Kayak’s vacation package search now offers more cost comparisons

If you’re a Kayak user like me, you’re always looking for new ways to use the travel search engine to find good deals.

Kayak this week revamped a tool that makes it easier to compare the price of airfare-hotel vacation packages from a variety of online travel companies -- and lets you know when it’s cheaper to book them separately.

On a search of “packages” from the menu bar, Kayak users will see in one glance the lowest prices from Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, JetBlue, US Airways Vacations and Funjet. The additional K-Pack price, as it’s called, shows whether it’s best to grab the package or make separate flight-hotel reservations.

Prices are based on two travelers, and Kayak sends you to whatever provider you choose to seal the deal.

I tried the search by looking for a seven-night package in Las Vegas from LAX on June 1. At a glance, I saw a stay at the Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter that per person would cost $673 on Travelocity, $681 on Expedia and $682 on Priceline. The K-pack cost: $993.

The same search showed a cost of $711 per person on Travelocity and Expedia to stay at the Bellagio -- a vacation that would cost $1,189 to book separately.

Next, I checked out a week in Honolulu (same dates) and found a package stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach for $1,431 on Priceline and US Airways Vacations -- and booking separately would cost $265 more.

One caveat: When I searched for LAX-Berlin packages on the same dates, only some entries showed the comparative prices.

[Updated 11 a.m. PDT March 18: An earlier version of this post said hotel-airfare packages without pricing information were caused by a glitch in the system that would be fixed. A spokeswoman says the lack of pricing options indicates that there are no package providers for the hotel displayed.]

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