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Skypicker – new European cheap flight finder is seriously fast

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Travel sites are a good indication of just how sophisticated the web is becoming. Hipmunk.com and other slick flight finding services are now a pleasure to use, whereas before it was a chore to book travel. Now there’s a new service which offers even more ease of use.

Skypicker.com is a cool new service which delivers almost instant cheap flight offers literally at the click of a mouse. Instead of relying on a conventional text box interface, with this site all you do is click on the departure and destination cities with your right and left mouse button, and presto, up comes a list of budget flights in seconds (or fraction of a second).

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There’s no sluggish page refreshes either, all the speed comes from some very clever browser tech which means the data is paged into boxes. The result is a lightning fast service which means you can find a book a flight faster than you can say ‘Marco Polo‘.

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We also like the fact that once you’ve found the flight, you can book it instantly while still staying within the Skypicker interface, which includes useful things like adding in your ID/passport details so you don’t have to do that again on the airline site. It’s a small thing, but it makes the whole process so much more seamless, and again fast.

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To see stopovers on the cheaper routes, just swipe your mouse down the list of results and they’ll appear on the map instantly to let you know where you’ll be going. Very nice indeed!

2 Comments

  • Booking was easy enough. The interactive map is breathtaking. The price, however kept changing. As I searched options the price kept going up as I looked over it on their page! When I did decide on the flight I wanted they said it had gone up by almost twice due to the airline! OK. I cleared the cache and guess what: the price had fallen when I rechecked!

    Chalking it up to a bug, I said OK. Looking at reviews of Skypicker I decided to take the plunge.

    OK. Paying was seamless.

    This is where it gets a little exciting. Neither airline had any record of the flights! I had to email Skypicker, then the airlines had the reservation!

    Another issue, totally my creation. I misspelt the name of someone travelling with me. The airline said they cannot change the name as the reservation belongs to an agent. Skypicker is claiming that the airline wants €220 to change the name! In my currency that’s almost TT$2000! That’s just under 1/2 the cost of the entire vacation per person! Skypicker’s wholesaler, Hahn Air, said the agency can do it for free, but Skypicker is still claiming that it is the airline that wants the €220! I know this was my mistake, but if Skypicker wants to make the extra profit say so!

    I will not be doing any more business with them. I do hope the vacation is without any more problems…

    Update: After this review somehow the ransom price fell. Now, however, they are claiming the second airline wants money for the name change at the airport counter. I have paid for the change on the first airline and have not heard back. Several live chats have said someone is waiting on a response from the airline. I’ll update as this is done.

    Update (Sunday 22nd May): After quite alot of wrangling they are saying they have filed a complaint against the airline and are re-issuing the tickets. When asked about the extra payment, Lucie’s exact words were: “Agent 12:37 PM I cannot promise you anything right now.” Wow. Simply wow.

    Update (Monday 23rd May): Today they finally proved their lies. It seems Hann gave them the instructions on how to change the name, but they never followed these. Today, 3 days before the flight, they finally decided to follow the instructions. Because the flight is almost sold out the airline’s fare went up by €2,122! They decided to refund the ticket cost and the cost to change the name they were claiming. At this last minute I am out the hotel cost and paid for ground transfers and tours.

    Do not, under any circumstances, use Skypickers or Kiwi or whatever next they decide to call themselves! I will be filing consumer protection complaints in the country of origin!

    • Oh wow, that is just horrible. This is a general symptom of the poor state of new online services around the world. We used a new Uber clone service in India called WIWIGO which cancelled a cab for our family at the last minute (when we were already in the country) on the pretext that I hadn’t ‘confirmed by telephone. We were left stranded at a train station in the middle of nowhere. It’s only because a friend got his travel agent friend to organise something else that we got out OK.

      The moral of these stories is ‘stay away from new online services’ – at least until they prove themselves and/or have glowing user reviews. Lots of them!

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