Firm revising airfare searches

It's a dirty little secret in the airfare search business, but consumers around the world waste millions of their hard-earned dollars by overspending on airfare because current airfare search technology is far from perfect.

We were reminded of this again when we recently noticed a classic fare war between American and United on routes from each others' hubs (Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Washington) to Honolulu (both airlines reduced fares to around $420 round-trip including tax, with virtually no restrictions).

But what if you actually wanted to go to Kona, Hawaii, rather than Honolulu, from, say, Miami? Well, all the usual airfare search suspects would have told you that the cheapest way to get there would cost you $688 round-trip including tax (we used travel dates in October in our sample query). Savvy traveler that you are, you know that doesn't make sense. Surely it doesn't cost $268 to travel round-trip inter-island.

Fact is, you can fly between Honolulu and Kona almost year round for $150 round-trip including tax on two airlines (and local residents know that there are even cheaper deals available, at least for Hawaiian residents). So most people end up paying $118 more than they should.

The issue here is that no current airfare search technology can figure out fares this way, and there are thousands of route combinations where buying two separate fares will save you money.

The good news is that airfare geeks are working on this and other problems. A company called Vayant Travel Technologies, which is billing itself as ITA Software "plus," claims that there is a "better way to search for and price itineraries, and [we] have found it." And since ITA Software, along with ATPCO, powers most airfare search in North America and indeed many other regions, it's time someone took airfare search to the next level and showed consumers how to save some serious money.

George Hobica is founder of the low-airfare listing site Airfarewatchdog.com.