We found Hopper App and because travel is always a painful process (well, for me it is always is) and one of my least favourite parts is booking a flight, we feel you need to know about Hopper App.
Airports are some of my least favourite places, and buying tickets for a flight is one of my least favourite activities. Luckily, though, Hopper app at least makes buying tickets a little easier (though I have yet to find an app that helps me with airports…).
What is Hopper App
Hopper app is primarily designed to help you plan your travel for less (read at extremely cheap prices). It tells you when to book flights as well as saves you money in the process. Here is the latest update after a year. Let’s see how this nifty app has been faring
Choose your travel dates with Hopper
The first thing the app asks you to do is select your destination (it assumes your take-off location based on your current GPS location). You can select an option for Round trip or one-way trip but unfortunately, this option is only available for iOS devices for now.From there, it will show you the flight costs for the next several months, and it indicates the cost based on colors. Green indicates the price for that day is a deal, yellow is standard, orange is a little high, and red is a total rip-off.
Hopper collects massive amounts of data on flights everyday. This puts them in a unique position to create algorithms predicting travel patterns, ticket prices etc. They claim to be 95% accurate.
Prediction
Based on these color coded calendars, users can select a date for departure as well as a return date and the Hopper app will give you the projected costs of the flight. It will give you an estimated cost, how much you will be saving, and the absolute latest you will want to purchase your tickets within that time frame or the prices could rise after a certain date. If you are still unsure on the price, select the ‘watch this trip’ option that gives push notification on best deals on your device.
Tips & Flights
From there Hopper moves you into a new screen where it will give you tips on how to save even more money. For instance, Hopper will suggest different airports where you will save more money or suggest different return dates to further increase your savings. This is probably my favourite feature, because it allows users to thoroughly plan ahead and make the best decision for their trip. Lastly it will show you all of the available flights, their departure dates, and the total cost of tickets.
Once you have selected your desired route, you will be asked to create an account with hopper and choose your payment mode(Accepts credit card only). The final fare amount will include the ticket price, taxes/fees and hopper fees (Equivalent to $7.2).
And that’s about it..
If you’re looking for help with travel planning then look at our post on Cheap Travel as well
Hopper Limitations
Hopper has a few limitations that all users should be aware of before using the app. The biggest being that flight modifications and cancellations are NOT supported by the app. You will need to contact hopper support directly for changes in booking. FYI hopper doesn’t charge any fee for this however most airlines do so you will most likely end up paying for the change (but no hopper fees).
They use data science and algorithms derived from it to predict prices and make suggestions, they say they are 95% correct so be aware that you may end up in the 5% that pays more.
The Hopper app has definitely improved after two years considering it was only available on iOS devices and users did not have an option to pay within the application initially. After going over the reviews, adding more flight options is a desired feature but overall the average user rating on Google play and Apple stores is 4+ which is pretty decent.
It’s suggested tips to further save money will help many users who are looking to cut as many costs as possible. It also has a simple interface, a pretty and soothing design. Once it expands its feature base a little more, it will certainly be a go-to app for flight planning. It would be great, if they can add more payment options.
Let us know about your experience.