Whether you’re trying to see different parts of the world, visit family, or work, many rely on air travel to get where you want to go. Airfare can make or break plans, but it’s not always easy to stay updated on the best deals during your travel window.
When you’re trying to go somewhere, you are at the mercy of time. You either actively search for deals to get to your destination in your limited free time and hope that you find a good price, or you wait for a promotion to pop up. You may even ask all your friends to be on the lookout for cheap flights.
None of these methods of bargain-hunting guarantee success. Despite your best efforts, you might still be left paying a steep price or abandoning your travel plans altogether.
Planning is hard—even when you do your homework on airfares. It can take a lot of effort to go through different sites and input combinations in the hopes of snagging a great deal. Then, when you think you’ve found something, you have to pounce on it, not knowing whether it will be cheaper in the future. The search for a good flight at a low price can be mentally exhausting.
If you too are unsatisfied with the price of tickets, you’ll be excited to know that there’s an app designed to simplify the process of finding the perfect itinerary.
Hitlist makes it easier than ever to find the right flight
The Hitlist app takes the guesswork out of finding the best deal. With Hitlist, you can browse current airfare, and the app will notify you when a great deal pops up. Hitlist arms you with knowledge so that you don’t have to second-guess the quality of the bargains you identify.
1. Make your Hitlist to receive targeted travel deals
When you create a profile with Hitlist, enter your home airport and add destinations that you’d like to visit to your hitlist. To access your hitlist, select the “Profile” icon on the bottom righthand corner of your screen.
Alternatively, you can add locations to your hitlist by selecting the “My Hitlist” icon. After you add a location to your hitlist, the app scours the internet for the best deals, and sends you a notification when it finds flights that meet your criteria.
To enable notifications, find the gear shaped icon at the top right of the profile page. This will take you to the app’s settings.
Update your profile and preferences at any time on the “Settings” page.
The fourth option down on the settings page is “Notifications.” Going to the “Notifications” sections allows you to enable email and push notifications. Curtail these notices to meet your preferences.
For this example, I have chosen to be notified when Hitlist finds a spectacular deal by push notification only. The mobile device icon is highlighted in blue to indicate that that is the option I have selected.
2. Access flight deals based on flexible dates or destinations
The search function allows you to look for deals based on location. You can either search for a specific destination, or you can peruse the deals Hitlist has found for you.
When I visit the “All Deals” option on the search page, Hitlist offers me a list of suggested destinations, the number of deals for each location, and the lowest price for a trip.
By selecting a location, you can view the deals that Hitlist has identified. The app will show you the airline, dates, length of the trip, and the cost.
3. View historical ticket prices to make informed travel decisions
One of the best features of Hitlist is that it makes it easy to find out whether the deal you see is actually a good deal. The app sifts through historical data on itineraries similar to yours, and then it labels the deals as average, good, great, or spectacular. These options are color-coded so that it’s simple to tell how your itinerary ranks.
For example, if I wanted to take a trip from Honolulu to Hong Kong soon, I could quickly locate all the deals that would take me to Hong Kong. When I select my destination, that app generates a list with prices ranging from lowest to highest.
If I select the lowest-cost deal, the following information shows up:
Hitlist ranks this itinerary as a great deal, and it displays the criteria that it would need to meet to be considered a spectacular deal.
Knowing this information, I might choose to seize this opportunity because I’d rather pay the $445 now than risk losing that deal to potentially save $15. If Hitlist categorized this as average airfare, I’d be tempted to hold out for something better.
4. Plan trips with your friends
People are much more mobile than they used to be, which means that it’s not uncommon for groups of friends to be scattered to the four winds. On your profile page, you can add friends by clicking on the icon that looks like a person with a plus sign next to it.
When you have added your friends, you will be able to see the places that they’d like to go. You could plan your next big adventure together on Hitlist.
Download Hitlist to find the best deals
Hitlist saves you money and time when you’re planning your next trip. The user-friendly interface makes finding deals a breeze, and the customizable features allow you refine the capabilities of this app to better serve you.
Hitlist is free to download through the Apple Store. A beta version is currently available for Android devices, but it promises to have all the functionality of the fully developed Apple version soon.
Don’t let the prospect of being overwhelmed by information be a barrier to travel. Hitlist takes all the guesswork out of the airfare so that you can spend time doing other things—like planning what you’ll do when you reach your destination.
