Travel: Hopper Experience

Our hopper experience – using the hooper travel app – was awesome. Set to travel to Mexico in February (we just got back on Monday) I signed up for the app in about June of 2018.

The app functions around predictions, yet from all of the things I’ve read, it’s not a guarantee you’ll get the lowest price. Buying flights anytime or anywhere is never a guarantee that you’ll get the lowest fare, though.

Step One

Step Two

Pick your dates. You can run a few different options, or trips to watch (think of flying out of Calgary or Edmonton, for example). You can see below that the screen will give you an idea of what flights will cost.

Step Three

Save your dates and let the app fetch the latest prices.

Step Four

Take a peek at the current lowest price. Now, here’s the trick – if it’s lower than your budget, you might take the risk of booking. Or, you might also risk waiting until it goes lower. This is where the no guarantee comes in – you just never know if flights will go up or not.

Step Five

Check out the price predictions – this will help you determine when to buy or when to wait.

Step Six

Buy when the price is right.

Hopper will send you notifications about your trip and if you’re wanting the lowest price, you’ll want to be ready to book when you see it.

Like I said above, I got the app in June and purchased our tickets in August. The tickets were about $250 (per ticket) below our budget, and $325 lower than the average price I could find elsewhere for each ticket. So even though it was supposed to included a long layover in Toronto, it was worth it (even with us expecting to spend $125 on a hotel in Toronto).

I say supposed to in the paragraph above, since that was the plan. Our Cancun – Toronto flight was actually cancelled last minute due to technical maintenance and we spent the night in Cancun. Cancun is far different than Akumal, that’s for sure.

So, overall, even with the added expected hotel expense, we ended up saving $500-$625 on our flights compared to our budget and the lowest average fares I could find. Oh, and added bonus of not having to pay for a hotel in Toronto due to the cancelled flight, wasn’t too shabby either.

Tips for using Hopper

set a budget
know high and low seasons
be ready to buy
know the risks

All in all, I’m the type of person who wants the best deal. Even after I buy I still look – maybe there is a better deal?! Well, I checked about once a week and couldn’t find one better than the hopper deal we got. Especially awesome since not only was it high season – both family day and the university reading week, but also since the risk paid off. Overall, a great hopper experience.

Oh, and we few Air Canada, a total bonus. Thanks for visiting – see you again soon.