In the 25 years I’ve been traveling professionally as a reporter and writer, how I plan trips has changed beyond all recognition. The advent of metasearch platforms like KAYAK has made it infinitely easier to find and book cheap flights, accommodation and rental cars.
In this article
- What is KAYAK?
- Is KAYAK a legit and trustworthy website?
- With KAYAK, you can book directly with the airline.
- Why are KAYAK prices sometimes lower than booking directly?
- Who helps if something goes wrong?
- Why I use KAYAK.
- FAQs
What is KAYAK?
KAYAK is a travel metasearch site. Think of it as a search engine for flights, stays and rental cars. Enter your travel plans and dates and KAYAK will search hundreds of websites – airlines, hotels, rental homes, car rental agencies, online travel agents, booking platforms – to find you the best deals.
Rather than selling these directly, KAYAK sends you to the airline, hotel or online travel agent to book the deal on your own terms. I’m a regular user because it does so much of the legwork for me. Not only does it compare deals but it also includes all the info I need to tailor and book my trip, from bags to seats.
Is KAYAK a legit and trustworthy website?
Yes, KAYAK is legit and trustworthy, and a safe platform to book flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages.
KAYAK launched in 2004 and over the last 22 years has helped millions of people plan and book business trips and vacations. It has the awards to prove it, and has been ranked by Frommer’s as the world’s best and cheapest airfare search site for the last two years. It’s part of Booking Holdings, the group that also includes Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Momondo and OpenTable.
When you search on KAYAK, the prices you see are the prices you’ll pay. A feature I particularly like is its transparent pricing, where you can hide basic airfare prices and only see those that include bags and seats. It’s a great way to remove the confusion of add-on fees later.
KAYAK doesn’t add on any extra fees or sell personal data. It also never tracks your searches or inflates prices according to demand or search history. This means I can keep searching flights, hotels and rental cars over and over without worrying the price will go up because it knows I’m planning a specific trip.
With KAYAK, you can book directly with the airline.
I mentioned it briefly above, but to be clear: you don’t book your flight directly with KAYAK, you book through it. Trust me, this is a good thing and is exactly how metasearch works. It means you can choose to book directly with the airline or through a third party.
Book with the airline and you’ll get confirmation and customer service just as if you’d first searched their site. It also means you’ll get all the frequent flyer points, perks and loyalty benefits you’re entitled to.
Book through a third party and you’ll get the extra layer of security that KAYAK’s dedicated customer support team provides.
Why are KAYAK prices sometimes lower than booking directly?
KAYAK doesn’t set its own prices. Instead, it pulls fares and prices from airlines and travel partners and presents them for you to pick from. Much like when you do your own manual research across different providers. So if you see, say, an airfare on KAYAK that’s cheaper than the airline’s own price, it’s usually down to partner pricing.
Some fares are sourced from third parties like online travel agencies and booking partners that have negotiated lower prices than an airline’s own public-facing price. Since travel prices are updated continuously, the final price may sometimes be different when you complete your booking.
Who helps if something goes wrong?
While it can happen, problems with bookings are far less common than you might think. Still, it’s important to know who to turn to if something comes up.
When you book through a KAYAK search, responsibility for customer service and handling complaints is exactly the same as if you’d gone directly to the airline or online travel agent. So if you book flights with an airline via KAYAK, contact the airline directly. If you book with an online travel agent, it’s them you need to speak to.
Metasearch platforms sometimes get bad reviews when something goes wrong. Yet the responsibility typically lies with the third-party booking sites and travel agents. Despite that, KAYAK has a dedicated team to monitor poor partner reviews and help if you need it.
Why I use KAYAK.
I started using KAYAK in 2019 when searching for cheap flights to Indonesia and a trip to see the wonders of Raja Ampat. I’ve kept coming back to it since then because it’s so easy to use (particularly the KAYAK app) and has cool tools like Explore, which lets you set a budget and get inspired.
More recently, I’ve become a big fan of its AI-powered search to solve more complex travel problems. For example, I’m planning a trip to Kefaloni in September, which has proven to be a tricky place to fly to from Cologne in Germany, where I’m based.
Asking it to find me the best route (“I need to get to Kefalonia from Cologne in early September. Find me routes that would work without long layovers including multiple airlines with self transfers”) saved me hours of searching and comparing fares and layover times. And it saved me more than €100 in flight costs from what I had originally found.
So, is KAYAK safe to book with?
Yes, KAYAK is safe to book flights, hotels, and rental homes and cars with. In my experience, it’s also been reliable, cheap and accurate time and time again. For that reason, alongside its growing list of genuinely useful tools, it will remain my starting point for every business trip and vacation I take.
FAQs
Find a flight on KAYAK and when you hit ‘Book’ you’ll be sent to the airline’s website to book there directly. So it’s just as safe to book through KAYAK as it is directly with the airline.
Metasearch sites like KAYAK simply compare prices across airlines and trusted partners, so you'll see the same fares you'd find elsewhere, though sometimes surfaced faster. Any savings typically come from a partner site's own pricing or from tools like Price Alert rather than from metasearch platforms themselves.
Prices can change after clicking from a metasearch site due to inventory updates, sold-out flights or dynamic pricing. KAYAK helps you compare options across hundreds of travel sites, but the travel provider determines the final price at booking. If something looks off, you can report it and KAYAK's team will look into it.
