Hopper, the fantastically wonderful flight site I wrote about last month, has just launched its long-awaited mobile app for iOS.
In a nutshell, Hopper’s flight app tracks prices and alerts you when it’s time to book the lowest fares. It also looks into alternative airports and travel days to help you get the best deal possible.
Hopper is more than another travel company. Instead of pushing flights and up-selling you on car and hotel reservations, Hopper analyzes millions of data points everyday to identify key insights on things like prices, seat availability, route share, and a whole lot more.
But what sets Hopper apart from all the other big data companies is how readily it makes this data useful to consumers like you and me. And Hopper’s new app manages to package all these big data insights into one easy-to-use interface:
I had a chance to test the app in beta, and it’s incredible to see how much it’s improved in the weeks leading up to its launch.
That being said, I can still find reason to nit-pick about a few things here and there. For example, I wonder how useful a four-color price indicator can be (shown above on the far left), when the ITA Matrix shows the lowest price as a numerical value in the same month-long calendar view. I also wish I could filter search results by airline, alliance, or within time windows like on Kayak.
I was also disappointed to find that I couldn’t set up alerts for the best deals from a certain origin city, especially when this last-minute getaway finder is such a prominent part of Hopper’s website.
But when it comes to searching itineraries more intelligently and keeping track of the best time to book, Hopper’s iOS app is hard to beat. Whether you’re planning a summer getaway for the summer or scheduling flights for work, this app is worth checking out.
You can download the Hopper app for free on iTunes.