Looking for cheap airfare online is a sport—one with winners and losers, loyalties and trick plays. It's important to know all the rules: like the fact that not all airfares are surfaced on well-known websites like Kayak, Orbitz, and Expedia. Most search engines just show options from airlines that cooperate with one another. Unfortunately, most cheap airlines—including Southwest, Frontier, and Spirit in the United States; Volaris in Mexico; and Ryanair and EasyJet in Europe—have few, if any, agreements with global behemoths like Delta, American, and United. They don't get to play.
But a new Czech Republic–based startup has solved this problem: Skypicker says it can offer international flights 25 to 35 percent cheaper than traditional options by allowing you to create itineraries that use full-service and discount airlines. Sounds too good to be true—so we tested it. Say you live in San Diego and and want go to Stockholm. On Kayak, the cheapest January option, for about $1,000 roundtrip, is on SAS and United. Both belong to Star Alliance, so Kayak can easily price the itinerary.
Skypicker can do better. It will put you on Delta to New York and Norwegian Air to Stockholm. On the return, it recommends Norwegian to Fort Lauderdale, and United to San Francisco and then San Diego. Kayak won't show that ticket because Norwegian, a discount airline, lacks what are called interline agreements with United and Delta. However, Skypicker will sell it to you for about $700.
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The site isn't using any secret tricks. In most cases, it will just buy you two or three separate tickets. You could do that yourself, but you take a risk: The tickets aren't linked, and if your first flight is delayed or canceled, your second airline won't know. It may cancel your itinerary after you fail to show up. You might get it reinstated, though you may need to pay a fee or spend the night before continuing.
Skypicker assumes that risk. If something goes wrong—the company says that happens less than 1 percent of the time—it will make things right. "We get the customers to the destination on the first available flight no matter what it costs," CEO Oliver Dlouhy says. Skypicker can afford to eat that cost because it charges slightly more for each ticket than you would pay on your own. Think of it as an insurance policy.
There are, however, a couple of drawbacks. The biggest comes with checked bags. Since computer systems at budget and large airlines are not often linked, you usually must pick up your bags at baggage claim after each leg and recheck them with your next airline. The other issue is that not all airlines like Skypicker's approach. Most airlines are listed, but not Southwest. "We received a letter from them saying they didn't want to be present on our website," Dlouhy says.