One of the tools I use when fare hunting in economy for a trip to somewhere is Kayak. Mainly because of some of the routing it throws up as well as the unusual connections it throws up.
And as some of the better routes… or routes that defy some logic.
I’ve noticed Kayak recently have changed their front page to have a more intelligent search. Which is all well and good.
Except. Well. Have a look at this and tell me what’s wrong with this:
No?
Let me circle it for you (No I’m not Million Miles Secrets – I don’t do circles and arrows normally – I like my readers to think. Or try to. Or something like that).
Flights between Birmingham and London? Hmm. Haven’t seen those for a long time.
In fact, running the search brings some rather comedic results:
I did say comedic.
In fact, the best route between Birmingham is to take the train or coach:
- Birmingham New Street to London Euston (fast) with Virgin Trains – 1 hour 25 minutes
- Birmingham New Street to London Euston (slow) with London Midland – 2 hours 33 minutes
- Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone with Chiltern Railways – 1 hour 46 minutes
- Birmingham Digbeth to London Victoria with National Express
- Birmingham Hill Street to London Victoria with Megabus
Do not get me wrong – I used Kayak as the search interface for a lot of trips recently… but this is a simple logic mistake that a quick run through the search engines could had reveal that.
Kayak did respond by Twitter stating:
@EconomyBeyond This is a personalized view from where you are to top destinations. Suggest “switch to classic” for flight search. Thx
— KAYAK (@KAYAK) May 2, 2016
Ah well. And so I shall.
Anyone else got any funnies when they’ve searched Kayak recently?
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