Pattern for Picking the Right Date

While looking around for ways in which Airlines depict their booking information I came across two major themes: the calendar view and the dropdown. Below is a comparison of what’s good and bad about the two and a look at how they can be combined.
Calendar: Lufthansa

The good: What I like most about this pattern is that it allows the user to see an oversight of the month they are viewing. This simplifies the decision making process somewhat and offers more information about the date they choose. It is helpful when you want to explicitly fly on a particular day, such as Saturday.

The bad: As is often the case when booking airline tickets, you want to book months ahead. This means that you’d have to click through until you reach the month you want to fly in. If this 6 months from now, this leads to a lot of clicking. Accidentally clicking outside of the calender box removes the entire thing, probably causing frustration. The use case for booking tickets is also a different: you might be shopping around on various sites simultaneously, with 5 or 6 tabs open, in each one looking for flights on the exact same date. This means that you have most likely already chosen two dates and don’t need to be reminded on what day 12 December is. In this case you lose the advantage of having an oversight and the browsing becomes a tedious task.

Drop Down: Baltic Air

The good: Here we have exactly the opposite as at Lufhansa. Through a drop-down you select the dates, maximum amount of clicks: 2. Referring back to the use case of booking tickets, this quick input can be advantageous.

The bad Drop downs cover other navigation elements. You loose oversight of what day you are booking your ticket and a drop down certainly does not remind me of a calendar.

It needs to be mentioned: Baltic Air gives you the option to try both options, although they use a popup to achieve this.

Combination: Dutch Railways

The good:Initially I was skeptical about this pattern since I can name very few times (if any) that I have looked at tickets months in advance. Taking the train in The Netherlands is also more akin to taking a tram, which makes me question why such an elaborate calender is needed. However, I am sold on this because it combines the best of both worlds: a monthly oversight, and a quick way to jump to dates relatively far ahead.

The bad: I am curious how often people actually do check dates far ahead in the future. As with the Baltic air example, the drop down covers other content, which is never really good, but it’s a trade off.

To conclude: I don’t really think any of these are better or worse to such a degree that it is crippling usability. However, the use cases of these sites play an important factor in deciding what pattern is appropriate. For journeys happening withing short notice (buses, trains, etc.) the calendar might be good. For bookings 6 months from now, this might not always be the case.