Airfares are notoriously difficult to understand, and as airlines have unbundled services -- adding fees for everything from checked baggage to a can of soda -- it has even become difficult to know exactly what you're getting for the price.
That doesn't make a lot of sense, considering there's now more information available than ever about each flight. But this is the airline industry; sense has nothing to do with it. Not that no one is trying.
Expedia announced Tuesday improvements in its airfare search engine in an effort to provide customers with a "comprehensive comparison marketplace for flights," said Greg Schulz, senior vice president of global tour and transport.
The idea is to make it clear to travelers what airlines are including in each fare so they can pick the right flight for them, whether that's an economy seat with no checked baggage or a first class suite. The search puts front and center upgrade and paid seating options, as well as a baggage fee calculator.
"We will show you what the cheapest option is, but similar to what we do with hotels, we'll show you the variations on that option," Schulz told Mashable. For example, "for just another $30, you can receive these five additional things. For an extra $200 you can have a first class experience."
An example Delta flight fare listed the first class experience as slightly higher than $200 -- more like $562 -- but the transparency is there:
"How big is the seat, is there Wi-Fi, is there food on the flight -- all of these are variables that travelers want to consider in their air search," he said.
This information is available on several websites -- from SeatGuru to RouteHappy (an Expedia partner) to each airline's booking pages -- but Expedia sees opportunity in putting everything in one place.
"The airlines over the past seven years have created ancillary products," said Schulz. "They've essentially started selling separately what used to be included in the price, and every airline does it a bit differently."
In addition to offering all airfare information in one place, Expedia is also working on several other flight product features for 2015. The company plans to expand its price trends tool, take trends to the next level with price predictions, and finally do more with Scratchpad. The Scratchpad tool, which launched last year and gives customers somewhere to save searches, was inspired by watching focus group participants take a pencil to paper while searching different websites for airfares.
Motivating travelers to ditch the notebook clearly isn't enough, though. Expedia wants you to ditch the other tabs, too.