Now Skyscanner compares package holiday prices. But does it work?

Deputy travel editor Sophie Dickinson and travel correspondent Simon Calder debate the best way to find a bargain holiday

It’s 24 years since three IT professionals set up the fare-comparison website, Skyscanner. Since then, the Edinburgh-based firm has built a global reputation for allowing travellers (and, as it happens, travel journalists) to swiftly compare air fares across the planet.

By helping passengers select the best flights, and often collecting a modest fee from travel companies, Skyscanner has grown to become a billion-pound business.

Now Skyscanner has launched a package holiday search facility, which the firm says will make it “easier and faster for travellers to compare and find great deals from top providers”. The company says it searches 25 million packages every day across the biggest UK package holiday providers. As with the flight comparison service, you don’t buy from Skyscanner but are directed to suppliers who take the booking.

Laura Lindsay of Skyscanner says: “We're excited to bring our industry-leading price comparison tech, which travellers already trust us for with flights, hotels, and car hire, to packages.

“With more and more choice in how package holidays are constructed, travellers need an easier way to compare all of the options in one place, to find great deals without the hassle.”

Family favourite? Holidaymakers on a Mediterranean beach in southern France (Simon Calder)

But how does the new offer look to deputy travel editor Sophie Dickinson and travel correspondent Simon Calder? Read on to find out, or listen to them speak on Simon Calder’s daily podcast.

Which package holiday operators does Skyscanner compare?

Sophie: They’ve got seven operators on there: Lastminute.com, Expedia, Love Holidays, Tui, easyJet Holidays, Jet2 Holidays and On the Beach. On the face of it, it’s a useful way to compare not just your flights, but your whole holiday, and I think that could save people a lot of money.

Package-holiday comparison has existed for a while with other similar websites, so it’s interesting that Skyscanner is getting in on the scene. While some of those other sites have more operators to choose from, I think it’s a good starting place so far.

Simon: Arguably there are too many operators there, rather than too few. There is nothing like a proper package holiday for maximum consumer protection. If you take the big two – Jet2, the largest, and Tui, which is smaller in the UK but the biggest in Europe – you get a couple of key benefits.

First, on a Tui holiday you’ll very often be flying on a Tui aircraft. On a Jet2 holiday, almost invariably you’ll be on a Jet2 aircraft. All the way through, from checking in at the airport to getting home, you have great protection. You also have the benefit of knowing you’ll get a decent baggage allowance and that transfers are included as well. So a comparison service involving just Jet2 and Tui would suit me.

Once you get to the online operators, things get more complicated. Just looking at the transfer fees, for example: going from Alicante airport to Benidorm, for instance, a family of four may pay around £150 just for transfers. The variable inclusions and exclusions of online travel agents make that harder to do.

Dream destination? Benidorm on Spain's Costa Blanca, is a package holiday favourite for many British families (Simon Calder)

Sophie: I think that’s a really good point. There are so many different elements to a package holiday, which is what makes them great because you can bundle all the bits of your trip into one. But most people will need a transfer, and paying for that individually is going to add a big chunk onto what might otherwise look like a cheap holiday. So you’re not always comparing like with like.

One problem with Skyscanner, is that you can’t filter for things like kids’ clubs or on-site restaurants. Package holidays are often a great way to travel as a family, and I think the interface needs to be tweaked a bit so people can properly personalise their trip. It’s early days, of course, and I appreciate that they’re comparing so many different elements.

Does Skyscanner really show the cheapest prices?

Simon: Can we take a step back and look at the whole Skyscanner model? I’ve been following the company for many years. It does wonderful things in terms of allowing us to compare airfares, and that continues to be the case, but the offer has become more confusing over the years.

One example is the alarming divergence around cabin baggage. I was just checking a Glasgow to Luton flight for £21 – who wouldn’t want that? But if you want to bring a reasonably sized cabin bag, that costs an extra £31. Suddenly, British Airways, which allows you to take a cabin bag and an additional item for free, starts to look like better value. You need expertise to work out what’s really a good deal.

The Skyscanner offering can be complicated by additional fees, such as for cabin baggage (Charlotte Hindle)

Sophie: That definitely makes sense. It actually makes me think the answer might be old-fashioned high-street travel agents, because they’re the experts who can say, “This looks cheaper, but you’ll have to pay for luggage, so it isn’t actually as good value.” I think we’ve all fallen foul of booking cheap flights and then having to pay for everything else on top, only to find it costs much more in the end.

Can you be flexible with your dates?

Sophie: One thing I enjoy about Skyscanner for flights is the ability to choose “everywhere” as a destination and a month, rather than specific dates, and then see where it’s cheap to go. You’re not focused on the destination – you think, “I want to travel in May, where can I afford to go?”

With a search on Skyscanner for packages, you can’t really do that. You need to know where you want to go and when exactly, and because so many things are being compared, there isn’t quite the same element of price-led forward planning.

Simon: The multiplicity of options is an issue in terms of the tech, and keeping the offer to a manageable size. If you’re searching UK to Spain on a particular date in July, you might have 200 or 300 flights, but it’s finite. Once you multiply those flights by hundreds of accommodation options, the scale becomes boggling to humans as well as algorithms.

Alicante airport, a key hub for family holidays in Spain (Simon Calder)

You also mentioned the luggage issue. For example, travelling on the busiest Saturday of the summer, 25 July, from Stansted to Alicante and on to Benidorm, there was an amazing deal at £323 per person for a family of four on Lastminute. But then you add luggage – £370 in total – and that completely transforms the price. I’m happy to say you can fit everything into the free Ryanair cabin baggage allowance, but not everyone will agree

Sophie: I love trying to fit everything into a cabin bag, but if you’re a family of four, it’s unlikely you’ll squeeze all your children’s toys into those tiny rucksacks. So you really do have to think about additional costs like luggage.

The verdict

Simon: So what’s your verdict on the Skyscanner offer – good to have more choice, or does it need more work? Or maybe both?

Sophie: I think it’s probably both. It’s good to have this as an option, and it’s interesting to look at if you’re planning a package holiday. It’s a useful price comparison, but it probably takes an expert to deconstruct every package, and it may end up taking longer than just going straight to an operator you already trust.

Maybe if you always go with Jet2 Holidays, it makes sense to keep doing that.

Hear more: Listen to the discussion on The Independent’s daily travel podcast