2 Voted

What is Skiplagged?

Skiplagged is a website that claims to “find flights the airlines don’t want you to see.” Similar to that of Priceline or Expedia, Skiplagged finds airfare loopholes that get their users the cheapest pricing. These loopholes include things like finding hidden or nearby cities that you fly to for much cheaper than the main airport.

Not only do they find unique flights at great prices, but you can also use Skiplagged to find competitive hotel rates and cheap car rentals.

How easy is it to book a flight, hotel, or car through the Skiplagged website?

The Skiplagged website is extremely easy to use. As soon as you head to the home page, you see the search bar where you can choose either round trip or one way, how many travelers, departure and arrival location, and departure and return date.

For the review, I searched for flights from BWI to CLT on Skiplagged and on Priceline. I put in all the same aspects such as dates and chose the same exact flights on both platforms. Priceline’s total came to $134.10 and includes all taxes and fees charged by Priceline. Skiplagged, on the other hand, came to a flight total of $124.10, which is a whole $10 cheaper, but they added a $12.41 service fee – this brings the Skiplagged total to $136.51 making it more expensive by $2.41.

Once you confirm a flight, hotel, or car booking, the confirmation process is quite easy and requires basic traveler and payment information to be filled which can be done in a few minutes.

What other features of the Skiplagged website stand out?

  • You can use the top header to easily alternate between flights, hotels, and cars.
  • They show their current, cheapest flight offerings right on the home page – this is perfect for people who don’t have a fixed location and just want to get away for a good cost.
  • Skiplagged is one of the few travel booking websites where you can pick ‘Anywhere’ as a destination. Let your wanderlust heart go crazy and let whatever deal is available at the time choose where your next adventure will be.
  • Once you go into Flights, there are additional options on the left-hand side of the page such as whether you want hidden city or standard tickets. You can also choose how many stops, layover duration, airlines, etc. to customize your experience as much as you want.
  • The hotel booking aspect of Skiplagged is similar to Booking.com and other hotel booking sites. You can pick location, check in and check out date, and other customizable aspects such as price per night, user rating, stars, amenities, and particular hotel chains for your preference.
  • The car rental feature on Skiplagged takes the pick-up and date information you input and finds you the best deal. They compare prices between tons of car companies such as Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, NextCar, and Thrifty.

Is Skiplagged trustworthy for flights? Is Skiplagged a reliable site to book flights? Can you get scammed on Skiplagged?

While I couldn’t find Skiplagged on Consumer Affairs, they do have profiles with the Better Business Bureau as well as Trustpilot.

Skiplagged has a 1 out of 5-star rating on their Better Business Bureau profile and they have an average of four to five complaints a year. A lot of the bad reviews are regarding canceled flights and the fact that people aren’t able to get refunds for flights – even if they’re canceled directly by the airline. Skiplagged has made it clear that they can’t refund on behalf of the airline and that customers should contact the airline directly to sort the issue. This is a frequent problem when using a third party to book a flight or hotel room.

Skiplagged has 4.4 out of five stars on Trustpilot. From their 300+ reviews, nearly 70% of them are marked ‘excellent’, while an additional 10% is marked as either ‘great’ or ‘average’. 21% of the reviews flag the company as ‘poor’ or ‘bad’. Most of the positive reviews focus on Skiplagged having the cheapest flights and having an easy-to-navigate website.

Overall, Skiplagged is a reliable website, and you can trust it when booking your flight, hotel room, or car rental. You’ll breeze through using it, especially if you don’t need to make any changes or cancelations – which seems to be where the complications lie with most of the negative reviews.

Is it better to book through Skiplagged or the airline directly? Is Skiplagged the best website for last minute flight deals?

With this review, I’ve found that it’s both positive and negative to book a flight through Skiplagged. The positive is obviously the price point; because of loopholes such as hidden city ticketing, they’re able to find flights for much cheaper.

That being said, this could result in some negative outcomes as well. Hidden city ticketing is when you book a one-way flight and get off at the transit location midway because it’s cheaper to get there than to book a flight directly there. For example, a flight from Baltimore to Orlando might be $399 while a flight from Baltimore to Dallas is only $280 and it has a stopover in Orlando. Bad things about tickets like this is that one – you can’t check in luggage because your luggage will go to the final destination with or without you, two – you can only purchase one-way tickets because airlines will cancel the rest of your flight if you get off midway, and three – if you abuse this, airlines will fine or ban you accordingly. In fact, Skiplagged boasts on their website that “their prices are so cheap, United sued [them], but [they] won.”

Another negative about booking through Skiplagged is that they charge a service fee. The fee starts at $8 and increases depending on various aspects such as total cost.

And lastly, a benefit to booking with an airline directly is that if the flight is canceled for any reason, the process of getting a refund, travel credits, date changes, etc. is much easier. Skiplagged will not process any refund on behalf of you from the airline no matter the reason for cancelation.

Is booking through Skiplagged worth it? What makes Skiplagged better than other travel booking sites?

Skiplagged is similar to other travel bookings sites such as Expedia Flights, Priceline, etc., so why book through them instead of the others?

It goes back to the fact that while most travel booking sites search for coupon codes and the cheapest flights offered by airlines, none of them show loophole prices such as hidden city tickets. Again, this isn’t always a positive, but it can be if you buy one-way tickets and don’t have to check in luggage.

Does Skiplagged have a rewards program?

Skiplagged does have a rewards program in which you can earn travel credits; the travel credits are equivalent to funds that can be used to redeem for flights and hotels.

You can earn travel credits when you book a flight or a hotel, though note that not all bookings are eligible for earning travel credits. You can also earn travel credits by sharing links to bookings with others who book a flight or hotel using it.

You can redeem your travel credits by choosing to pay with travel credits while on the booking page; this comes up as an option alongside Credit Card, etc. The only negative aspect about their rewards program is that you’ll need the full amount in travel credits to redeem it for a booking. You can’t use a partial amount toward the total cost – the travel credits have to be equal to or greater than your total.

Does Skiplagged have a mobile app?

The Skiplagged website is accessible through any mobile platform’s internet browser though there are mobile apps available for download for iOS and Android devices on the App Store and Google Play.

How can I reach Skiplagged customer service?

I could not find a straightforward way to reach Skiplagged customer service on their website. There is no obvious phone number, email, or chat option to reach a customer service representative directly. You have to go through their FAQ page and click the ‘Submit a Request’ button on the top right-hand side.

You then have to type in information such as your email address, booking confirmation code, and date of your flight or hotel booking. You also have to choose what the request is regarding whether it be locating a booking or cancelling a booking. There are boxes to type out a description of what you need assistance with, and you then wait for a customer service representative to contact you back.

If you Google ‘How do I contact Skiplagged?’ there is no phone number but an email ([email protected]) does come up. The email address doesn’t connect back to their website, but it’s worth trying if you don’t hear back from anyone.

Overall, Skiplagged is a safe and dependable platform to book flights, hotels, and car rentals. The pricing isn’t always the cheapest, because of their service fee, but it’s a hit or miss. If you don’t make any changes or cancelations to your booking, you should have no problem with your itinerary. If not, good luck contacting customer service.

Pros
  • Finds cheaper flights than competitors using loopholes such as hidden city ticketing
  • Easy-to-use website
  • Simple confirmation process; you can be booked in minutes
  • Shows current cheap flight deals right on the home page
  • Has the option to pick ‘Anywhere’ as a destination
  • 4.4/5-star rating on Trustpilot
  • Has a reward program that is beneficial to frequent flyers
  • clear layout
  • fast search engine
  • wide range of airline carriers
  • travel to the "anywhere" feature
  • price tracking
Cons
  • The service fee is $8 upward and depends on aspects such as total cost, etc.
  • The service fee sometimes makes the final amount higher than competitor prices
  • 1/5-star rating on Better Business Bureau; not listed on ConsumerAffairs
  • Difficult to reach customer service; not obvious on their website
  • service fee
  • currency range
  • fixed date searching restriction