Momondo.com Is Now Showing Train Schedules and Railroad Prices...

Started by opensource, Feb 22, 2010, 06:01 PM

opensource

I've written a lot recently about that Danish search engine called Momondo.com that some observers have found to be superior in results to the giant American airfare search engines. Unlike its U.S. competitors, which only survey fares of companies that pay them a commission for bringing about a sale, Momondo surveys the fares of all other search engines and airlines -- some 700 of them -- regardless of whether they have agreed to pay commissions to Momondo. Momondo also lists the airfares of budget-priced Southwest Airlines, whose fares do not appear in the results displayed by most of the big U.S. airfare search engines.

blog post photo
Photo credit:   A high-speed European train/Matthew Black

But in all that analysis, I have failed to point out that Momondo is also about to list the departures and prices of high-speed trains going from one European city to another. It has even embarked on gathering the train schedules and prices of Amtrak for listing alongside its airfare results for trips within the U.S. The reason is that train travel, especially in Europe, often beats the time and cost of even the budget-priced airlines. And this is especially the case when you consider the need to add three and a half hours to almost all air schedules to cover the time needed to travel to airports and check in a considerable amount of time ahead of departure.

All things considered, says Copenhagen-based Momondo, it often occurs that a train ride is faster and cheaper than even the cheapest trip by air. Momondo has now incorporated that additional 3.5 hours of going round-trip to airports into the comparative times for traveling from place to place by air.

So there's another reason to love Momondo. Though this little Danish company doesn't always defeat its big U.S. competitors, it often does -- and therefore should always be checked when you look up either domestic or foreign trips by air or rail. (And you might also check another David in the world of travel Goliaths, a small Icelandic company called DoHop.com. But using either Momondo.com or DoHop.com, wait a minute after the results first appear, as these are constantly replaced, and do not remain unchanged until up to a minute has elapsed.)

Source: Momondo.com Is Now Showing Train Schedules and Railroad Prices Alongside Its Lists of Flights and Airfares


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