And as we all know, holidays can be some of the most expensive times to travel so using apps with algorithms that have figured out airlines pricing schedules are really going to help you save, especially during those high traffic times, like holidays. No longer do you have to spend your precious time comparing airline to airline hoping you find the best deal. These 3 apps will make sure you save major money on your next flight.

Hopper

So the first app that I always use when I’m looking to book travel is the Hopper app. The Hopper app has actually figured out the airline algorithm for pricing tickets. Hopper will tell you when to wait or buy your tickets.

Log in to the app, type in where you are traveling from and where you want to go, the dates, and then from there, you can set an alert to let you know when prices are going to go up or down. Easy as that. You don’t have to check flight every day and manually see when prices are going up or down, hopper takes care of that for you.

With Hopper, you can even exclude flight routes that have long layovers, Basic Economy fares or choose to only receive alerts for nonstop flights. You can even see how much of a difference you would end up paying for a nonstop route vs. a route with stops.

I get alerts from Hopper every day for my upcoming trips that I’m going to book and it lets me know when it’s time for me to book my ticket. I actually just came back from Cancun a couple of weeks ago and scored an awesome deal on nonstop flights to Cancun. I ended up saving about $300 on them by setting an alert on the Hopper app to let me know when the prices were going to drop.

Hopper is by far my favorite app for booking travel way in advance. I would recommend downloading it right away and setting alerts for your holiday travel now so that you can score the best deal on Thanksgiving and Christmas flights. According to Hopper, I should purchase my Christmas tickets in the next few weeks.

SkipLagged

My second favorite app that I always use when Iook to travel is the SkipLagged app. If you’re willing to live on the edge, travel light (just a carry-on) and buy separate one-way tickets, you NEED to check out SkipLagged.

SkipLagged uses a little trick the airline industry calls “hidden city ticketing”. Hidden city ticketing is an airline loophole where you buy a ticket and instead of going to the end destination, you get off the plane and exit the airport at the layover city. This is completely legal but airlines hate this loophole, for obvious reasons.

To give you a better example, let’s say you want to go from San Francisco to
Los Angeles. You look at ticket prices and see that flights are $200. You check SkipLagged and see that a trip from San Francisco to San Diego with a layover in Los Angles is only $100. With SkipLagged you would book that San Francisco to San Diego route and instead of switching planes in Los Angles, you would just walk out of the airport.

A couple of things to keep in mind when booking with SkipLagged, these warnings are directly from SkipLagged’s website and they ensure that you have read them and agree to the terms before completing your booking.

• You have to pack light which means only bringing a carry-on. Remember, you’re not actually going to your final destination, only your layover city. If you check your bag, it’ll end up in your final destination, not your layover destination.
• You have to book a one-way ticket. Airlines have the right to cancel your return trip if they find out that you didn’t actually go to your final destination. If you will need round-trip tickets and still want to use SkipLagged, buy two separate one-way tickets.

Skyscanner

My third favorite app is the Skyscanner app. A lot of people have heard of Skyscanner, it’s a really great database of airline tickets and like all other websites airline search databases, you type in where you’re coming from, where you’re going, and the dates. And with that, if you have specific flights that you want to take, you can set alerts from there and it will alert you when the price of that ticket is either going to rise of drop so you know exactly you should buy.

The best feature of the Skyscanner app is the “anywhere” feature. If you love to travel for the sake of visiting new places and don’t have a preference of where you want to go check out the “anywhere” feature of Skyscanner’s app. This feature will show you the best domestic and international deals available right now. Check it out and indulge your inner wanderlust.