When I tell people about my favorite websites for cheap airfare, the name Momondo isn’t what they expect to hear. They expect to hear well-known online travel booking sites like Expedia or Travelocity, not that Momondo flights are the cheapest. More on this in just a second.
Now if you follow the blog, you know I mostly use miles and points for award travel.
However, cheap flights are just that, cheap! Sometimes, it just makes more sense to take advantage of a deal than to pay with miles and points.
Over time, I’ve tested out different websites and strategies for finding the cheapest flights. Momondo flights were consistently the cheapest.
What’s more, I discovered I wasn’t alone. The Momondo flight search tool was endorsed by trusted travel sources like Frommer’s, Forbes, Travel & Leisure, and New York Times Travel.
The research done by Reid Bramblett of Reids Guides caught my attention, too. After completing test after test of online airfare sites, his Momondo reviews showed the search tool found the cheapest airfare 95% of the time!
Whoa! The Momondo cheap flights success rate is just too good to ignore.
I know some of you have never heard of Momondo and you’re asking why not use one of the major online booking sites like Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz.
Before, diving into the reasons why you need to be using Momondo and how to use it, let’s first take a look at why these well-known sites for booking airfare may not always show the cheapest airfare.
Why not use an online booking site to find the cheapest airfare?
Have you priced and booked airfare using an online booking site like Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz? If you’re like most people, you have and probably felt good about shopping around for the most affordable airfare.
Did you know Expedia owns both Travelocity and Orbitz?
The online travel websites you use for booking airfare, hotels, and rental cars may not be all they seem.
In fact, over the past couple of years, many smaller online travel booking sites have been acquired by large companies. In addition to Travelocity and Orbitz, Expedia owns CarRentals.com, Hotwire, CheapTickets, Trivago, Venere.com, and Hotels.com.
The point is, you may think you’ve done your homework by searching across different sites, but the truth is, you’ve probably been looking at sites all owned by the same parent company, making the prices not as competitive as you might imagine.
This doesn’t mean these online booking sites can’t find cheap airfare.
But, Momondo has maintained its status as a non-biased cheap flight finder. Their flight metasearch engine shows how important it is to do a comprehensive flight search using Momondo to find cheap tickets before you take out your credit card to buy.
5 Reasons Why You Need to Know
Momondo for Cheap Airfare
1. Momondo is an aggregator that searches for the best airfare across the web. Without adding fees, Momondo pulls in data for your selected route to show you all available flight options. These results are highlighted by the cheapest, quickest, and best.
2. Momondo searches 1000 airlines, online booking sites, travel agencies, search engines, and other online travel discount sites. This is more than double and, in some cases, triple the number of sources used by typical booking sites.
3. This brings us to this fact, Momondo isn’t a booking site. It’s a metasearch engine whose function is to return airfare data without steering you toward one set of results over another. Once you find the flights you’d like, Momondo redirects you to that booking website.
4. Unlike many online booking sites, Momondo includes small, budget airlines and lesser-known airlines as it works to find the lowest airfare. Ever heard of FlyScoot? No worries, Momondo has. Even better, Momondo shows Southwest flight results which many other travel websites do not.
5. Oh yeah, and in test after test, Momondo came up with the cheapest airfare 95% of the time! Google Flights may come out ahead of Momondo in search speed, but Momondo is much more nuanced with all the details you need to choose the best cheap flight.
Ready to see how you can use the Momondo travel tool to find cheap airfare?
ProTip: Before getting started with any flight search tool, be sure to use an incognito window for searching or clear your browser’s cache after searching to avoid price increases! For more tips, check out my guide all about cheap flights and flight search tips.
You can do a basic airfare search with Momondo just as you would on most travel websites.
Enter your departure and arrival airports, along with the dates and number of passengers. You can even select “Nonstop only” if you’d like to filter out flights with connections. When searching for the cheapest flights, the more flexible you can be, the better!
Click on the calendar icon to enter your dates to see a color-coded calendar dropdown.
You’ll instantly be able to see cheaper dates than others before starting your search. You can even click on “exact” next to departure and return to change the search to +/- a number of days instead. In the search above, I searched +/- 3 days.
Momondo will display the results in a matrix-style grid so you can see the lowest prices and on which date combinations. Scroll down below the matrix to view the details of each flight option, beginning with the lowest-priced flight.
Momondo also shows the cheapest, quickest, and best options in the pink bar just above the flight price matrix. Clicking on any of these will bring the flight details to the top of the results.
Another handy customization feature is the “Custom” option on the pink bar with the cheapest, quickest, and best options. This allows you to select which outbound and inbound flights you’d like to create your own itinerary. You can also sort the results by departure, duration, arrival, and price.
In the left sidebar, Momondo shows a quick insights tip about whether you should book now or wait for a better price. There’s even a “Fare Alert” button that allows you to sign up or log in to get updates on price changes for your selected route.
Aside from signing up for cheap flight email subscription services like Matt’s Flights or Scott’s Cheap Flights, this is a great way to DIY airfare alerts.
Also on the left side of the results, you’ll see filters you can apply in order to refine your results. I like the filter by airline alliance, which is helpful when trying to earn frequent flyer miles in a particular loyalty program.
Momondo has also added a filter by “Booking Site” option. This allows you to see results only from airlines or even filter out smaller online booking sites you may not feel comfortable booking with.
When you’re ready to book, click the green “View Deal” button. Momondo will open a new window and take you to the booking site to complete your purchase.
Be sure to use a travel rewards credit card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve to get 3x the points for travel purchases.
If you’ve searched Momondo flights in the past, you may notice sometimes an itinerary result comes up giving you the option to “Book on Momondo.”
Rest assured this is a feature available with select partners who allow flights to be directly booked on the Momondo platform. However, this is actually placing orders with the partners themselves.
In these cases, Momondo is still acting as an unbiased airfare aggregator.
In some cases, Momondo will create a “mix & match” itinerary option.
This will include different airlines operating your departure and return flights. Look for the blue “mix & match” box above the price in the search results.
For these flight results, again, simply click the green “View Deal” button.
The Momondo website opens a window showing the details for each flight. In most cases, it involves booking on 2 different sites, one right after the other to take advantage of the Momondo airfare you found.
One last fun feature to highlight is the Momondo “Anywhere” search. On the homepage, enter your departure airport and dates. But instead of entering a destination, select anywhere. If you don’t see it, start to type anywhere and the option will appear.
Momondo will come back with cheap flight ideas based on when you want to travel!
Maybe I’m just a flight search nerd, but I can easily lose track of time scrolling through Momondo’s explore map feature comparing flight deals.
But, I saw a negative Momondo review? Is Momondo legit?
Momondo isn’t a booking site, just a metasearch engine or airfare aggregator. When the Momondo search engine finds the cheapest flight, it may very well be sold by a smaller online travel agency (OTA) you’ve not heard of.
The majority of these OTAs are completely legit and just acting as a middleman between you and the airline.
The key to success with these OTAs is to read the terms and conditions about any change or cancellation fees. Many times these smaller OTA fees are higher than some of the larger OTAs or had you booked directly with the airline.
In addition, some of these OTAs employ customer service agents in low-wage countries further complicating communication issues if troubles arise.
Ultimately, you have to make the choice you’re most comfortable with, even if that means paying a few extra bucks because 1 OTA has better terms and conditions than another.
But if you’re certain of your travel dates, it may not make sense to pay extra just to guarantee lower cancelation or change fees.
Remember, Momondo serves travelers in 30 different international travel markets and is a trusted and well-respected source for cheap flights throughout the travel industry.
Bottom Line: Cheap Flights = Momondo
The Momondo flight search tool never adds fees or works with third-party sites which can add to the cost of your flights. The results you see have been compared against millions of data points from around the web.
When you use aggregator and metasearch website Momondo instead of a standard online booking site, you can feel confident about the price you paid for your airfare.
Have you found a Momondo cheap flight?
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