Momondo said it is the first travel metasearch engine to introduce a rating system on flights that can spot the best flights available based on both cost and convenience. The metasearch engine gathers fares from hundreds of travel sites to make it easier for travelers to compare and find the cheapest fare. In many cases, however, the cheapest flight is not necessarily the best flight.

For example, a search for a flight from New York to Portland, Ore., found the cheapest flight was on Southwest Airlines for $328. But the flight makes a connection, so that the outbound duration is 10 hours, 45 minutes and the homebound flight is 7 hours, 15 minutes, or roughly 18 hours in total. To get past these cheap but inconvenient long flights, Momondo’s new rating technology seeks to bring metasearch to a new level. By combining several factors into a single rating system, its new technology can instantly spot the best flights available considering both price and time or cost and convenience.

 “Flight search engines scan the web and present a massive amount of flight information in a long list for the traveler to trawl through in the hope of finding the right flight,” said Martin Lumbye, a partner at Momondo. “Typically they also add some filtering options, but this isn’t very innovative. We have been working hard on our next generation of metasearch. Our new rating technology turns raw information into knowledge and insight,”

By activating the rating system on the search example for flights from New York to Portland, Ore., the best flight found was actually $357 with an average one-way travel time of 5 hours, 43 minutes, and a total round-trip travel time of 11 hours 25 minutes, a savings of 6 hours and 13 minutes, for just an extra $29.

“Price is important, but not the only factor. The new Momondo flight rating system helps consumers save both time and money, not only the time spent on travel, but also the time spent finding the right flight to book,” Lumbye. “We believe it’s a strong tool for the consumer to swiftly find the best flight available.”

Momondo’s new technology makes it possible for travelers to edit their search results, ensuring the best flights appear at the top of their list. Every flight is rated with a smiley and a score between 0 (bad) and 10 (very good) to help the user find the flight with the best balance between price and flight duration. Momondo’s new rating system is part of its biggest redesign of both travel mobile and websites in the past four years.