← Back to the flight-booking guide New York to Las Vegas: five booking sites tested
We ran the exact same search on Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak, Momondo and Kiwi.com using the same dates and currency. One tool was cheaper than the rest, for a reason worth knowing. Here's what we found.
🛫 Route🇺🇸 New York (JFK/EWR/LGA) → 🇺🇸 Las Vegas (LAS)
📅 TripReturn · 8 → 22 Sep 2026
🔎 Search1 adult · economy · USD
🌍 Prices inUS dollars, no loyalty accounts
🏆 What the test showed
This one was almost a tie. Four of the five tools landed within about $35 of each other, and Google Flights was cheapest at $218, but only because it's the one tool that shows Southwest, which doesn't sell through comparison sites. Take Southwest out and the cheapest was an ordinary Frontier 1-stop around $249 to $255. The nonstop (United, about 5.5 hours) was just $263, barely more than the cheapest connection. Kiwi.com was the priciest. Prices change constantly, so treat this as a snapshot, not a permanent ranking.
Booking sites compared
Ranked by the cheapest protected connection, the safest fare to book. The badge under each tool shows how you book with it. Every term is explained under the table.
Protected connection
All legs on one ticket, so the airline rebooks you free if a connection is missed. The safest fare to book.
Business, direct
The cheapest lie-flat premium seat on a nonstop. On US domestic routes it's sold as "First", and JFK–LAS is one of the few with a real transcon Flagship product.
Comparison vs reseller
A comparison site shows the fares and sends you to the airline or an agency to pay. A reseller like Kiwi.com takes your payment itself and adds its own fees, so it usually costs a little more.
Why Google was cheaper: it wasn't a smarter search, it was Southwest. Southwest Airlines doesn't distribute through comparison sites or resellers, so it only turns up on Google Flights (which shows the fare, then sends you to Southwest.com to book) and on Southwest's own site. Every other tool here is blind to it. On the fares they could all see, the four comparison sites were within a few dollars of each other.
A cheap fare isn't the whole price. The cheapest tickets here were bare Frontier fares that charge for a carry-on and a checked bag, sometimes $50 to $70 each way per bag. Southwest, by contrast, still includes two free checked bags, which is why its $218 is better than it looks. Add your bags before you compare, not after.
The business column is the cheapest lie-flat nonstop each tool found. All four comparison sites landed on the same fare, American's JFK–LAS Flagship First at $1,372 (about five times the economy nonstop). Kiwi showed a business fare too, JetBlue Mint at $1,807, but priced above the others as usual.
Kayak and Momondo are owned by the same company and returned identical fares; we list both because people search for each. Kiwi.com showed the same flights as everyone else, the JetBlue nonstop ($288), a slow 30-hour one-stop ($233) and JetBlue Mint business ($1,807), but it's a reseller and priced each above the comparison sites, so it's ranked last. Prices are live and drift by the hour, so read the pattern, not the exact dollar.
1
Google was cheapest, but only because it shows Southwest.
Google found a $218 Southwest fare (one stop in Kansas City) that none of the others had. That isn't Google being smarter: Southwest doesn't sell through comparison sites, so Skyscanner, Kayak and Kiwi simply can't show it. Strip Southwest out and the cheapest was an ordinary Frontier 1-stop around $249 to $255, and all four comparison sites landed within a few dollars of each other. On any US route, take a quick look at Southwest.com directly.
2
The nonstop is barely more, and half the time.
The cheap 1-stops run 10 to 14 hours with a connection in Dallas or Kansas City. A nonstop on United, JetBlue, Delta or American is about 5.5 hours for $263, only about $45 over the cheapest Frontier fare. Add a checked bag to the bare Frontier ticket and that gap basically disappears. On a short domestic hop, the nonstop is usually the easy call.
Pay $255
- Frontier, one stop in Dallas
- 10 to 14 hours each way
- Carry-on and checked bag both cost extra
vs
Pay $263
- Nonstop on United (or JetBlue, Delta)
- About 5h 33m, no connection
- Only about $8 more than the cheap 1-stop
3
Kiwi.com was the priciest again.
Kiwi shows the same flights as everyone else, it just charges more. Its nonstop was $288 (the dearest direct of the five), its cheapest one-stop was a slow $233 routing with 30-hour layovers, and its business fare, JetBlue Mint at $1,807, was pricier than the comparison sites' $1,372. You'd be paying a reseller rather than the airline for the privilege, so we rank it last.
🧳 On a US route, the bag fee decides it
The cheapest fares here were bare Frontier tickets. Frontier (like Spirit) charges for everything: a carry-on and a checked bag are both extra, often $50 to $70 each way, and more if you pay at the airport. A $255 Frontier fare with one bag each way is really closer to $375.
Southwest is the exception, and it's what makes its fare the sleeper deal: the $218 ticket still includes two free checked bags. That's the one thing the comparison sites can't show you, because they don't carry Southwest at all.
Even the legacy nonstops sell a stripped "Basic Economy" fare with no free checked bag, so whatever you book, add your bags before you compare and check what the fare actually includes. On a US route it changes the ranking more than the headline price does.
How we'd book a route like this
- 1
Start on Google Flights to see every airline in one place and watch the price.
- 2
On any US route, also open Southwest.com directly. Southwest is missing from every comparison site and is often the cheapest once you count its two free bags.
- 3
Add your bags, then decide. Here the nonstop was only a few dollars over the cheap 1-stop and half the time, so we'd take it.
How we tested. One route, one sitting, on 7 Jul 2026. New York (all airports) to Las Vegas (LAS), return 8 → 22 Sep 2026, 1 adult in economy, currency set to USD on every tool. We ran all five searches within about 15 minutes of each other to keep the comparison fair, and noted the cheapest fare each tool showed in each category. Bag rules come from the airlines' own published fare conditions. This is one snapshot; prices change constantly, so treat the figures as a point-in-time reading.
