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I guess I'm also old, weird, and out of touch :) I cannot begin to describe the annoyance I experience with filling in forms on a mobile device, especially if I

I guess I'm also old, weird, and out of touch :) I cannot begin to describe the annoyance I experience with filling in forms on a mobile device, especially if I'm hunting for a good deal `to -> from` and need to keep going back and slightly modifying my search params. Phones just aren't good at this use-case. Being (very) cynical, the only reason they're providing a mobile app is because of all the data they harvest (https://www.hopper.com/legal/privacy-policy/ https://www.hopper.com/legal/privacy-policy/).

drewg123 5y ago
This. I also lost interest as soon as I saw the website just re-directed me to an app.
roachpepe 5y ago
Yeah, same. Guess the old saying "if something's "free" then you're the product" hits home here too. Forcing the mobile app is a deal breaker.
- rockostrich 5y ago
  While that saying applies for things like social media and such, it isn't the case for Hopper because you still have to pay for travel. The app is free, but you still have to pay for any flights or hotels that you book. Usually when an app or online service is free, then you'll see ads serving you content associated with your search behavior because that's the only way that service could monetize itself. Hopper's founder has been pretty adamant that we'll never serve advertisements in the app and we wouldn't be selling user data to 3rd parties and at least in my 4 years at the company that promise has been kept. I would hand in my resignation if we started serving ads in the app.
rockostrich 5y ago
Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. I feel your pain around filling in forms and managing context on mobile devices which is why we've tried to make the process simpler and deliver to customers what's actually important. This article was written by our head of design back in 2018 about why we chose the search parameters we chose for flight search: https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-they-want-better-content-3146f650b8f6 https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-th... He's now leading design at a start-up called Fast trying to apply similar principles to paying for things online.
- Accacin 5y ago
  > Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. How do you know? It's not like you gave them the option. Anyway, like you said, I'm not your demographic and I realise you are helping a lot of people travel more cheaply so I do wish Hopper all the best :)
- OJFord 5y ago
  And who knows how many more untapped because they don't want to use your app? Every time I've (tried to) use the RyanAir app to book (or browse prices for) a flight, for example, I've given up and used a 'real' computer to go to the website. That's not (just) because the app's bad. Having app-only features and limited functionality website is just infuriating. Things go wrong with phones, websites are sort of a 'lowest common denominator'; you're not locked out because your phone broke and you had to borrow someone's old one but it's $OS and you're used to $OTHEROS, etc.

drewg123 5y ago

This. I also lost interest as soon as I saw the website just re-directed me to an app.

roachpepe 5y ago

Yeah, same. Guess the old saying "if something's "free" then you're the product" hits home here too. Forcing the mobile app is a deal breaker.

rockostrich 5y ago
While that saying applies for things like social media and such, it isn't the case for Hopper because you still have to pay for travel. The app is free, but you still have to pay for any flights or hotels that you book. Usually when an app or online service is free, then you'll see ads serving you content associated with your search behavior because that's the only way that service could monetize itself. Hopper's founder has been pretty adamant that we'll never serve advertisements in the app and we wouldn't be selling user data to 3rd parties and at least in my 4 years at the company that promise has been kept. I would hand in my resignation if we started serving ads in the app.

rockostrich 5y ago

Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. I feel your pain around filling in forms and managing context on mobile devices which is why we've tried to make the process simpler and deliver to customers what's actually important. This article was written by our head of design back in 2018 about why we chose the search parameters we chose for flight search: https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-they-want-better-content-3146f650b8f6 https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-th... He's now leading design at a start-up called Fast trying to apply similar principles to paying for things online.

Accacin 5y ago
> Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. How do you know? It's not like you gave them the option. Anyway, like you said, I'm not your demographic and I realise you are helping a lot of people travel more cheaply so I do wish Hopper all the best :)
OJFord 5y ago
And who knows how many more untapped because they don't want to use your app? Every time I've (tried to) use the RyanAir app to book (or browse prices for) a flight, for example, I've given up and used a 'real' computer to go to the website. That's not (just) because the app's bad. Having app-only features and limited functionality website is just infuriating. Things go wrong with phones, websites are sort of a 'lowest common denominator'; you're not locked out because your phone broke and you had to borrow someone's old one but it's $OS and you're used to $OTHEROS, etc.