5 ms·

Hipmunk was simply the best. Very clean interface, no frills, quite thorough (except southwest), best presentation, easy to sort/evaluate ... A cute chipmunk.

Hipmunk was simply the best. Very clean interface, no frills, quite thorough (except southwest), best presentation, easy to sort/evaluate ... A cute chipmunk. Looking at the three alternatives from all the other comments (google, matrix and skyscanner), they seem 5 or so years behind the times.

stjohnswarts 7y ago
Southwest doesn't give out its pricing information at all. Which is why hipmunk didn't have it.
- ec109685 7y ago
  Not very consumer friendly.
  - winslow 7y ago
    Transfarency
    - ianhawes 7y ago
      In Southwest’s defense, you’re showing their price next to the likes of Spirit and Frontier, whose base prices do not include checked bags.
  - tomhoward 7y ago
    It works out very well for them.
  - nitwit005 7y ago
    At the time when southwest cut them off, the online travel sites were expecting $5 to $10 in compensation. Offering the lowest price required trimming that cost. News story from 2002: https://www.cnet.com/news/southwest-soars-without-travel-sites/ https://www.cnet.com/news/southwest-soars-without-travel-sit...
    - Dylan16807 7y ago
      To trim the cost of a referral program, you shut down the referral program. Or cut the payout. That's not a reason to stop supplying data entirely.
      - nitwit005 7y ago
        There are a lot of sites that I would love if they had nice free APIs. People generally don't create those without a financial benefit.
        Dylan16807 7y ago
        The financial benefit is getting flight bookings. This is an API where the airline effectively charged a negative cost for use. If they decided it was too negative, why not try adjusting the price?
- killface 7y ago
  which just makes me hate southwest even more.
  - gjs278 7y ago
    that’s fine. it’s the best airline. the others refuse to do refunds or credit you.
- dandare 7y ago
  It does to Concur.
- splonk 7y ago
  It does to certain business travel platforms (search for "swabiz"), and I believe they're expanding that exposure through their integration with Amadeus. Whether they plan it make it available on consumer sites eventually, I don't know.
  - degenerate 7y ago
    I'm going to make the assumption that if Hipmunk and other non-paying aggregators were to scrape their site for the pricing data, they'd get hit with a lawsuit, right?
prepend 7y ago
They lost delta a few years ago as well.
Grue3 7y ago
Momondo is my shit. Found lots of cheap tickets on it over the years.

stjohnswarts 7y ago

Southwest doesn't give out its pricing information at all. Which is why hipmunk didn't have it.

ec109685 7y ago
Not very consumer friendly.
- winslow 7y ago
  Transfarency
  - ianhawes 7y ago
    In Southwest’s defense, you’re showing their price next to the likes of Spirit and Frontier, whose base prices do not include checked bags.
- tomhoward 7y ago
  It works out very well for them.
- nitwit005 7y ago
  At the time when southwest cut them off, the online travel sites were expecting $5 to $10 in compensation. Offering the lowest price required trimming that cost. News story from 2002: https://www.cnet.com/news/southwest-soars-without-travel-sites/ https://www.cnet.com/news/southwest-soars-without-travel-sit...
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    To trim the cost of a referral program, you shut down the referral program. Or cut the payout. That's not a reason to stop supplying data entirely.
    - nitwit005 7y ago
      There are a lot of sites that I would love if they had nice free APIs. People generally don't create those without a financial benefit.
      - Dylan16807 7y ago
        The financial benefit is getting flight bookings. This is an API where the airline effectively charged a negative cost for use. If they decided it was too negative, why not try adjusting the price?
killface 7y ago
which just makes me hate southwest even more.
- gjs278 7y ago
  that’s fine. it’s the best airline. the others refuse to do refunds or credit you.
dandare 7y ago
It does to Concur.
splonk 7y ago
It does to certain business travel platforms (search for "swabiz"), and I believe they're expanding that exposure through their integration with Amadeus. Whether they plan it make it available on consumer sites eventually, I don't know.
- degenerate 7y ago
  I'm going to make the assumption that if Hipmunk and other non-paying aggregators were to scrape their site for the pricing data, they'd get hit with a lawsuit, right?

prepend 7y ago

They lost delta a few years ago as well.

Grue3 7y ago

Momondo is my shit. Found lots of cheap tickets on it over the years.