Jaunted

Tags: Site Scramble / → All Tags

Site Scramble: More for Your Money

It's time for the second round of awards in our Site Scramble. This time, we worked our way through the big boys of the U.S. based low-cost carriers. We had some surprises, sure; mostly we were impressed how much better these sites were than those of the legacy carriers. We suppose having fewing flights helps. Nonetheless, here's what we decided:

Best Overall: JetBlue

While Southwest provides a bit more information in their fare searches, we liked the way that JetBlue organized their site better. We can tweak the departure times to save money, and finding things is easy because it's all simple, clean, and well-marked. Hard to beat, in our opinion.

Worst Overall: Spirit

Between their Jeb Bush endorsement and scary pictures of Jamaicans on the front door of their site, this carrier is too creepy for our tastes. We're afraid to go back, lest that Jamaican jump through our screen.

So Close, and Yet So Far: Southwest and AirTran

Southwest is the grandaddy of LCCs. We understand that prettifying isn't ever going to be in the cards for them, but we're shallow. Still, a powerful fare search engine, and great if you need to go where they fly. AirTran was the big surpirse; their site is fine for what it is, and we'd be tempted to fly them if it weren't for the whole ValuJet thing.

Coolest Feature: Frontier listing the departure gates for flights.

Worst Feature: No one lets you check what seats are available until late in the booking process. Jerks.

Still Makes Us Laugh: That Spirit has "business class". What do they offer, gourmet peanuts?


Related Stories:
·   Site Scramble [Jaunted]