5 ms·

Hipmunk was the absolute best, I miss it everytime I have to search for a flight.

by swalsh 5y ago

lars512 5y ago
Looks like this tool also includes a "time bar" view that's in fact what Hipmunk was based off. Also looks like they're building a successor to Hipmunk called Flight Penguin: https://flightpenguin.com/ https://flightpenguin.com/
- telesilla 5y ago
  Seems they will charge a subscription to access this - at first thought I wondered if this is the best option, and not just charge a per-leg fee like https://flightfox.com https://flightfox.com (who do concierge travel services and I love them) but I suppose, if you get the flight schedule you want, many people will instead jump and book direct with the airline. This can be good, if the flight aggregator is a behemoth and will not help you in case of problems, or bad if the airline is a behemoth.
  - maxmorlocke 5y ago
    We’re actually moving away from the subscription model - you can visit our homepage and get the extension installed for free now. The official announcement goes out Monday… [and yes… that was why we went with a sub model over pay per use]
traceroute66 5y ago
> Hipmunk was the absolute best Not sure I would put it as strongly as that. Hipmunk was OK, one of "the better" free tools out there. But I'm afraid it never had anything on ITA Matrix. ITA always had copious amounts of extra special sauce. I extensively tried all competitors I could find (including Hipmunk) on a variety of real-world scenarios. Nothing ever came close to ITA and I was very worried indeed for its future when Google bought it.
- tehwebguy 5y ago
  Hipmunk had a great feature for sorting by “pain” and filtering takeoff / land times easier than anyone. But ITA was so comprehensive you could find loopholes, like when you add an additional destination and your first class ticket drops in price by 50% etc. It is super missed in the mileage community!
- MAGZine 5y ago
  Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. What's the point of building the best schedule if its unpurchaseable, or unpurchaseable without a travel agent? Hipmunk actually let you use ITA syntax to search for very specific route constructions, which you could then buy.
  - 1024core 5y ago
    IIRC, ITA gave you the flight details in the special syntax (code) that travel agents use, and you could just give that code to a travel agent and they'd be able to buy that exact flight for you.
  - traceroute66 5y ago
    > Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. I booked tons of tickets over the years using ITA as a basis. Its not that difficult. Get the itinerary finalised in ITA and then either: (a) Head over to the appropriate airline's website and enter in the legs; or (b) Call up the appropriate airline's reservations callcentre In 99.99% of cases, I was able to do it all online without speaking to anyone. There was only a tiny number where I had to call them up. The savings achievable via ITA far outweighed the minor inconvenience of double-keying.
    - tehwebguy 5y ago
      This was part of the benefit IMO, noobs couldn’t burn a ridiculous deal instantly. Our $900 business class (90% off error fare) YVR-HND-SYD roundtrip on ANA with free stopovers was the best one I ever booked with ITA’s help.

Hipmunk was the absolute best, I miss it everytime I have to search for a flight.

by swalsh 5y ago

Hipmunk was the absolute best, I miss it everytime I have to search for a flight.

Looks like this tool also includes a "time bar" view that's in fact what Hipmunk was based off. Also looks like they're building a successor to Hipmunk called Flight Penguin: https://flightpenguin.com/ https://flightpenguin.com/

telesilla 5y ago
Seems they will charge a subscription to access this - at first thought I wondered if this is the best option, and not just charge a per-leg fee like https://flightfox.com https://flightfox.com (who do concierge travel services and I love them) but I suppose, if you get the flight schedule you want, many people will instead jump and book direct with the airline. This can be good, if the flight aggregator is a behemoth and will not help you in case of problems, or bad if the airline is a behemoth.
- maxmorlocke 5y ago
  We’re actually moving away from the subscription model - you can visit our homepage and get the extension installed for free now. The official announcement goes out Monday… [and yes… that was why we went with a sub model over pay per use]

traceroute66 5y ago

> Hipmunk was the absolute best Not sure I would put it as strongly as that. Hipmunk was OK, one of "the better" free tools out there. But I'm afraid it never had anything on ITA Matrix. ITA always had copious amounts of extra special sauce. I extensively tried all competitors I could find (including Hipmunk) on a variety of real-world scenarios. Nothing ever came close to ITA and I was very worried indeed for its future when Google bought it.

tehwebguy 5y ago
Hipmunk had a great feature for sorting by “pain” and filtering takeoff / land times easier than anyone. But ITA was so comprehensive you could find loopholes, like when you add an additional destination and your first class ticket drops in price by 50% etc. It is super missed in the mileage community!
MAGZine 5y ago
Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. What's the point of building the best schedule if its unpurchaseable, or unpurchaseable without a travel agent? Hipmunk actually let you use ITA syntax to search for very specific route constructions, which you could then buy.
- 1024core 5y ago
  IIRC, ITA gave you the flight details in the special syntax (code) that travel agents use, and you could just give that code to a travel agent and they'd be able to buy that exact flight for you.
- traceroute66 5y ago
  > Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. I booked tons of tickets over the years using ITA as a basis. Its not that difficult. Get the itinerary finalised in ITA and then either: (a) Head over to the appropriate airline's website and enter in the legs; or (b) Call up the appropriate airline's reservations callcentre In 99.99% of cases, I was able to do it all online without speaking to anyone. There was only a tiny number where I had to call them up. The savings achievable via ITA far outweighed the minor inconvenience of double-keying.
  - tehwebguy 5y ago
    This was part of the benefit IMO, noobs couldn’t burn a ridiculous deal instantly. Our $900 business class (90% off error fare) YVR-HND-SYD roundtrip on ANA with free stopovers was the best one I ever booked with ITA’s help.