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I just searched for and booked a flight from SJC to LAS for eBay Live. I used Kayak, SideStep, FareChase, PriceGrabber, and Mobissimo. I chose the cheapest flight I could find. I booked through FareChase/America West.

-FareChase was the only and PriceGrabber Travel were the only travel search engines which displayed America West/USAirways and allowed me to book directly at America West as opposed to using an online travel agent (OTA) like Orbitz, 1800CheapSeats, or OneTravel. All of the engines told me that the OTAs were booking me on America West/US Airways, but FareChase saved me $5.

-As reported in a recent AP story, FareChase seems to round down the total booking price. My flight was $198.60 as opposed to the FareChase rate of $198.

-FareChase allowed me to IM search results. Smart. Fares change so fast, email might not be the best way to share the info with a friend. Kayak allows you to email the resutls. Neither Mobissimo nor SideStep had an email option.

-FareChase didn’t pass through the correct information to America West, so I had to re-pick my exact itinerary. In the end, this wasn’t a big deal, but I was surprised to see a $280 fare as opposed to a $198 fare FareChase displayed…and I’m sure plenty of consumers would have not spend the extra couple minutes to look carefully at the results.

-Mobissimo claims to search the most travel sites (157) and America West is in the list of sites (see FAQ #2) the company directly crawls, so I’m a little confused why the first 40 results on Mobissimo showed listings for OTAs like Orbitz, 1800CheapSeats, OneTravel, and CheapTickets as opposed to a direct booking option at America West.

-I clicked on 4 Orbitz listing at SideStep. Only half of the time was my flight information was passed through.

-Everytime I see PriceGrabber Travel’s ‘on time’ information, I smile. I mean, it’s a no-brainer and the mouse-over integration is great.

-PriceGrabber Travel was the only site which presented the information in shopping comparison engine form. As opposed to seeing multiple listings from multiple OTAs on SideStep, Kayak, and Mobissimo, PriceGrabber Travel showed me my inbound and outbound flight itinerary and then all the providers (USAirways.com, Orbitz, OneTravel) which sold that itinerary. In other words, it was a very clean experience. The more established travel search engines could learn a thing or two from PriceGrabber. The reason I didn’t book through PriceGrabber Travel? As opposed to FareChase which at least passed through incorrect information, PriceGrabber Travel didn’t pass through any of my flight information to America West.