I would like to see an option to avoid stopovers in countries you specify... as an agony avoidance option.
Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
21–30 of 37 posts
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#22I have a simple question: Why are sites like Hipmunk, Kayak etc called "travel search" sites? Travel is far more than booking flights, hotels, cars, cruises and vacation packages At best sites like this are booking sites for xyz but I have a heard time reconciling the appropriateness of "travel search" What am I missing?
What other aspects of travel are you thinking of?
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I try Hipmunk every so often, the last time being about a month ago. Every time, Kayak shows more flight options for the same query than Hipmunk, and often cheaper ones. I don't get it, they both use ITA on the backend. I'd use Hipmunk more often if they actually fulfilled their functionality promise as an aggregator. A pretty UI isn't enough.
Hmm, that shouldn't be the case. If you try again and feel like helping us out, feel free to email the discrepancy to support@hipmunk.com. Sometimes there is an explanation (e.g. the flight doesn't exist, or has a 30hr layover), and other times we don't have the flight, in which case we want to alert our providers to fix it.
I just searched for an intercontinental flight. I made a choice and on HipMunk it says - '...prices are per person and include taxes and fees...'
But when I clicked on the button to book, the price was different (higher) on the airline website.
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#24I've used Hipmunk several times. The interface is fantastic. The ipad app is also great. It does immensely suck that you leave Hipmunk to actually buy the tickets. I had to redo my entire search and purchase because the Safari view of Delta's website in the ipad Hipmunk app crashed. I also had to recently buy my cross-country Christmas tickets through Expedia. For whatever reason Expedia had far, far better selection…
I try Hipmunk every so often, the last time being about a month ago. Every time, Kayak shows more flight options for the same query than Hipmunk, and often cheaper ones. I don't get it, they both use ITA on the backend. I'd use Hipmunk more often if they actually fulfilled their functionality promise as an aggregator. A pretty UI isn't enough.
Same here, I think I've taken over a dozen flights, short and long distance in the last two years, and Hipmunk didn't find the best deal for any of the ones I tried. Old Expedia typically came up with the best price, and Kayak and FlightNetwork showed promise. Google Flights is one of my favorites because you can easily browse a calendar and see a graph to find the lowest prices (my dates are always flexible). Also, they have a map, so you can see the prices flying to any other nearby cities or airports to spot great deals you'd overlook. I've never booked through Google though, I just find the flights, then one of the above sites typically finds the same flight for $10 less, so I just go with them because I already have an account. Either way, no luck with Hipmunk, but maybe they work well for domestic US flights, since I have no experience there.
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#25I'm not sure there's a point in using anything but Google Flights, to be honest... But in my experience hipmunk is among the best in the rest of a very crowded pack.
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#26Given the founders, it's fun to contemplate Hipmunk as an anti-reddit, where a successful visit is probably brief and directly generates revenue.
Also with a successful Yahoo deal.
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#27I have a simple question: Why are sites like Hipmunk, Kayak etc called "travel search" sites? Travel is far more than booking flights, hotels, cars, cruises and vacation packages At best sites like this are booking sites for xyz but I have a heard time reconciling the appropriateness of "travel search" What am I missing?
What other aspects of travel are you thinking of?
Searching for a destination was the first thing that came to my mind after reading the parent comment.
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#28I've used Hipmunk several times. The interface is fantastic. The ipad app is also great. It does immensely suck that you leave Hipmunk to actually buy the tickets. I had to redo my entire search and purchase because the Safari view of Delta's website in the ipad Hipmunk app crashed. I also had to recently buy my cross-country Christmas tickets through Expedia. For whatever reason Expedia had far, far better selection…
I try Hipmunk every so often, the last time being about a month ago. Every time, Kayak shows more flight options for the same query than Hipmunk, and often cheaper ones. I don't get it, they both use ITA on the backend. I'd use Hipmunk more often if they actually fulfilled their functionality promise as an aggregator. A pretty UI isn't enough.
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Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#29I've used Hipmunk several times. The interface is fantastic. The ipad app is also great. It does immensely suck that you leave Hipmunk to actually buy the tickets. I had to redo my entire search and purchase because the Safari view of Delta's website in the ipad Hipmunk app crashed. I also had to recently buy my cross-country Christmas tickets through Expedia. For whatever reason Expedia had far, far better selection…
Just wanted to throw my experience into this thread.
Every time I've booked a flight in the past couple years, I've gone to Hipmunk to check schedules. Out of the 10 or so flights I've taken, Hipmunk always provided the same prices flights that were important (cheapest/most convenient for me), but I can't say I bothered to look for things that weren't convenient. These were always major airport to major airport things in the US, however.
Re: Travel Search Site Hipmunk (YC S10) Cuts Yahoo Deal
#30Yeah for Hipmunk, Capitaine Train and others. They are providing a very efficient, no fuss, travel booking experience. Historic players like Amadeus or DBahn (not to mention SNCF...), beware, these guys are rocking your world even more than you may be suspecting...
I'm not sure they need to beware - DB\SCNF aren't really competing with the likes of Capitaine Train. If you buy a ticket from Paris to Lyon with CT for example - you're still getting the same SNCF train ticket and they'll get a giant chunk of that money (I have no idea what sort of referral CT get). I suppose its in these rail companies' best interests that someone puts together a nice interface for their ticket sys…
Except Capitaine Train had to go (almost? can remember the details) to court in 2009 to gain access to SOCRATE, the SNCF booking system.
Capitaine is competing with Voyages SNCF and SNCF themselves. They both operate and sell tickets. (And VSC see themselves as competitors to SNCF, which is kinda schyzophrenic if you ask me).
Now that they have set a precedent, Lyria and the likes opened their booking plateforms to Capitaine.
But, still, you get odd looks if you try to exchange a CT ticket at a counter "how, that's a travel agent ticket, we don't support those" "well, yes you do, just type this booking number and you'll be able to deliver me another ticket, trust me" ;-)