Every time I look up flights, I am constantly amazed at the rising ticket prices and fees travelers are being bombarded with. It makes traveling with a family extremely expensive and I end up turning into a detective trying to guess when is the right time to fly and purchase our tickets.
Many websites tell you to wait a certain amount of months/weeks/days to buy your ticket based on where and when you are flying. But none of them are are very precise. That's where the app, Hopper, comes in.
Hopper is a travel application that analyzes billions of flights and their prices across the globe and determines how those prices will most likely change. Once you have searched for a flight, Hopper will then advise you to either wait to purchase your ticket (prices are predicted to go down) or buy now (its the best price you're going to most likely get). Travelers can then watch their trip and Hopper will notify users when prices change and most importantly, if they should Buy Now.
The travel app is very simple to use and offers a price calendar that allows you to search through the next 11 months and see when it is cheapest to fly to your destination. Along with the price calendar, Hopper will also provide you additional tidbits like what price is considered a good deal for this route, how much more money you will spend if you fly nonstop, and cheaper airport options.
I am a firm believer in Hopper.
When we booked our flights to Frankfurt this year, we were seeing prices at $1,500+ per person. We weren't sure if we should go ahed and buy them or if the price would decrease. So I set up a price notification on Hopper and a few weeks later I was notified that prices had dropped to $815! I checked their app, and sure enough American Airlines prices were down. We immediately called American Airlines and booked our flight for exactly $815. I was ecstatic!
Hopper allowed us to travel to Germany for almost $700 cheaper and is now our go to site for checking flight prices.
Disclaimer: Hopper also allows you to book through their application but I have never done this. Hopper is a great application with reputable reviews from other users but I simply choose to book directly with the airlines. I'm sure there would be no issues booking with Hopper, but traveling with a baby is hard and expensive enough and I'd prefer not to have a third party involved in the booking process.