Google introduces the latest price comparison site

Just in case you need one more search engine to look for the best flight, Google has been running one for a while now. 

If you go to www.google.com/flights it will let you search for your next trip. 

The three things I liked about the Google flight search were 1) It produces the result fast; 2) It lists if the flight has WiFi; 3) You can easily do a hotel search for the destination you’re going to with a simple click and no additional information. 

What I didn’t like was not being able to book directly on Google. 

Instead it gave me a US Airways phone number to call. 

I did a search for Bermuda to San Juan, Puerto Rico over the Easter holiday using Google, and four other major travel booking sites: Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz and Travelocity.

I ran a test for all five search engines within a 15 minute time span on Wednesday afternoon.

The price for the San Juan flight came back at $523 on US Airways on Google.

Kayak priced the same trip at $664 on United; Orbitz did it for $566.80 on US Airways; Expedia had American Airlines as the cheapest flight at $751.30; while Travelocity had the best priced flight at $698.30 on American.

That’s a $230 difference between the five travel sites. 

However, that doesn’t mean that Google is the best and that’s the one you should use. 

A recent New York Times article ran several tests over different kinds of routes and found that one travel site could be the least expensive on one itinerary and a different one on another.

Their advice, and it’s a good one if you’re booking your own tickets, search the various sites to find the best deal (I know Kayak’s motto is ‘search one and done’, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get the best result).

Obviously, other factors come into play like layovers so price isn’t always the best option. 

Last year, on my trip out to British Colombia there were several flights that were cheaper than the one I picked, but the layovers were horrendous. 

In the end, spending $50 more was worth more than spending an extra six hours in an airport. 

JetBlue is running several promotions to earn extra frequent flyer miles in 2014. If you use them to fly to New York often, you’ll be able to garner some extra miles fairly easily.

High Five Bonus: You can earn 5,000 bonus points with the purchase of three roundtrip flights. The High Five Bonus can only be earned once a year.

Lucky 7 Bonus: Earn 7,000 bonus points by purchasing seven roundtrip flights in 2014. Like the High Five, this can only be earned once a year.