Featured Travel App: Skyscanner

It's a dreary Monday night in Ann Arbor, Michigan and it's that heavy kind of hot outside where the rain falls but doesn't cool the air. You are sticky and stuck in the heat of August in Michigan. Skyscanner, a free online app that provides you with flexible search options for flights, can come to your rescue. Skyscanner's flexible search options mean you can browse prices across an entire month, or even a year, allowing you to get the best deal possible. It's the easiest way to find a cheap flight for a weekend getaway anywhere in the US, or a cheap trip abroad. It's also useful for watching flights if you are planning for a semester abroad.

If you are looking for the cheapest destination in any given time frame, simply enter your local airport and select the "everywhere" option for a destination, and the time frame you would like to fly. If you enter a month, you will get a graph with all flight options as shown below. You also have the option of choosing a specific date range. The "Explore" next to the "Search" button pulls up a virtual map which allows you to select destinations via physical location rather than price. The globe on the top right of the second image provides a similar function.

Select "everywhere" and your date range

Select a destination from the list

Here we chose Guatemala:
a list of all available airports becomes available

Fight options:
departure on top, return on bottom 

Alternatively, if you are looking for flights for a longer summer vacation, or a spring break trip, or anything where the destination is set but aren't sure WHEN you'd like to go, Skyscanner allows you to enter your destination and select a time period for travel. The app then gives you a graph with price ranges for your destination. Once you select both a departure (the upper graph) and a return (lower graph) date, the app will take you to a traditional search screen where various flights and prices are listed.

Select a destination and an open date range

Chart of flights in date range

Specific flight options:
 listed by airline and departure date (adjustable settings) 

Skyscanner also offers traditional search options, entered with a specific destination and time period in mind, which allow you to narrow your search by many options. These include: duration of flight, cost, airline, departure time, and landing time and are accessible with the icons across the top of the traditional flight search screen. There is also an option to view your search as a chart much like the two above which show you price differences over the course of the month vs. price differences for the airline on specific dates. You can also favorite searches to save them for later. Additionally you have the option of opening multiple screens for multiple searches using the double square icon in the top right corner, a number in the box indicates how many windows you have open within the app.

Options for purchasing the flight

Once you have chosen your flight, you have multiple options. Skyscanner allows you to purchase the flight directly from the airline with  the "Reserve" button via their website or over the phone. Alternatively, you can choose to watch the flight, tracking price changes and updates. You can also add the flight to your calendar, you can email the itinerary to yourself and you can share the flight to all your social media outlets.

This is the perfect application for last minute travels, carefully planned trips or travel junkies who need to get away from that darn August heat for a weekend. For those without smart phones, their website is also incredibly helpful:   http://www.skyscanner.com/

This post was written by an International Center peer adviser. It is in no way endorsed by the University of Michigan.