I am always looking for better and easier ways to do things. When it comes to finding cheap flight, I generally use a combination of services. But a few days ago I was contacted by Skyscanner, a company based in Edimburgh offering an alternative.
I admit I have not used their service yet, except to do a bit of light testing here and there. But the prospect of using one single application is appealing.
At first glance I really liked the user interface, something that is key for me and I also liked the fact that they started ten years ago! So I asked them to write a short guest post telling us why Skyscanner is better, why is it different and why should we use it.
Guest post: 4 Ways Skyscanner Can Streamline Your Travel Plans
When you’re planning a trip the first thing you should think about is how to get there- whether you’re travelling across the world or across the state line.
There are lots of tips and tricks for finding great flights and lots of websites that can help you along in the process.
It’s a lot of information to keep in your head, and searching for flights across a number of different airline websites can be pretty time consuming.
This is why Skyscanner have developed tools which make it easier to plan your trip quickly and efficiently- and find the least expensive times to travel to some of the world’s most cultural cities.
Month & Year View
Skyscanner’s month and year view makes it really easy to find the cheapest flights to your destination.
For example, if you want to book flights to London but you don’t know when the cheapest time to visit is, Skyscanner can show you flight prices over a whole week, month, and year.
Skyscanner Whole Year Search
This is particularly helpful if you’re in the early stages of planning a round the world trip, as it will give you a timeframe to work around; and in this example, give you an idea of when to leave your hotels in New York.
When we look at prices for flights from New York to London in February 2013, it’s easy to see how much they change over the course of a week.
Skyscanner New York to London prices
We can see that, generally speaking, flights are cheaper from Monday to Thursday- with the cheapest flight occurring on February 14th, a Thursday.
It also shows that flight prices aren’t always low on weekdays. If you’d taken a guess and looked for flights on the 26th, a Tuesday, you might be put off the idea of flying to London from New York.
Or you might have searched a week earlier instead, still finding a cheap flight but missing out on a better deal.
Instead of performing a number of time consuming searches, Skyscanner takes one search and gives you enough data to find the best flight deals.
Using The Information To Nab Hotel Deals
If you’re particularly savvy, you can use the whole year flight data to grab great hotel deals too.
Flight prices are based on supply and demand. Generally speaking, flight prices go up when a lot of people want to fly; which is why Fridays and Sundays are so expensive.
Looking at the whole year you’ll start to see patterns, and will quickly be able to identify peak seasons where hotels will be expensive and low seasons where you’ll more likely to get a deal.
Another bonus: the cities will be quieter, so you won’t have to queue to see all of the cultural attractions.
Find the Cheapest Destination From Your Local Airport
If you know that you want to travel, but you’re not quite sure where your budget will get you, Skyscanner can help you find the cheapest flights from your local airport.
Using the ‘Everywhere’ option, Skyscanner will bring back a list of the cheapest destinations to fly to.
Skyscanner Flights to Everywhere
In our example we’ve combined that with the ‘whole year’ option which is perfect for people who are completely flexible, but you can get more tailored options if you have a certain week or month of travel in mind. It could be the coin toss you need to decide between visiting Paris or Rome.
This tool can be useful if you’re backpacking around the world and aren’t sure where to go next. From your hotel in Siem Reap you can find yourself heading to Malaysia if the flights are cheapest, or the Phillipines if not. With Skyscanner, the world really is your oyster.
Mobile App
There is an app for everything, and Skyscanner’s powerful tools are also available on your smartphone or iPad device. We’ve got apps for iPhone, Android, Windows, and Blackberry platforms. Better yet, our smartphone apps are free!
All of the search functionality mentioned previously is available on the app.
You can browse flights from the comfort of your Paris hotel if you haven’t yet booked a return ticket.
You can search for the cheapest times to fly to your dream destination while discussing the idea with your friends over a drink in your local coffee shop.
You can find the cheapest flight from your local airport for the next day while you’re having a spontaneous moment with your partner over dinner.
With Skyscanner, you don’t need to spend hours searching online for the cheapest flights. All of the information is available in a matter of mouse-clicks; leaving you with more time to pore over travel blogs and get working on your itinerary.
My comments
So there you have it, that’s our guest post for today. I really do think this service is an interesting alternative, I especially like being able to see trends, but I will be doing some proper testing in future trips.
So far I’ve informed them that I feel it lacks the multiple city option, which I’ve used quite often, but it’s still a good resource for your travel arsenal.
What about you? What kind of service do you use to find cheap flights?
Have you tried Skyscanner before? What was your experience with it?
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