Momondo, a Denmark-based travel metasearch engine with designs on the U.S. market, has integrated Amtrak schedules and fares, as well as Southwest's schedules, into its flight-search results.
I am not familiar with any other travel metasearch company that displays Amtrak's fares.
And, many travel companies have tried to display Southwest without authorization and failed.
In its mission to be comprehensive, rail schedules are needed to fill out the picture because they often offer fares lower than or competitive with flights in many markets, says Martin Lumbye, a Momondo partner.
In fact, in its global offerings, Momondo displays 291 low cost carriers, 260 "classical" airlines, 241 online travel agencies -- and 22 train vendors, with most of them in Europe, Lumbye says.
For a Boston-Washington D.C. search, Momondo displays a $180 Amtrak fare below a $175 TravelPapa fare and above a $188 fare from Airfare.com.
As with the airlines and online travel agencies shown, consumers can click a Visit button to book Amtrak trips on Amtrak.com.
Don't be surprised if Kayak, Bing Travel or other major U.S. travel metasearch companies begin to integrate rail offerings, as well.
Momondo's integration of Amtrak presumably is on their radar.
Offering rail as an alternative transportation mode -- "Go train-Save on CO2" -- makes a lot of sense on several levels.
On the dates I searched, July 7-12, a Boston-Washington, D.C., roundtrip on Amtrak was cheaper than flying United and U.S. Airways, for instance.
Momondo is also displaying Southwest's schedules without authorization.
Displaying Southwest -- it's airline code is WN -- is a big no-no and Southwest's lawyers are in contact with Momondo.
Kayak has been displaying Southwest's schedules since 2007 and has authorization to do so. In keeping with that agreement, Kayak doesn't display Southwest's logo or fares.
Notice that Momondo doesn't display the Southwest logo in the schedule display, doesn't show its fares and unlike its other search-results displays, does not give consumers the ability to click over to Southwest.com.
However, on the right sides of its pages, where Momondo displays the logos of travel agencies and airlines, you can click on the Southwest box and see the following link to Southwest.com.
Other metasearch players and online travel agencies have attempted to display Southwest schedules without authorization and have not succeeded.
Momondo may have one thing going for it, though, regarding the Southwest issue.
For now at least, Momondo doesn't have an office in the U.S.
And that may make the issue trickier for Southwest's legal team.
However, I don't envision Momondo being able to retain Southwest's schedules over the long term.