The Benefits of Using Hipmunk

We spoke about Hipmunk being a very good site for finding flights as it is very customer friendly. In today’s post, we will go through a few steps on how to use the site and functions that are extremely beneficial to us.

Why is it that we would like to use a website like Hipmunk and Google Flights to search for flights as we cannot book directly from them like other travel search websites? Sure, we can filter the price and look for the cheapest tickets they have out there, but sometimes this may be bundled up with a few layover and overnight flights. This may not specifically be the “best” flight for us. What Hipmunk and Google Flights does is filters all the results we do not wish to have and finds the best flight for each individual.

Like most online travel search websites, you will need to plug in your home location, your destination location, date of travel as well as date of return. These are the results that we get.

For Hipmunk, the default filter is from the lowest price, but you can always set that yourself. As like ITA Matrix, Hipmunk gives us results in a timeline form. For each flight that repeats itself, Hipmunk has automatically hid the results, and lets us know that for that exact flight, there will be 5 return options in which we can explore later if we do end up going with that flight. Let’s pick the first flight. We’ll just hover over the flight on the timeline.

As you do that, it automatically gives us a detailed description of the flight. It will be a 12:00pm flight on Air Canada. The layover will be in Toronto for 1 hour and 45 minutes. We will then fly Air Canada again to Beijing with a layover of 2 hours and 25 minutes, in which we will then fly to Hong Kong via Air China. The different colour coordination that Hipmunk uses to distinguish between different airlines and layovers are visually easy for the eye to recognize between the differences.

These are the results we get when we click on the 5 return options on the right side. If you decide to choose the first option, there will be an additional fee of $142.13. As you can clearly see on the timeline, this may be the difference between a 1 stop and 2 stop flight.

Another filter which is very easy to use on Hipmunk is the time option. In the circled section, you can see that it is an airplane logo in which you can slide from left to right to adjust the times to which you would like to leave and arrive for your return flight. You can do the same with your departing flight.

Other criteria filters we can adjust are the price we wish to pay, duration of the flight, takeoff time, landing time, airlines we wish to fly with and the number of layover stops. The last option is a combination of price, number of stops and duration. Unfortunately, unlike Google Flights, you will not be able to choose the connecting airline you would like to fly with using Hipmunk.

At the moment, Hipmunk is searching under Canadian currency, but if you wish to search under different currencies, you can definitely do so.

Now let’s say we are unable to make a decision at the moment but we would like to keep a record of this itinerary so we can go back to it when we do decide to book. There are a couple of options you can choose from.

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You can save the flight with the “Save Flight” option at the top right. This can be done when you log in to Hipmunk with your Google account. Another option would be to email the itinerary to your email. You can also add it to your calendar, so that if a meeting or an event comes up, it will notify you that your itinerary falls in between those. We will go into more detail in the next post about this.

If you’re ready to book, you can choose from the four options which offer the itinerary you have chosen. You can book from Cheap O Air, Expedia, Travelocity, or Cheap Tickets. Once you click on the Book option, it will link you to the appropriate website to purchase your tickets.

Like Google Flights, Hipmunk is mainly a search engine which helps you look for the best flights for yourself. However, you will need to link to a third party website in order to reserve the booking.

The bottom line is, Hipmunk isn’t as customer friendly as Google Flights as it doesn’t lay out all your options on the table. However, it is extremely good in visuals to allow you to easily see which option is best for you. You can make very detailed filters ranging from the time you wish to leave to the type of airline carriers you wish to travel with. The “Agony” filter by Hipmunk is amazing as it finds the best flight for you based on flight, number of stops and duration. This reduces the time you will need to scroll through the results on other websites to find the option which best suits your needs. Ultimately, Hipmunk allows you to skim through the results you wish to see rather than an overload of results you would never consider.