Why Skiplagged is a Flyer’s Dream

I always thought of myself as a traveler. From being an Army brat, traveling the world and sightseeing, to now traveling to and from California multiple times a month to see my fiancé.

We never bought our tickets with enough time ahead to get the cheapest flights; always booking about a week or two beforehand. We still both live busy lives. Me attending university in Arizona and him in the Air Force. We never have the time to create our plans. They’re just spontaneous.

That’s why Skiplagged is a dream come true.

We’ve always used to use Expedia or Kayak for planning our trips. This was when I were to visit about once every two months with him in Technical school on the East Coast. Even planning ahead during those times, we paid about $300 round trip for a two day visit.

Once we found out about Skiplagged, it was too late to use it to the East Coast for cheaper flights. Using them to and from his area currently, it’s about $70 round trip compared to about $190 with competitor websites.

Just imagine how much that could have saved us before!

Skiplagged is an airfare search engine that promises cheap flight. Trust me, they do keep that promise. They not only find tickets to where your destination is the final stop, but also any stop that leads up to another destination.

So why this? Sometimes, airlines would charge less for a ticket if your city is the layover stop. It’s a type of price discrimination that has to do with being competitive in this airline industry. Other airline search engines do not look at the destination as a layover.

Skiplagged is a wonderful but you don’t actually book through them. They just help you how to search up the flight. Once a flight is booked, it sends you to the actual airlines website and it tells you what to enter to obtain the correct flight.

There are some great perks that include saving up to a substantial amount (e.g. 80%), and others which include:

1. Destination list from your location.
   While on the homepage, you are able to see cheap flights from your specific airport. From then, it will tell you the percentage of how much you can save. This is great for last minute flyers who just need a get away trip.
2. Showing nearby dates of your original choice.
   When searching for a specific date to and from your destination, you are also able to look at nearby dates. Each date shows the price so if you are able to, can change the date to leave sooner or later.
3. Receive alerts.
   You are able to receive email alerts which notifies you when prices fall below a certain range you are looking for.

But a fair warning, there is some caution you would have to take when using this website.

1. No checked bags.
   If your destination was the layover flight, stick to just carry-ons. Having an actual checked in bag may cause them to end up at the final destination instead.
2. Booking two one-ways for a round trip.
   When booking a round trip ticket, it more than likely will be two different airline companies. Skiplagged looks for the cheapest tickets in general, not per airline. There are filters to specify a certain airline if needed.
3. Airlines removing layover stop.
   Due to terrible weather or other mishaps, airlines may remove your actual destination from your itinerary. So for example, if you flew from Dallas to Miami but your actual stop was the layover New Orleans, that stop would be removed and it would be a direct flight.

Skiplagged breaks all formality of an airline search engine. But because of this, they’ve gotten into some lawsuits. United Airlines and partner tried to shut them down but instead, they just gained publicity. They were angered by the fact that Skiplagged exposed pricing inefficiency that would save consumers money. Pretty much angered that it makes it too easy for consumers to save money.

But instead of being shutdown, United Airlines made Skiplagged viral worldwide. Supporters have donated over $80,000 and there is no more lawsuit against them anymore. Their partner dropped out of the lawsuit first and then United Airlines. The creator goes into more detail about the whole situation on Reddit, located here and here.

Everyone who loves to travel or just takes spontaneous trips should definitely try out Skiplagged. I’m not saying that Kayak and Expedia aren’t good, you can still book through them or any other site you wish. Just that Skiplagged is the better site to research plane ticket prices and dates. So go ahead, be spontaneous and explore the world.

References:

Aktarer Zaman (December 4th, 2014). https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3ux82r/united_airlines_sued_me_last_year_for_creating/. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2o831k/i_run_skiplagged_a_site_being_sued_by_united/

Aktarer Zaman (December 1st, 2015). United Airlines sued me last year for creating Skiplagged, a site that saves consumers money on airfare by exposing secrets. Instead of shutting it down, United made Skiplagged go viral worldwide and supporters donated over $80,000! Today, there’s no lawsuit and Skiplagged is still marching on. AMA. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3ux82r/united_airlines_sued_me_last_year_for_creating/

[Skiplagged Logo image] AlleyWatch. Retrieved 2/8/16 from http://www.alleywatch.com/2015/01/skiplagged-finds-you-the-cheapest-airfares-possible-and-big-travel-does-not-like-it/