Hipmunk is a cool travel booking site that I really suggest you check and the company has just released an iPad app which tries to take the pain out of looking for a flight.
The Hipmunk iPad app uses the company’s special “Agony” filter – It searches for flights not just based on price but also on other factors which can lead to a bad traveling experience. For example, it will determine that paying $20 more for a direct flight is likely worth it for people instead of saving the cash but losing time. Its algorithm definitely weights price (and you can switch to a price filter) but there are also other factors which are used to determine what’s important in your search.
The Hipmunk iPad app also makes good use of the large tablet size to display the flight information, as things are laid out in easy-to-understand graphs. These are also interactive, as you can drag on the start and end times that you want to find specific flights at specific times. If you want to actually book the trip, you can use the Safari browser to fill out your travel information. This is the only negative I saw on the app, as I would have loved to have that portion be a strong part of the native app.
There are plenty of ways to use your iPhone to search for flights but I really dig the way Hipmunk does things. The iPhone app has also been revamped to include a cleaner design and it will even give you a custom link to finish your order on a computer or on a larger screen tablet.
Go ahead and check out the video below for a taste of the new Hipmunk iPad app and you can download the program for free here (iTunes link). What do you thinks, friends?