FlyEx — Best tool for buying the cheapest flights

Update (May 12 2018): A lot of my original contacts at FlyEx no longer work there. I haven’t been paid in several months despite (normally they pay out twice a month). I have also witnessed several occasions where FlyEx did not honor price matching. I’m adding this update here as I am no longer convinced that FlyEx is as good as a tool as it used to be when it was first launched. I will update this post again if the situation changes.

Last week at SXSW, I came across a frequent flyers gem; a tool that consistently offered lower flight fares than all the other travel sites (Eg. Kayak, Priceline, Expedia) except for budget airlines[1]. I haven’t seen this posted in any of the credit card points community and so I’ve decided to share and give back to this wonderful community.

Just in case you were wondering, this is not a a FlyEx sponsored post.

Introducing FlyEx. An iOS mobile app that can find the cheapest flights, hands down! How does this work?

• FlyEx is a travel booking app that encourages users to book flights for their friends but you can still self-book
• FlyEx by default will offer the lowest airfare and will price match competitors (You can price match by sending screenshots)
• Users can also sign up to become personalized travel agents for their friends which they call “Aviators”. In other words, you help find flight itineraries for your friends. Aviators make commission (up to $50 per ticket[2]) for each flight they book/refer or even discount flight prices below the listing price
• Use my aviator code 64FDEBA when signing up and mention this article in the app’s chat functionality to me and I will make sure to give you a 50% discount off my commission on your first booking

Here’s an example

Let’s say I want to travel from Austin to San Francisco a few weekends from now (April 7 — April 9). Let’s compare prices between Google Matrix ITA (one of the current best tools for searching for flights) and FlyEx.

(Screenshot from Google Matrix ITA) Cheapest fare found was $468

(Left) Cheapest fare found on FlyEx was $461, (Right) Cheapest corresponding United fare was $462

Even if you didn’t book through an Aviator, FlyEx would have already saved you $10.

In addition, FlyEx also found an Alaska Airlines flight for a lower rate than the lowest budget airline fare found on Google Matrix ITA.

But what if you booked through an Aviator (like me)?

(Screenshot from the Aviator app) If you book through an Aviator, your flight could cost you as low as $432

Above is a screenshot from the Aviator app. Aviators have the ability to adjust how much commission they want to make for each airfare. Since it’s unrealistic for an Aviator to drop the price to no commission, let’s imagine that the Aviator is willing to give up 50% of their commission.

This results in an extra $25 savings for a flight that originally cost $472. That’s a 5% discount!

Let’s compare it with The Flight Deal

If you haven’t heard of The Flight Deal, it’s a blog that provides information about cheap flights. Sometimes flight prices are mistake fares and sometimes they are price wars between airlines. Overall, they are another great resource for cheap airfare. But the real question is, how does FlyEx compare with this? Is FlyEx really cheaper?

A recent posting from The Flight Deal mentions a $166 fare from Boston to Monterrey, Mexico. Here’s the screenshot they used from Priceline.

(Screenshot from Priceline) BOS <-> MTY for $166.01

(Left) FlyEx charges $151, (Right) Aviator can offer the fare for as low as $101

In this scenario, the Aviator was offered a $50 commission. Assuming that the Aviator is also willing to give up 50% commission in this example, the price for this fare just went down to $126.13.

This results in an extra $40 savings for a flight that originally cost $166. That’s a 24% discount!

Wow! I’m convinced. How do I get started?

If you have an iOS device, download the FlyEx mobile app. If you have a mobile phone with a different OS. Tough luck. You might have to wait. I’ve seen an android FlyEx app in Google Play but I haven’t been able to verify whether it is the same company (most likely just an outdated version, ymmv).

The App’s UI could be improved but here’s the home screen and sign up page

Once you sign up and login for the first time, you will be prompted to enter an aviator code. You can choose anyone to be your aviator if you have their code but I’d appreciate it if you would use my aviator code 64FDEBA. If you mention this medium article, I will make sure to give you 50% off my regular commission fees.

After you submit your aviator code, you should see the home screen. Here you will be able to search for flights on your own or you can message your aviator to arrange discounted fares or receive recommendations.

Although it is not obvious in the user interface, you can actually book a flight directly without an aviator. You can do this by clicking on the flight information like the one seen below.

Clicking on the first row of the left screen will lead to the right screen

If you want a discounted price through your aviator, you would want to click on the Send to Aviator button. An aviator will then be able to send you a discounted fare through the messages tab.

Other observations about FlyEx

• Booking a flight on FlyEx isn’t immediate. FlyEx says that it can take up to 5 hours during their business hours to process the tickets. I am not sure how this works if you were to book the same day on a weekend
• During my trial run of FlyEx, I booked a United Airlines flight. My credit card activity posted the purchase as United Airlines. This makes me believe that flight credits from credit cards such as Citi Prestige and Chase Sapphire Reserve would apply. I will update this post when my Citi Prestige statement posts

What could be better about FlyEx

• User interface for the mobile apps could be a lot better. It is currently quite challenging to filter flights to find the ones you actually want. FlyEx should take note of how Google Matrix ITA’s interface works as they balance usability and functionality very well
• Although FlyEx support says that they are “Online” in the app, I have noticed that sometimes they are unresponsive for over several hours. It would be nice if they were more responsive or actually indicated when they were unavailable
• It would be nice if users and aviators had the ability to book/manage bookings online
• It would be nice if bookings were instantaneous or booked within the hour.

[1] Unfortunately the FlyEx team has confirmed with me that budget airlines (Eg. Frontier, Spirit, Southwest) are not included in the search results for FlyEx.

[2] Based on my findings. I am still confirming this with FlyEx. I will update this when I receive an official word from them.