App Review: Hopper
One of the biggest questions we face in our day-to-day lives is, “Should I buy that now?” Whether it’s groceries, school supplies for our kids, electronics, furniture, or a flight to a destination vacation, this question applies.
The difference though, with that last one, is that choosing when to purchase a plane ticket is more difficult to do because the time between the purchase and the need being satisfied is so far apart. There’s more uncertainty.
Thankfully, there is an app out there that reduces this level of uncertainty.
HOPPER is, to quote their website, “an insightful, data-driven research [based app that helps] travellers make better decisions about where to go and when to fly and buy.” With this app, you will no longer have to worry about 3 things:
1) THE ROUTE.
My cousin is getting married in the land of love and, if it wasn’t for Hopper, I would never have known it would be cheaper to first fly one-way into London from Toronto than it is to take a round trip from Toronto to Paris.
There are other things to consider though for example, “Is it worth the cheaper flight ticket if I have to use an unfamiliar airline?,” but being provided tips like this from Hopper can be useful regardless.
2) WHEN TO TRAVEL
This one doesn’t apply to everyone because not all people can control when they travel. For me, I don’t have a lot of flexibility in this area for my upcoming trip because I have to consider my vacation time along with my boyfriend’s, my family’s, and the itinerary of my cousin’s wedding!
For those that can help it though, with say weekend trips, Hopper provides colour coded calendars to help you decide when to take off on your next adventure.
3) WHEN TO PURCHASE YOUR FLIGHT
This is the big one. I would liken this purchase decision to buying clothes, except on a grander scale. Buying something only to find out it became significantly cheaper a couple weeks or months later can cause you to question the universe. Oh woe is me!
That’s why the neat thing about Hopper is that you can input when you want to fly and let it “watch” your trip so it can inform you whether you should wait on your flight purchase or not.
On top of that, it will also tell you how much flights will increase or decrease in cost several weeks or months out!
Handy.
An alternative to Hopper would be to manually check Google Flights via desktop everyday but due to the convenience of Hopper working for you while you’re busy, I would say Hopper trumps Google Flights for convenience.
And with our families to take care of, you’d probably take convenience any day!
