Aviasales Review

Aviasales is the largest flight metasearch engine in Russia and has expanded significantly into European and Asian markets. Founded in 2007, the platform searches over 800 airlines and travel agents with particular strength in regions that Western-focused platforms like Kayak and Skyscanner sometimes underserve. The platform's main advantage is its deep connections with travel agents and airlines across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. Routes involving cities like Moscow, Bangkok, Istanbul, or Almaty often show more options and better prices on Aviasales than on competing platforms. For travelers in these regions or flying between them, Aviasales is an essential search tool. Aviasales uses a redirect model, sending users to travel agents or airlines to complete bookings. The platform is available in multiple languages, though the English translation is not as polished as native English-language competitors. The search speed is fast, and the price calendar tool provides a clear overview of fare trends that helps identify the cheapest travel dates.

Aviasales delivers search results quickly, typically within 5-10 seconds. The search engine queries a broad range of sources with strong representation from Eastern European and Asian travel agents. This means routes involving these regions often show options that are simply not available on platforms like Google Flights or Kayak. The results page is functional and information-dense, showing the key details for each flight option including airline, times, duration, stops, and price. The filtering options cover the basics (stops, airlines, departure times, duration) but are not as extensive as those on Kayak or Skyscanner. The sorting options include price, duration, and departure time. The price calendar is one of Aviasales' best features. It displays fares for each day across a month in a grid format with color coding to indicate cheaper and more expensive dates. This makes it easy to identify the best travel dates at a glance. Combined with the flexible dates search, it provides a comprehensive view of pricing trends for your route.

Aviasales is free to use with no premium features or subscriptions. Revenue comes from referral fees paid by the travel agents and airlines that users are redirected to. The platform displays prices from multiple sources for each flight, allowing you to compare agent pricing and choose the best deal. Price accuracy is Aviasales' most significant weakness. Because the platform includes many smaller travel agents, the displayed price does not always match the final checkout price. In our testing, accuracy ranged from 75-90% depending on the agent. Well-known agents generally had high accuracy, while smaller or region-specific agents showed more frequent discrepancies. The price alert system sends notifications when fares change on tracked routes. Alerts are delivered via email and push notifications on the mobile app. Timing is reasonable, with most alerts arriving within a few hours of a significant price change. The threshold for triggering an alert can be customized, which helps reduce notification noise for routes with frequent minor fluctuations.

Aviasales integrates flight search with hotel comparison through its sister platform, Hotellook. The integration allows users to research both flights and accommodation from a single starting point, though the hotel search redirects to a separate site for the actual comparison. The mobile app is well-designed and performs smoothly on both iOS and Android. It includes all the key features from the desktop version, plus push notifications for price alerts and a save feature for frequently searched routes. The app's interface is clean and navigable, though some translated text can be awkward in the English version. Aviasales also powers the Travelpayouts affiliate network, which is one of the largest travel affiliate programs globally. This means the platform has strong relationships with travel agents worldwide, which translates into broad search coverage. The API access available through Travelpayouts also makes Aviasales data available to third-party developers and travel content creators.

The Aviasales interface is clean and functional, with a straightforward search box on the homepage and a results page that presents information clearly. The design is modern and responsive, adapting well to different screen sizes and devices. The main usability challenge is the language quality. While Aviasales is available in English, French, German, and other languages, the translations are not always natural. Some labels, descriptions, and help text can feel awkward or confusing to native speakers of these languages. This is a minor issue for experienced travel searchers but can create friction for casual users. The price calendar and flexible date features are intuitive and easy to use. The redirect process clearly indicates which agent you are being sent to before you leave the Aviasales site. Overall, the platform is more than usable but lacks the polish of Google Flights or Skyscanner in non-Russian languages.

Aviasales provides a help center with articles covering common questions about using the platform, understanding search results, and troubleshooting issues. The help content is available in multiple languages, though the English-language articles are less detailed than the Russian versions. As a redirect platform, Aviasales does not handle booking-related customer service. Issues with flights must be resolved with the airline or travel agent where the booking was completed. Aviasales does provide links to contact information for major agents and airlines in its help center. Email support is available for platform-specific questions, with response times typically within 24-48 hours. There is no live chat or phone support for general users. For a metasearch engine, the support level is adequate, but users accustomed to the more robust help systems of Skyscanner or Kayak may find it lacking.