A new breed of search engine has cropped up in the past few years: the aggregator site.
QIXO is an airline search engine. Quixo has travel guides, articles, reviews, design and more.
www.quixo.com
Aggregators are Web sites that function like travel-themed versions of Google. Besides Kayak, the major players are SideStep, Yahoo's Farechase.com, Cheapflights.com, Mobissimo.com, Qixo.com and SuperSearch (a subsidiary of the discount online agency Travelzoo.com). Most aggregators have ties to a much broader network of links than more familiar online agencies, so they offer users a wider variety of options.
like business class cheap tickets economy class special offer, along with the providers' toll-free numbers or links to their Web sites. Bookings cannot be made on most aggregator sites; they act as search tools or referral services to airlines, hotels or online travel agencies. The customer can then select the best match and make reservations directly on the Internet or by phone with the provider.
When a user logs on and inserts specifications for flights, hotel rooms, rental cars or other travel services, the sites scan their databases for possible matches. While the popular Orbitz has flight data from more than 455 airlines, SideStep includes 585 carriers in its network. Kayak searches 550 airlines, including fares from other booking sites. The newest of the group, this Connecticut company was started up a few weeks ago by veterans of Orbitz and other major online travel agencies.
Several other agencies useful for travelers offer more limited services. One is Travelaxe.com, which searches only hotels. Another is BookingBuddy.com, which provides links to Orbitz and the other familiar online agencies.
For example, when we logged onto Farechase.com looking for cheap tickets from chicago to amsterdam, the site listed fares offered by United airlines, swiss air, US Airways, lufthansa and American. To find out the details or make a reservation, it was necessary to click on the airlines' Web sites and book through them. The other major aggregators function similarly.
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