information for you.


Does Kayak search international destinations, too?
Certainly. Our emphasis has first been on flights either originating or terminating in the US, however you will find we cover international routes as well.


When I clicked on the link to book my flight, the provider site told me my session expired or asked me to start my search over again. Why?
Often the provider sites have a period of time after which the session you are using times out. If you have had the result open in Kayak for more than 30 minutes before you try to book the flight, there's a chance that the provider will no longer honor the link Kayak has provided for you. You can either run the search in Kayak again to get a new link from the provider or you can run your search on the provider site.


Why don't you search Southwest?
Kayak does not search Southwest Airlines since Southwest does not let *anyone* search their site. We do however search more airlines (and hotels) than other travel sites. For example, we have JetBlue.
To see our full list of airlines, see our airlines page.



Hotel Search

How many hotels does Kayak search?
Kayak searches over 100,000 hotels. This is more than twice the number of most other big name travel sites. Because Kayak is a search engine-- we do not charge consumers anything-- we are obsessed with searching "every hotel on earth".
If you can find elsewhere a hotel that is *not* on Kayak, please tell us about it and we will add it quickly to our database.


How do I search for multiple rooms?
Our hotel search interface allows you to select up to 2 rooms. Most of the hotel providers we search on your behalf do not permit more than this number.


Sometimes it just says NA in the Distance column on the Hotel Summary List. Why can't I see how far that hotel is from the landmarks I pick?
Occasionally, Kayak receives incomplete data about a particular hotel. We calculate the distances from hotels to landmarks based on the latitude and longitude of both. If we are missing the complete latitude and/or longitude for a hotel, we can't do the calculation so we display "NA" in the column to indicate that distance is not available.


Those hotel photos are pretty small. How do I get a good look at the place?
Click on the photos on the Hotel Details page. This will open a separate photo browser window with enlarged images, which you can then page through at your leisure.


What do you do with the "Your Rating" information that I submit on our site?
Kayak uses your feedback to ensure the best hotel values get listed before hotels which have received poor ratings.


Does Kayak show professional reviews for hotels?
Yes! We have professional reviews for many hotels. If reviews are available, you can see them on the bottom of the Hotel Details page under the heading "Reviews for [hotel name] ". You can get to the Hotel Details page by pressing the "details" link on the hotel results page and then "full details". There will be links to reviews from travel sites such as Fodor's, Frommer's, Geektools, AOL, CityGuide, IgoUgo, and more.



About Kayak

Why are you called Kayak?
We wanted a name which was fun and easy to remember. We wanted a name that was short and easy to type.
The name Kayak has become a hit for us; we have found that people indeed find it easy to remember, and find it easy to associate our service with fun.


How does Kayak make money?
Kayak is a search tool, we are not a travel agency. This means that we do not book tickets, rooms or trips, but instead we find the best deals for you, and then let you choose where you want to book the chosen flight or hotel or whatever.
Kayak gets paid if you click on a partner whose advertisement is marked on Kayak as a sponsored result. We do not charge users a fee, and we strive to include every hotel on earth, regardless of whether they also choose to pay to be shown as a sponsored result.


Which travel web sites do you search?
Our goal is to search across every possible travel product available on the web. You can see a partial list of Kayak partner web sites on our providers page.


What is the cost of using your service?
Kayak is free for users, just like other search engines such as Google. Kayak gets paid if you click on a partner whose advertisement is marked on Kayak as a sponsored result.



Known Issues

Problems with web accelerators, proxies and some pop-up blockers.
If you try a search on Kayak, and the search appears to begin normally, then you get a blank or garbage screen when the search completes, it's possible you have a web accelerator, proxy, firewall or pop-up blocker that is corrupting the results coming back from Kayak.
The best workaround for these problems is to disable or upgrade your proxy software to a newer version. Alternatively, you can disable the software.
If upgrading doesn't help, or if you are unable to disable or bypass the proxy/accelerator/whatever, you can bypass them by using this link:
http://secure.Kayak.com
This is the same as the regular Kayak link, except it is "https" instead of "http."
We welcome reports of problems and success in overcoming these troubles. If you can find out the model and version number of any web accelerators (etc), please send it to us via feedback.


There are too many search results-- how do I make the list smaller?
We are glad you asked :) since Kayak's ability to let you quickly filter and sort among hundreds of search results is one of our most important features.
After you have entered a search into Kayak and we have shown you a list of results, you can click to change any of the "filters" on the left part of the screen (hint: try to click and drag on our scrollbars) or click on a column header to instantly resort our results to match your preferences.


Do you collect personally identifiable information from me?
Our goal is to make Kayak the most trusted travel search engine on the web. Part of this requires that we do a better job protecting your privacy than other top consumer web sites that you have come to trust.
Kayak uses cookies to remember your search session parameters so we can send you to your chosen merchant web site when you are ready to purchase.
You can optionally login to Kayak with your email address and chosen password if you want us to remember your travel preferences (e.g., your favorite airlines).
If you give Kayak your email address, you should rest assured that we will never sell your email address to another company (we hate spam too), and any travel newsletters you might signup for on Kayak will always allow a single-click removal link at the bottom of each message.
Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.


Can Kayak help me obtain a Passport and Visa?
Kayak is a search engine intended to help you find the best deal from amongst dozens of travel provider sites.
For questions about Passports, Visas or related travel documents, you should contact the appropriate Government agency.
The US State Department might be of help. Some people have reported good experiences using AmericanPassport.com.


Where can I find a list of Airport codes?
There're many places on the web where you can find lists of airport codes. At Kayak, you can type in the City name or Airport code, so remembering a 3 character code isn't important. If you'd like a list of airport codes, we suggest checking here.

Did we answer your question? If not, or if you have additional comments, please send us feedback.

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