If you’ve been using Hipmunk to book travel plans, you must find an alternative platform soon.
One of the most distinctive features of Hipmunk, which users are likely to miss, is the “agony” feature.
This function sorted flights by price and considered factors like flight duration and the number of stops to provide a more comprehensive evaluation.
The travel comparison and booking site is scheduled to close on January 23, 2020, according to an announcement from SAP Concur, the company that acquired Hipmunk four years ago.
According to travel industry publication Skift, the original founders of Hipmunk, Adam Goldstein and Steve Huffman, failed to reacquire the company from its current owner, SAP Concur.
Founded in 2010, Hipmunk became known for its user-friendly design, despite larger competitors like Kayak and Google Flights dominating the market.
The site still maintains a dedicated user base, including staff members from AFAR, a travel publication.
“I’ve been a loyal fan of Hipmunk since its early days,” said Maggie Fuller, an associate editor at AFAR. “It launched just as I was starting to travel independently. I probably spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours on the site exploring different airport combinations, dates, and trip lengths.”
Fuller particularly valued Hipmunk’s intuitive interface and unique feature of sorting flights by the least “agonizing” options.
Not Always About the Cheapest Flight: Hipmunk’s Unique “Agony” Feature
The “agony” feature was a standout innovation that quickly gained popularity when Hipmunk first launched, as noted by cofounder Adam Goldstein in a 2018 opinion piece recounting the site’s success.
Goldstein explained that one of Hipmunk’s initial decisions was to avoid sorting flight results solely by price.
The team believed frequent travelers would be willing to pay more for a more convenient flight.
As a result, they developed a sorting metric that considered a combination of price, flight duration, and the number of stops.
Interestingly, the original name for this feature was intended to be “suckage,” but just before the site’s launch, the team (wisely) decided to rename it “agony.”
Ann Shields, Guides Editor at AFAR, mentioned her appreciation for the agony rating, as it highlighted shorter flights scheduled at reasonable times.
Next Steps for Hipmunk Users
With Hipmunk’s shutdown looming, what’s next for users? The closure will affect Hipmunk and Concur Hipmunk, a more recent travel tool geared toward small- to medium-sized businesses.
According to a FAQ section on both Hipmunk and Concur Hipmunk’s websites, users can no longer access their accounts after the shutdown.
However, any existing reservations made through the site will still be honored by the respective airlines, hotels, or other travel providers.
Hipmunk served as a travel metasearch site, meaning it helped users find travel options, but the providers made the actual bookings directly.
This means that even future travel bookings remain secure.
Google Flights is a good alternative for those who rely on Hipmunk’s unique “agony” feature, which balances price, flight duration, and the number of stops.
Google Flights offers a feature that highlights what it calls “best-departing flights,” which are the best trade-offs between price and convenience, considering factors such as duration, number of stops, and layover airport changes.
This appears to be Google’s nod to Hipmunk’s innovative “agony” feature.
