CheapOair :Flight Deals,Hotels

Review by eFreeware

If you book your own travel and want the comparing, the booking and the backup all in one place, CheapOair is built for you. The Android app from Fareportal Inc covers flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages, and it pairs that with round-the-clock access to human travel experts. The pitch is straightforward: search widely, pay what you see, and have someone to call when a flight is delayed or a plan falls apart.

That combination is what separates it from a plain fare search. Plenty of tools will show you prices; fewer put a support line behind the booking, and fewer still let you reach that line from inside the app without running up roaming charges while you are abroad. I would expect this to appeal most to people who plan family trips, business travel or international journeys and would rather not handle disruptions alone.

The install base is large and the reception is warm: more than 5 million installs and a 4.7 average across over 95,000 ratings. Those numbers tell you the app has been widely used rather than that it will suit your particular trip, so the rest of this review looks at what it actually does.

Planning a trip around the search

The core of the app is airfare search. It compares fares from more than 500 major and low-cost airlines worldwide, which is the kind of breadth that matters when you are trying to work out whether a cheaper routing exists on an airline you had not considered. You can book one-way, round-trip, non-stop and multi-city itineraries, so the usual shapes of a trip are covered.

Two features stand out for anyone who books early or watches prices. The app can notify you when fares drop, and it lets you compare travel dates to see where the lower prices sit. Neither guarantees a bargain, but both are the sort of thing that turns a vague intention to travel into a booked trip, because you find out when the number moves rather than checking manually every few days.

Beyond flights, the same app handles hotels, vacation packages and rental cars worldwide, and it supports bundling flights with hotels. Bundling is a familiar way to get more value out of a trip, and having it in the same place as the flight search saves you from stitching together two bookings from different sources.

Rewards that build as you book

CheapOair runs a loyalty program called ClubMiles. Eligible bookings earn up to 6X points, and members get access to hotel and rental car discounts that are not available to everyone else. App-only deals are part of the offer too, which is a common way for travel companies to push people toward the phone rather than the desktop.

The developer also promises transparent pricing with no hidden fees, and says you can manage your bookings at any time. Those are the claims I would treat as marketing until a booking confirms them, since fee structures in travel are where surprises usually live. The app is built for booking and managing trips, not just for searching and handing you off elsewhere.

The most recent update adds a concrete perk: the upgraded ClubMiles program lets you save up to $50 on bookings, with the details visible in your ClubMiles profile. That is a specific, checkable benefit rather than a vague promise of savings, and it gives the rewards side of the app more weight than points alone would.

Support when the itinerary changes

The support model is the app's clearest differentiator. Support staff can be reached around the clock, before a trip, while traveling and after it ends, and the app lets you call them for free from inside it. That last part matters if you are traveling internationally, because it means you can ask for help without worrying about international roaming charges.

The support also covers problems when flights go wrong, such as delays, cancellations and changes to your itinerary, along with help changing or canceling a booking. Priority support is offered to all travelers. If you have ever stood in an airport queue while a connection slipped away, the appeal of a direct line to a person is obvious.

I would frame this as insurance rather than a feature you use every trip. Most bookings go smoothly, and on those trips the support line sits quietly in the background. Its value shows up on the trips that do not, which is exactly when a fare comparison alone leaves you on your own.

Keeping track of the trip itself

Once a booking exists, the app shifts into a travel companion. You can track flight status and gate updates live, get trip reminders and travel notifications, and access your full itinerary and boarding details offline. The offline access is the piece I would single out, because boarding information is most useful in exactly the situations where a signal is least reliable.

Automated check-in is available for eligible flights, which removes one recurring chore from the days before departure. The app also lets you manage your itinerary at any time, so changes and details are not locked to a single moment or a printed confirmation.

The newest addition on this side is real-time refund tracking. Refund progress and status can be tracked from start to finish. Refunds are one of the murkiest parts of travel, so having the status visible in the same app where you booked is a genuinely useful piece of housekeeping.

What you pay to use it

The app is free to download, so the cost of using CheapOair is the cost of the travel you book through it.

The rewards program is where money comes back rather than goes out: eligible bookings earn ClubMiles points, and the recent update mentions savings of up to $50 on bookings through the upgraded program. The developer's claim of transparent pricing with no hidden fees is the one to hold the app to, since that is the part of any booking service that matters most at checkout.

Since the app costs nothing, it suits travelers who want to compare fares before deciding where to book. The trade-off is the usual one for a booking platform: your trip is tied to this company's inventory and support, so the value depends on how well those hold up for your route.

How it compares with the alternatives

The obvious alternative is booking directly with an airline. That route often gives you the carrier's own app for check-in and changes, but it also means comparing fares yourself across carriers, and it usually means one support channel per airline rather than a single line for the whole trip. CheapOair's advantage is the breadth of the comparison and the fact that hotels and cars sit alongside it.

A dedicated hotel or rental car service is another option. Those tend to go deeper on their own category, with more property-level detail or car classes, but they do not compare airfares across 500-plus airlines or bundle a flight with a room. If your trip is mostly about where you stay, a specialist may serve you better; if it is a flight plus the pieces around it, the combined approach is more convenient.

There is also the general-purpose travel search site. Many of those are strong at showing options and weaker at standing behind the booking afterward. The dividing line with CheapOair is the human support and the trip-management features, which are the parts you notice when something goes wrong rather than when everything goes to plan.

A booking app for travelers who want a person on call

CheapOair earns a recommendation for travelers who want comparison and support in the same app. The fare search across more than 500 airlines, the hotel, car and package booking, the ClubMiles rewards and the 24/7 human help form a coherent package, and the free download makes trying it low-risk. The live flight tracking, offline itinerary access and refund tracking round out the trip itself rather than stopping at the sale.

It suits people who plan family vacations, business trips, weekend getaways or international travel and who would rather have one place to book and manage everything. It also suits anyone who has been burned by a disruption and wants a direct line to a person without roaming charges. The 4.7 average from over 95,000 ratings suggests a lot of travelers have found it workable.

What it is not is a specialist. If your planning is mostly about a single hotel or a single rental car, a dedicated service will go deeper on that category. As an all-in-one booking app with real support behind it, though, it is easy to see why it has stayed popular since its 2011 release.

What's new in version 4.299.0

Up to $50 Off Your Next Booking! Our upgraded Clubmiles loyalty program lets you unlock rewards and save up to $50 on bookings. Visit your ClubMiles profile to check your new loyalty perks. Real-Time Refund Tracking View accurate refund details and live status updates in the app, from initiation to final processing. Under-the-Hood Enhancements Bug fixes make the app more stable and reliable. Love the updates? Please leave us a review in the Store.