TravelHacks.iExploreFlorida.com

OK, here was the mission. Find the cheapest return flight from my local airport in Fort Myers (RSW), Southwest Florida International (which is just under 25 miles away and maybe a forty minute drive from my current home in Cape Coral) to my old home back in London, UK.

You can use the same resources for any destination of course but I’ll use this route as an example.

Firstly I decided on a date and to fly midweek when airfares are usually cheaper. So for examples sake we have an outbound flight on Tuesday, March 6th and a return on Wednesday, March 21st.

London Airports

Searching for flights in London, UK is actually a little misleading for none-Brits as both the two largest airports Heathrow (19 miles away in Middlesex) and Gatwick ( 28 miles away in Sussex) are actually well outside the city as are the other major ‘London’ destinations, Luton (43 miles away in Bedfordshire) and Stansted (38 miles away in Essex). The only London airport actually inside London itself is London City.

So, we’ll stick to Heathrow and Gatwick as the main choices as these are the main long haul destinations. First we check with the top four search aggregators.

The Travel Meta-Searchers

Sidestep first who pull out a $498 return to Gatwick on Northwest with a stop-over at Detroit. Sidestep don’t actually take care of the booking, sending us instead direct to the NWA site to book. And yes that price is all inclusive.

Kayak (searching 120 sites) are next and manage to dig out the same sub $500 flight via Northwest, a $510 inclusive return to Heathrow (with a change at Chicago O’Hare) on United, and a $506 flight on Delta (that Farechase found for $7 less).

Yahoo owned Farechase found the same $498 deal on Northwest as well as four separate $499 Delta flights to Gatwick (ranging from an early bird 6.45am flight to a mid-afternoon departure). The stopover this time in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mobissimo promise to search 173 sites simultaneously though bring back the same Northwest flight as Farechase for $5 more, same story with Delta. The four Delta flights found at Farechase for $499 range from $503 to $510 here.

Sidestep Travel is the AOL owned meta-searcher but its actually powered by Kayak so the results are the same as Kayak itself. So really, nothing to choose from though naturally every search engine had more expensive options.

Other Options

For direct flights from South Florida British Airways run from Tampa daily and Virgin Atlantic and AA (amongst others) run from/to Miami. A Virgin flight on our target dates from Miami to London Heathrow direct was $788.63 inclusive. BA direct Miami to Heathrow was $748.63.

Other options from Fort Myers include the only two direct flights to Europe from RSW on the German carriers LTU and Condor. On LTU there’s a choice of eight German destinations or a change in Vienna, or more conveniently Amsterdam (which is just a hop over to the UK using one of the many cheap European airlines).

Tried And Tested

Entering Fort Myers London in Google (Troogle?) nowadays (or any two destinations) will bring you the quick option of searching the established online travel agents like Expedia, Hotwire, Priceline, Travelocity and Hotwire. Just ad your prefered dates and away you go. All of them threw out similar results as the meta-search options. All six websites bought up the same Delta/Northwest flights ranging from $503-$510.

Related Resources

Travel 2.0 Conference (Tech~Surf~Blog-Dec 2006)
Do Travel Search Engines Deliver? (Consumer Reports Webwatch - Dec. 2005) (PDF Report here)
One Stop Shopping For Travel? No Silver Bullet (USA Today-June 2005)
The Aggregators Are Coming (Independent Traveler -Feb 2005)
How To Get Cheap Flights (The Art of Travel)
Seven Easy Steps Across the Arlantic (Airhitch.org)