How to Use the Hopper App to Save Money on Flights & Hotels

There are tons of different websites out there to help you book your next vacation. You can book directly, through an online travel agency like Expedia, Orbitz, or Priceline, or start your search in a metasearch engine like Google Flights or Kayak.

But how do you know you’re getting the best deal? The Hopper mobile app is a bit different because it offers predictions to help you find the best time to book. They’re so confident in their app, they claim 95% accuracy!

In this post, I’ll walk you through booking a flight and hotel, plus we’ll take a closer look at how Hopper predictions work.

What Is Hopper?

Hopper is a mobile app that helps you book flights and hotels at the right time to save you money — claiming 95% accuracy, up to 1 year in advance.

How to Use Hopper

Download the App

The first thing you need to do to use Hopper is to download the mobile app. Hopper is NOT available for desktop computers.

Go to the App Store or Google Play to download the app.

Create an Account

You can search for flights and hotels on Hopper as a guest, but you must create an account to make a booking.

To create an account on Hopper, go to the Trips icon on the bottom of your screen. Then click Log In/Sign Up.

You’ll be required to enter your name, email address, and phone number. Once you do that you’ll receive a verification text with a link to finish creating your account.

If you need to make any changes to your information (or want to change your bunny icon!) click on Trips then click on the pencil icon near the bunny.

Hot Tip: You must be on a mobile phone to create your Hopper account — it won’t work on a tablet.

Hopper Flights

The Hopper mobile app is simple and straightforward to use.

1. When you open the app, it defaults to the Search tab. This is where you’ll begin your flight search. Make sure you select Flights, then enter your departure and destination cities.

2. Choose a round-trip or one-way flight. Then choose whether or not you’ll accept basic fares (usually a basic economy ticket that may have more restrictions and fees) and select your layover preferences by clicking on Filters.

3. You’ll see calendar icons showing 4 colors — green, light orange, dark orange, and red. The dates with the cheapest fares will be in green and those with the highest fares will be in red. Click on your desired departure date and then select your return date. Then click Select These Dates to continue.

4. Next, you can set up a watch for your trip or continue on to view available flights. Scroll down to see the app’s price prediction for your itinerary.

5. You’ll see a simple list of available flights with filtering and sorting options at the top. The price you see includes taxes and fees. Click on any flight option to continue.

6. Click Select This Outbound then you’ll be able to choose your return flight. Click Select This Return to continue.

7. The app will then show you the flight’s seat selection and baggage policies plus the change and cancellation policies. Click the blue button to continue or you can upgrade your flight to a different cabin class using the buttons at the top of the screen.

8. If you aren’t signed in, you’ll be prompted to sign in or create an account. Once you’re signed in you’ll need to add a traveler to the reservation or create a new one if it’s your first time. Just click the plus sign by New Traveler then fill in the person’s name, birthday, and gender. You can also add a Redress Number or Known Traveler Number here.

9. Once you’ve selected your traveler, enter your payment info by clicking on Choose Payment. Then you’ll be able to enter your credit card number and complete your reservation.

Set up a Flight Watch

You can set up a watch on a particular flight after you’ve selected the flight. Just click Watch This Trip after your search. You need to allow for push notifications to set up a watch.

All of the flights you’re watching will be visible by clicking the Watch icon in the bottom, left-hand corner.

Hot Tip: Don’t forget to use a credit card that earns bonus points on travel purchases! The Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card is one of the best overall travel rewards credit cards on the market — and travel purchases made with this card will earn 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar!

Hopper Hotels

In addition to flights, you can also use Hopper to search for hotels.

1. To get started just click on the Search tab, choose Hotels, and enter your desired destination.

2. Next, select your arrival and departure dates on the calendar.

3. You can filter and sort your results using the buttons at the top of the screen. You’ll find filter options that you might see on any website like location, price, rating, and amenities. To add a hotel to your watch list, just click on the blue binocular icon that’s next to each result.

4. Click on any hotel result for more information. Once you’re ready to book, click on the blue Book Now button. Then you’ll be able to choose your room category.

5. After that you’ll need to select the main guest for the room — this is the name the reservation will be under. Click Choose Payment to continue.

6. Finally, you’ll be able to see the fare breakdown and add your payment method.

Hopper Predictions

Hopper’s claim to fame is that it can predict the right time to book a flight with up to 95% accuracy.

To do this, Hopper has a team that developed an algorithm to analyze the millions of data points they collect every day. The algorithm looks at pricing trends to predict what flight prices will do. The result, they claim, is that you know the best times to make a purchase to save money.

Once you sign up for notifications about a route, you may not receive notice of every price change. Hopper won’t notify you of small price changes or about a price change that you’ve already seen (they can track what prices you’ve seen in the app).

You’ll get a notification when price changes drastically or when Hopper predicts prices are about to rise.

Hopper claims 95% accuracy on their predictions. So while they may be right most of the time, they don’t have the answers all of the time. Because of this, their price predictions aren’t guaranteed.

You can buy a ticket during their recommended time and the price could still go down afterward.

Bottom Line: Hopper doesn’t offer a low price guarantee or price matching. They do, however, claim 95% accuracy in their flight cost predictions. If you set up a watch on the Hopper app, they’ll notify you when they think is the right time to buy.

Final Thoughts

Hopper isn’t like other online travel agencies. First, Hopper is exclusively a mobile app.

This app claims to be able to predict flight price trends with up to 95% accuracy. They base their predictions on an algorithm they developed that analyzes historical flight price information.

It’s a straightforward and easy to use app. It doesn’t have many of the bells and whistles of some other booking websites, but they offer simplicity and a great shot at purchasing your flight or hotel at the right time and lowest price.