What's going on with Kayak?
 

I have used Kayak from time to time to compare prices, particularly for airline tickets, and usually found them accurate. But I just can't seem to make sense out of them recently.

I've been working on tickets for a friend's mother to fly down, and there is literally NO relation to the prices on Kayak and the prices I get when I go to the actual airline sites. When Kayak shows Spirit being $286, it is $139 for the same flight on Spirit's site. Kayak shows USAir3000 at $280 or so, and yet on their own site, I can't find those flights for under $359. Whey Kayak shows one day cheaper than another, I find the exact opposite on the airline websites.
If I click on their "buy from Expedia or Orbitz" link, I don't get the same prices either.

I found the same sort of thing recently looking at car rentals -- little to no relation between Kayak's prices and the agencies' own prices.

Has anyone else noticed this -- or is this one just a fluke?

I didn't check prices, but I tried to use kayak earlier this week to check routing possibilities. Basically it returned garbage. Limited # options, 2+ connections (I wanted 1 max), not showing all airlines, etc.

This was for a simple Asia - US Hub - US city route.

I was very disappointed as I've relied on them in the past to give me a wide range of options.

A site I prefer over Kayak in Yapta.com. You can look for the specific flights you'd like and mark them to contact you if they fall. That way, you track only the airlines and flight times you are interested in.

I agree.

On a trip from PIT to RSW I'm looking at for the week after Christmas, it doesn't return anything under $550, yet AirTran fares for the days I'm looking at start at around $300.

And on a trip I've been researching to San Antonio in the spring, it never returns anything under $600, yet I've found around $200 on NWA's website.

It is very disappointing, as I've used the site frequently in the past.

Well, I just tried that but it was pretty useless for this one as they don't even cover the two cheapest airlines flying nonstop between Detroit and Ft. Myers -- Spirit, and USA3000. It was also awkward because although I clicked "prefer non stops" they are mixed through with the hundreds of others with stops, so there is a lot of sorting involved.

They may have server problems or whatever, it happens, especially considering that their system continually must link to a bezillion other servers to pull down info instantaneously.

Do this: Email them - Kayak's boss or owner takes pride in answering in person - I've had a bunch of answers when pointing out things that weren't quite right on Kayak.

And crosscheck with itasoftware and other search sites.

Well let's be honest here. For the time and effort it take to make calls, recheck, etc., etc., I can just go directly to the couple of sites that have flights between my two cities and will be done with the whole thing without playing all those games.
That's what I've done, in fact. Booked the flights for less than ANY fares listed on Kayak.