Flight Deal App Reviews: Fare Buzz, SkyJet, Domestic Flights

So I'm booking a *specific date* to a *specific place* for vacation. Seems pretty common. You want to got o a a place, and you want to have some sort of deal or advantage to get there. I'm still so surprised at the habit people get into- "I just use Expedia because I used it once ten years ago and it was fine" is no deal finding goal of mine. Unless it is in fact the best, of course!

It's true that if you search and search the same places and websites over and again for the same trip to score deals or keep tabs, it WILL log that information in your cookies (delete your cookies every so often) and possibly knock up the price based on the needs at which you have shown them. Try different places, look into new avenues. There's always something better than generic.

In my usual research heavy way I started looking up even more websites and apps that claim that they are the lowest fares, or best prices, so on an so on. Some try. Some are just like everyone else- boasting their rates, which, you come to realize, are only about 5% off  "sales". My goal here is to try each one for something specific, a real destination, and break free from the liars and boasters and find the actual hidden gems. I'm doing the leg work so that you won't have to.

I'm booking a one-way flight from Detroit (DTW) to San Diego (SAN) on Saturday, July 21st. Very specific.

Fare Buzz:
Nothing special here. Just another one of those websites that compares flight prices based on generic style platforms. Weirdly, the dot com website is more expensive than that app, of which I downloaded. The app itself is not fully up and running; the other three sections- Hotels, Car, My Trip, were all "coming soon".

The app will ask you to create a log-in to use it but you can bypass that if you're just looking around. Don't be fooled into freely giving away more of your private information than necessary at this time. 

The Good: If you use the web address you can get money back through Ebates. The app is really easy to use easy to use.
The Bad: It's easy to use because the app isn't ready for the market yet. They should have waited until at least half of the app was user ready. Seriously, at least half. The flight deals are not deals at all. Spirit Airlines has a better deal on their own site by $40, which is up from last week's price by just as much, which means it should go down again soon. The prices were different on the Fare Buzz site than they were on the app. Shady? Maybe. Careless, probably. 

And it's still cheaper to book directly with Spirit? Uncanny.

All in all I will not be keeping this app. Not only is it not ready for use, it's not better. It's pretty on par with all the other apps that firstly talk about how great they are. Modesty goes a long way. 


SkyJet:

Turns out that this one if specifically for booking private jets- you have to book them right down to the minute you want them! So, probably not* going to keep this app since I don't have that DiCaprio money.
*it's already on my delete pile.

The Good: It takes you exactly where you want and when. Really easy to use, too, it's pretty straightforward. It's probably a really cool service to have if you can afford it. At least as far as travel is concerned- not the ozone. 

The Bad: I can't afford it, and even if I could- I'm cheap, so, I probably wouldn't even pretend to keep it on my phone. 


Domestic Flights:


A simple app- it's the kind that pulls up all of the common airlines for you and "compares" prices. I can;t tell if these are the best fares or not because this app is the same as all of the other apps and sites that compare for you- so you're seeing the lowest they're showing you, which are almost never the cheapest flights in general. I distrust a lot of these sites for that reason. Yo book a flight with a pat on the back thinking you've done a great service to yourself only to find out the next day that it was cheaper to buy directly from the airline or something else. It's no fun. So what I usually do it look at the site/app. check the price and then look in a few other spaces to compare for myself whether it's the best or not. 

Plus, this app does NO service to itself by naming itself Domestic Flights- it's virtually unsearchable on google because literally every other airline, app, site and graphic will come up for the term "domestic flights" even if you add other words specific to the app. So- no thanks. Not only did it take me too long just to find the icon for this, but I've already seen various shades of this app before. 

The Good: It's easy to use because it's like every other compare app. I can say, though, that only being a day after I did fare Buzz, this app price for the Spirit non-stop trip matches more closely to the Spirit fare online. 

The Bad: It's the same as every other app. No real savings. 


In conclusion, this has been good at one thing only- deleting apps from my phone. Zero for three this time around but it's all for learning what works. Just because I'm not willing to settle for the first thing I see because it claims to be better doesn't mean it's not helping someone else. These apps were not what I was looking for in the way of getting to San Diego, at all, but I am ready to research my next set for you. 

Do you have an app or website that you use that I haven't mentioned yet? Share it in the comments and I will give it a go next time!

As always, be kind to one another. 

Comments

  1. I love that you do this and that we can talk about it. I know it's not a lot to get back to jersey but I need all the help I can get! Maybe a private jet would be ok....-Ella

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  2. These are all apps that I have never heard of! Thanks for another source idea. Normally, I just type which flights I need into Google Flights because Im too lazy to hunt. lol

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  3. I feel ya on the failures here -- I can NEVER find a good app for this kind of thing. Given that I'm traveling all the time, I'd love to find one, so keep us posted if you do!

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    1. Hopper is my fave so far, I've used it a few times. I have a few other reviews back in my posts, too, if interested. I kind of detail which ones I felt were worth keeping, which were redundant, or scary and so on.

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  4. Oh wow thanks for reviewing the flight deal apps. I've been curious about skyjet but i know its definitely not in my budget. I'll be interesting to see what comes of Fare buzz when all the features are up and running.

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  5. That's such a shame that none of these apps had any really good benefits. Skyscanner has always been my go to. I still haven't found any that I like more.

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    1. Skyscanner is good but I find Hopper to be better. I have a few other reviews in my earlier posts if you're interested.

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  6. This is super helpful! Thanks for posting -- I've never heard of these apps.

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  7. Thank you for your review of the different travel apps. I don't travel much now but maybe that will change in the future. :)

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  8. useful tips for flying. finding good plane tickets is so hard. thank you

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  9. This is interesting. Never knew these even existed. I will look into these next time I fly

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    Replies
    1. no, you never read it. my post clearly says theyre trash.

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  10. the whole point of the post was that none of there are good. Thanks for not actually reading...

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  11. It feels awe-inspiring to read such informative and distinctive articles on your websites.FlightTimes99

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