Best Flight Booking Apps

The Best Strategy: Use Multiple Apps

No single app finds the cheapest flight every time. The best approach is to search Google Flights first for a baseline, then cross-check with Skyscanner or Kayak. Here's what each app does best and when to use it.

Google Flights

Google Flights is the best starting point for any flight search. It's not technically an app (you use it in your browser), but it's faster and more powerful than anything else out there.

What Makes It Great

• Speed - Results load almost instantly, and filters apply without lag
• Price calendar - See the cheapest dates at a glance with the date grid view
• Price tracking - Turn on tracking for any route and get notified when fares drop
• Price labels - Fares are tagged as "low," "typical," or "high" based on historical data so you know if you're getting a good deal
• Explore map - Enter your departure city without a destination and see cheap fares everywhere on a map

The Downside

Google Flights doesn't include every airline. Some budget carriers (especially outside the U.S.) don't show up. It also doesn't book directly; it sends you to the airline or OTA to complete the purchase.

Skyscanner

Skyscanner is the best app for finding deals you won't see elsewhere, especially on international routes and budget carriers.

What Makes It Great

• "Everywhere" search - Select "Everywhere" as your destination and see the cheapest places you can fly, sorted by price
• Budget airline coverage - Skyscanner searches smaller and regional airlines that Google Flights often misses
• Flexible date search - Search by "whole month" or "cheapest month" to find the absolute lowest fares
• Price alerts - Set alerts and get notified when prices change for your route

The Downside

Skyscanner is slower than Google Flights. It takes longer to search because it's pulling from more sources. Some of the third-party booking sites it surfaces can be unreliable, so stick to well-known OTAs or book direct.

Hopper

Hopper is the best app for knowing when to buy. Its price prediction technology claims 95% accuracy in forecasting whether fares will go up or down.

What Makes It Great

• Price predictions - Color-coded system (green for buy now, red for wait) tells you whether to book or hold
• Price Freeze - Lock in a fare for up to 14 days while you decide, for a small fee
• Push notifications - Get alerts when it's the optimal time to buy for routes you're watching
• Mobile-first design - Built specifically for phones, not adapted from a website

The Downside

Hopper is a booking platform, not just a search engine. It makes money by selling you flights, hotels, and add-ons. That means it doesn't always show the absolute cheapest option, and the Price Freeze feature costs extra. Always verify Hopper's prices against Google Flights.

Kayak

Kayak is the best all-in-one travel app. It searches over 1,000 travel sites and has robust filtering options.

What Makes It Great

• Comprehensive search - Pulls from airlines, OTAs, and travel sites simultaneously
• Strong filters - Filter by stops, price, airline, times, and more. Cheaper dates are highlighted in green on the calendar
• Price alerts - Tracks fare changes and notifies you
• Hacker fares - Combines one-way tickets from different airlines for cheaper round-trip pricing

The Downside

Kayak's interface can feel cluttered compared to Google Flights. It also pushes sponsored results, so the first option you see isn't always the cheapest.

Momondo

Momondo (owned by Kayak) is the budget traveler's secret weapon. It searches deeper into discount carriers and lesser-known booking sites than most competitors.

What Makes It Great

• Deep search - Takes extra time to dig through discount sites for the absolute lowest fare
• Budget carrier focus - Surfaces small airlines and regional carriers others miss
• Price comparison - Shows you the same flight across multiple booking sites so you can pick the cheapest

The Downside

It's slow. Momondo takes noticeably longer than other search engines because it's casting a wider net. Worth the wait if you're budget-focused, but not ideal when you just need a quick answer.

Kiwi.com

Kiwi is the best app for building creative itineraries, especially multi-city trips or routes that combine different airlines.

What Makes It Great

• Self-transfer flights - Combines tickets from different airlines that don't normally partner together for cheaper connections
• Nomad feature - Plan multi-city trips and let the algorithm find the cheapest order to visit them
• Guarantee - Kiwi offers its own connection guarantee on self-transfer itineraries

The Downside

Self-transfer flights mean separate tickets. If you miss a connection, the second airline owes you nothing. Kiwi's guarantee helps, but it's still riskier than a single-ticket booking.

Deal Alert Apps

These apps don't search flights on demand. Instead, they monitor fares and alert you when deals appear on routes you care about.

• Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) - Curated deals with human editors verifying each one. Excellent for both domestic and international fares
• Dollar Flight Club - Similar to Going, with deal alerts delivered by email and app notifications

The Winning Combination

Here's the approach that consistently finds the lowest fares:

• Step 1: Search Google Flights for a baseline price and use its calendar to find the cheapest dates
• Step 2: Cross-check with Skyscanner, especially for international or budget carrier routes
• Step 3: Check Hopper to see if the price is likely to drop
• Step 4: Book directly with the airline whenever the price is close to what you found on search engines

Booking direct gives you better customer service, easier changes, and ensures your frequent flyer miles are credited properly.

What About Booking Through OTAs?

Online travel agencies like Expedia, Priceline, and Booking.com are technically flight booking apps too. They occasionally beat airline prices by bundling flights with hotels or offering their own promotions. But they come with trade-offs.

When you book through an OTA, you're the OTA's customer, not the airline's. If something goes wrong (cancellations, changes, refunds), you often have to work through the OTA's customer service instead of the airline's. That can mean longer wait times and less flexibility.

OTAs can be useful for package deals (flight + hotel), but for standalone flights, you're almost always better off finding the fare on a search engine and booking directly with the airline.

Tips for Getting the Best Price From Any App

• Use incognito mode - Some people believe flight search sites track your searches and raise prices when you check repeatedly. Whether this is true or not, searching in incognito mode eliminates the possibility
• Be flexible on dates - Every app shows the biggest savings when you can adjust your travel dates by a day or two. Use calendar views to spot the cheapest days
• Search for one-way fares - Sometimes two one-way tickets on different airlines are cheaper than a round-trip on one airline. Google Flights handles this well
• Check nearby airports - Flying out of a secondary airport can save significantly. Most search apps let you compare multiple departure airports
• Set alerts and be patient - Unless you need to fly tomorrow, set price alerts and wait. Fares fluctuate daily, and the best deals come to those who watch
• Clear cookies or use a different device - If you've searched the same route repeatedly and want a fresh look at prices, try searching from a different device or clear your browser cookies
• Check the airline's app directly - Sometimes airlines offer app-exclusive deals or lower prices through their own mobile apps that don't appear on search engines