So it seems as if Vayama’s specials are exactly what I’ve been looking for. It combines what LastMinute.com (and the various int’l versions) and Flylc do, yet it’s only international from the US.
I wouldn’t book from Vayama due to their fees and the fact that the rates aren’t always the best, but their search allows what neither Sidestep nor Kayak do: search open-ended. When I was first planning my birthday trip, I had no idea where I wanted to go. I would have loved to have been aware of Vayama so I could have plugged in JFK or Newark and seen the options for my travel dates (including Athens for $450).
What I also like is the fact that you don’t need to specify a leaving date either — very useful for planning a trip without details. I know I want to go somewhere, but I don’t know when or where. I think I’m going to be using this site more and more.
This is why I need to be a little better about keeping up on all blogs: Spontaneous Tourism posted about Vayama on September 10th. I would have known about the site in time for my birthday planning if I’d been caught up. Now that I moved everything to Google Reader, it will be easier.
ETA: The birthday trip decision has been made. Going to Vegas. Should be a lot of fun.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Jamie // Oct 9, 2007 at 22:35
Vegas is a good choice. You’ll have a blast.
2 Cari // Oct 10, 2007 at 12:31
Thanks! I’ve done a little planning and am looking forward to it. In general I’m allergic to planning but wanted to be sure I’d see a few things I wanted to.
3 Matt // Nov 28, 2007 at 19:05
Glad to see that you like our site, specifically our deals page. Please note that the sample fares on our deals page represent less than 1% of what we can offer.
I was also curious about your comments regarding our fees being high. Our $10 booking fee is the same or lower than many other online agencies. To which fees were you referring?
Thanks,
Matt Radack
Industry Relations Manager
vayama.com
4 Cari // Nov 29, 2007 at 12:30
Hi Matt,
Thanks for stopping by. I went to see what might have triggered my thoughts on the fees but unfortunately I’m unable to access vayama at the moment. I will check when I can access it and get back to you ASAP. For what it’s worth, I don’t pay fees if possible. I often use Kayak to find fares and then book directly with the airline. In addition to (often) no fees, some of the airlines provide a bonus when I do so. The only time in recent memory that I used an agency was travelocity for Vegas. While they don’t charge a separate fee (I’m not certain if one is built in to the price ), their price was better than booking an airline ticket and then the hotel. If that were the case with a fare from Vayama, then I’d book through you — does that make sense?
I’ll also e-mail this to you in case you don’t see it here. Thanks again for stopping by. How’d you find this post?
Cari
5 Matt // Nov 29, 2007 at 19:41
Hi Cari,
Thanks for the reply. I found your post simply by doing a Google blog search for “vayama” and yes, unfortunately “we are experiencing technical difficulties at the moment” so the timing of my reply probably couldn’t have been any worse! We hope to have those resolved before the end of the day and I apologize for any problems that you had accessing the site earlier today.
As for the fees, your logic is perfectly logical. However, besides the obvious convenience of side-by-side shopping that vayama provides, there are many other reasons to book with us, including price.
It is true that on many single-airline published fares you will find that indeed our prices will wind up being $10 higher than through the airlines directly. This is especially true for domestic fares which is one reason that we focus on international travel. However, on many of our private negotiated international rates you will often see that the fares that we offer are even lower than what the airlines have on their own websites. These differences tend to be greater in high season (ie: summer to Europe) when fares are more expensive than in low season where airfares are already pretty low. You’ll also notice that our one-way fares tend to be considerably cheaper than on most other sites.
Our site also allows you to mix airlines which most airline websites do not. This is especially useful for international travel where you may wind up flying a domestic airline to a major gateway and then an international carrier to your overseas destination (ie: Pittsburgh to New York to Cairo). It’s also useful if you’re flying from a major international gateway in the US to a major gateway overseas but then need to connect to a smaller international airline (ie: Los Angeles to Bangkok to Ko Samui). In both cases booking with an airline directly may limit your options and can also wind up being more expensive.
You’ll also find that international airlines are much better represented on our site than on other online travel agencies. In some cases those international airlines either don’t have online booking for US customers, or have a below average booking tool at best. There are also credit card security issues. We find that many of our clients are more comfortable purchasing with a US-based company than with an airline and website where their credit card information might wind up overseas.
Although vayama is currently only available to US and Canadian credit card holders, we also sell a very high volume of point-to-point bookings within Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America or the South Pacific for all of the reasons mentioned above, as well as due to the fact that other sites often restrict bookings unless they originate in the US or Canada.
Unfortunately we are not currently distributing our fare content through Kayak, however you will find our fares on most other metasearch sites.
Once our technical issues are cleared up I’m going to send you a couple of specific sample itineraries that show where we can offer substantial savings.
Thanks again for your interest in vayama.com.
Best regards,
Matt Radack
Industry Relations Manager
vayama.com
6 Vayama: Redux // Dec 12, 2007 at 13:59
[...] first discovered and mentioned Vayama back in October when I discovered it via a post on Spontaneous Tourism. I admit, I [...]
7 Slex // Sep 7, 2010 at 08:01
Hi,
When it comes to International travel expertise, Exploretrip is leading the pace. I made many searches for my travel and the best and cheapest fare i found and booked was with exploretrip.com.
Its really worth to give a try.
Alex