Is Skyscanner third party?

Skyscanner is a middleman between you and the third-party website that you book your flight on. They don't take bookings and payments through their website. Once you've found the flight that you want to buy on Skyscanner's website, you're handed off to another website where you make the booking.



Skyscanner is a metasearch engine, not a third-party travel agency. This is a crucial distinction: Skyscanner does not sell tickets directly, nor does it take your payment or manage your booking. Instead, it aggregates data from hundreds of airlines and online travel agencies (OTAs) to show you the best prices in one place. When you find a flight you like, Skyscanner redirects you to the actual provider (like United.com or Expedia) to complete the transaction. In 2026, they also offer a "Direct Booking" feature on some routes where you stay on the Skyscanner interface, but the booking is still fulfilled by the airline. Because it is a search engine, you should always double-check the reputation of the specific OTA it recommends, as your customer service for changes or cancellations will be with that specific company, not with Skyscanner itself.

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Look no further. If you're wondering, “Is Skyscanner reliable?” the answer is a resounding yes. With over 100 million satisfied customers every month, it's the ultimate metasearch engine for flights, hotels, and car rentals.

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SkyScanner could be returning fares from shonky third parties that are actually round trip (round trip fares are often much cheaper than one way) with a dummy return leg, which is against the T+C's of the airlines. It's called throwaway ticketing.

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Expedia owns Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, eBookers and CheapTickets, while Booking Holdings comprises Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Kayak, Cheapflights, Rentalcars, Momondo and OpenTable. Ctrip, China's biggest travel agent, owns Trip.com, Tours4fun and Skyscanner.

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Weaknesses of Skyscanner As with Google Flights, Skyscanner sometimes displays ghost fares that are no longer active. And, while it does have great flexible date searching, its fare calendar doesn't live-update, which means the pricing you see for less frequently searched routes might be incomplete.

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Skyscanner is often able to find the lowest flight prices because it searches smaller OTAs that other search engines neglect. Price alerts for specific dates/routes. If you have set dates and a set destination, you can set up an alert and you will receive email notifications of price fluctuations on that route.

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What's a Hacker Fare? Instead of making you book one round-trip ticket from a single airline, KAYAK plays airfare matchmaker by finding two one-way tickets that together make a round-trip flight. Sometimes that means you might take a different airline home than the one you took to your destination.

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Flights are generally the most inexpensive between four months and three weeks before your departure date. Seasonal changes and holidays can create price fluctuations in ticket prices. The day of the week that you book a flight does not affect the price.

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Typically, the lowest prices are made available earlier in the week, and the highest prices are offered later in the week. This why the answer to the question, “When do flight prices go down?” is sometimes… a Tuesday!

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For changes, cancellations or refunds, we recommend that you contact the travel provider that you completed your booking with. As a travel search engine, Skyscanner doesn't take your booking or payment ourselves. Instead, we pass you through to your chosen airline or travel agent, where you make your booking directly.

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Some people have pointed out that Kiwi.com doesn't include budget airlines around Asia and Southeast Asia, so for that, Skyscanner still wins out for best budget airline coverage amongst all the fare aggregators.

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No pressure. We never use your data to bump up prices or artificially create demand. We believe the price you see should be the price you pay and we won't pressure you to book. No nasty surprises or hidden fees.

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Expedia is legit While booking travel via an OTA can save you money, you'll always want to double check your reservations with the travel provider and only book reservations that you are fairly confident that you'll keep.

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The latest round is reported to have put the company's valuation above $1 billion, adding Skyscanner to the growing list of European unicorns. Skyscanner brought on board five new investors for the latest round who all invested an undisclosed amount.

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