Hopper - A travel app you can't afford not to have
- Abigail Gaston
- Apr 10, 2018
- 5 min read
So, have you heard of the Hopper? Hopper is a travel app you can't afford not to have! Hopper helps you find and purchase the cheapest airfare for your upcoming trip; plain and simple!
You do not have to be a travel blogger to know that one of the most expensive parts of traveling long distances can be the airfare. Each time you find an awesome deal on a hotel or an all-inclusive getaway, the next step to take is securing those plane tickets. So you take to the internet, plug in your destination and dates and all of a sudden, bam! You get hit with a giant price tag and that once great deal you found on a hotel is ruined by that humongous airfare cost (insert heavy sigh); so much for that discount!
But, what if it did not have to be that way? What if you could actually have your cake and eat it too? I am talking about enjoying the discovery of a great destination deal and securing the lowest price possible on airfare too! That right there truly would be a win-win situation.
What if I told you that there is a very helpful phone application you can download that is easy to use and will assist you with getting the best price possible on airfare? Well, there is and it is called “Hopper!”
Did you know that airfare prices fluctuate daily? Often, these fluctuations are minimal, but sometimes airlines will have a significant drop in travel price for certain routes and if you are one of the lucky individuals to catch this, it can make for a really great day! The problem is that unless daily internet searching for cheap airline tickets is part of your career, no one has the time to dedicate to these daily searches. This is where the Hopper comes in to save you from the mundane and redundant daily internet cheap flights hunting!
This fun little application tool has a very neat projection software that probes the internet for past and current airline trends to help predict the future for travel, and let me tell you, I am proof that it works (more on this soon)!
The Hopper’s provides prices for airline tickets over a calendar year, so to provide you with an idea of when the best range in time will be to purchase airfare for a specific set of dates and to and from specific destinations.
They do this by displaying a yearlong calendar and within each month, each day is shown in green, yellow, orange, or red, depending on the current price for flight departures on that specific day. As you can guess, green is the least expensive and red is the most expensive.
What I like about the above strategy is that if you really want to travel someplace and you are flexible with your time-frame, you can choose dates listed that will allow you to get the best flight deals!
My boyfriend and I took a trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica December 2017. Although I purchased our all-inclusive resort package in March 2017, I waited until August 2017 before I bought the airfare. Boy was it nerve wracking to wait! That said, I am incredibly thankful that I did, as I ended up saving $200 on each airline ticket by listening to the Hopper app!
I learned about The Hopper at the beginning of 2017, while searching for airfare online, actually. After reading a little bit on it, I opened my phone, scrolled to my Android’s Play Store, and downloaded the application. Once it was downloaded, I went about playing around with it.
Instantly, I was attracted to its ease of use. There are four main features, a suitcase symbol that identifies your account, a magnifying glass, which is where you will enter your search locations, a bell that signifies notifications, and binoculars, where your current searches exist. Another interesting feature is that Hopper does not make you create an account. I personally did; however, you can search without being logged in.
My Montego Bay Vacation was the first vacation I tested Hopper out on. I already had my dates confirmed; therefore, I did not have any wiggle room on the time-frame. I ended up watching three different routes. The three departure destinations I used were Detroit (DTW), Lansing (LNS) and Grand Rapids (GRR), just in case one ended up have significantly lower rates than others.
After entering each route, choosing the set of dates from the yearlong calendar provided, and tapping “Select These Dates,” a cute little hopping bunny showed up on a pink screen and the caption below read, “Fetching Latest Prices.”
Five seconds later, a page opened up displaying a current lowest price for my route and time-frame. It also stated, “You should wait for a better price.” Also, displayed are options to watch the route, shop flights, and exclude long layovers. Scroll down and you are provided with price predictions. In my opinion, this information is the best part about Hopper.
The aditional price prediction information really gives you a great idea as to why you should either purchase now, or wait until later. For me, it helped relieve some of that nervousness I had about waiting, and waiting, and waiting on our Montego Bay flights. I feared that Hopper would be wrong and flights would increase, as opposed to decrease, as time went by. That said, it did not steer me in the wrong direction at all; again, I actually saved money thanks to that little virtual bunny!
In August, I received a notification at the top left hand corner of my phone that Hopper had an update for my trip to Montego Bay. I had received notifications in past months for this trip that showed a decreased price, however, Hopper still predicted prices to drop and said that I should continue to wait.
When I opened the notification, I figured it would be one similar to what I had already received. However, this time it said, “You should book now” with a cute bunny holding money in an excited fashion. When I scrolled to the bottom, it stated that prices will vary over the next 3 months; however, Hopper predicted that I would likely spend more if I did not purchase soon. With that, I purchased our flights for Montego Bay and once again, I paid $200 less on each ticket than what I would have paid back in March.
I continue to use Hopper regularly. Whether it be a trip with confirmed dates already, a trip I would like to take but open to dates with the best airfare, or even just to play around to see where I can fly to for cheap. My recommendation to you, if you do not currently have Hopper, head over to your app store and download it today, so you too can start saving on airfare!
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