Anna is a co-founder of Adventure in You and has been traveling the world for the last 9 years. She has spent time living in Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia, and Spain and is our local expert in these areas. Her expertise on travel, gear, and building businesses have been featured on Foundr, Business Insider, Yahoo Travel, and more.
As most of you know, I love moving and traveling around so much. I have been doing it for the last three years or so and wouldn’t trade my lifestyle for anything else. However, there are days when I wake up and miss the Philippines big time. Everything from my parents, my friends, down to the delicious Filipino dishes that I would sometimes crave. During moments like this is when I know it’s time to book a flight home. While I am usually loyal to websites like Skyscanner, I decided to try out a relatively new company that is slowly making its waves in the travel scene in Asia.
If you look at my phone, you will find a folder that is dedicated soley to travel apps. I admit, I am a bit addicted. The Traveloka App is not only free to download, but it also has loads of deals available. If you should know anything about me, it’s the fact that I love scoring cheap travel deals. Whether it’s discounts on flights or hotels, if I can make it happen by downloading an app, I will 100% do it.
The traveloka app allows you to find good deals on flights and also allows you to instantly pay using there many payment options. However, what I love about it is how transparent it is in showing you how much you will pay for as everything is already included in the fees, including the usual pesky airport taxes.
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How to Book Flights Using the Traveloka App (Plus Tips on How to Get Great Deals)
1. Search for Flights but Check Alternative Routes
As usual, IÂ start by searching. We were going to be in Phuket at that time so naturally, I checked flights from Phuket to Manila. As I am a stricktler on saving, I also checked flights from Bangkok to Manila in case they were a lot cheaper. This case, the flying directly from Phuket would have cost the same after I factor in transport back to Bangkok.
2. Decide if You’re Booking Round Trip or Not
Before I buy any flight, the first things that I do is check if there is any price difference between booking a roundtrip flight or two one way tickets. If booking two tickets save me more money, I then apply step number 1 again and check alternative routes.
3. Choose Your Flights
In every flight engine, flights are listed based on price. Usually, the most expensive ones are the direct flights that will save you time. However, as we are on a budget, I usually don’t mind choosing flights with longer connections. In the Traveloka App, you can choose which flight you want to take based on price, length of trip, and connections.
4. Pay
One of the best things about the app is the easy payment alternatives. If you create an account, you can easily store your credit card details so that you can book flights and hotels in the future with just one click. Alternatively, it also allows you to pay via payment centers like 711, Tesco, and Family Mart (In Thailand). This is SUPER convenient for those who don’t have credit cards or who jsut want to pay things right away. In the Philippines, their payment partners are all the popular local banks (BDO, BPI, etc, 711, Dragon Pay and even M. Lhuillier.
5. Manage Your Bookings
As soon as you pay, you will immediately get sent your bookings which you can store on your phone, eliminating the need to print anything. YAY for Traveloka and other companies who are up to date with e-vouchers. Printing boarding passes and tickets is something that’s no longer needed in 2017! Apart from this, once you make a profile, you can easily go back to the app at any point to see your flight details and make changes if necessary.
Did I Get the Cheapest Deal?
Considering I booked my tickets pretty last minute and considering the flights from Thailand to the Philippines are relatively pricey, I think we got a great deal. I was able to toggle through the Traveloka App relatively easily and found cheaper connecting flights, even if they took longer. For reference, I also checked directly with Air Asia (the airline I was flying with) and found the listing in Traveloka cheaper by about P100 ($2). Besides the point that I was dying to go home to the Philippines, I was pretty pleased with the deal I found which naturally, got me even more excited.
Editor’s note: Love the Philippines as much as I do? Check out our Philippine Adventure Guide for a bit of inspiration!
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So while there’s a million and one other travel apps out there that allow you to search for flights, book hotels, etc. Traveloka has some great deals around Asia, being that it’s an Asian company. They have promotions like the Smart Combo feature which knocks of 40% to roundtrip tickets. It also has a listing of over 70,000+ hotels worldwide, which all vary from expensive fancy hotels to budget hotels and hostels. Bottom line is, when searching for flights and hotels, it’s a great resource, especially for those based in Asian destinations!
So thanks to this app, I was able to go home for two weeks where I saw my parents, got to eat all my favorite Filipino dishes (hello, adobo, sinigang, kare-kare….I could go on and on!) and spent a couple of days surfing in Baler. It is definitely something I recommend that you try out as the deals and savings that you might get are worth it. Go ahead, try it out, you might just find yourself on the next cheapest flight to the Philippines or some other exotic destination.
2 thoughts on “Booking Flights Using the Traveloka App | Review”
Have you tried purchase or purchased any tickets and use it successfully with traveloka? I’m a bit hesitated to try and not much info i can find on the internet on the feedback.
Have you tried purchase or purchased any tickets and use it successfully with traveloka? I’m a bit hesitated to try and not much info i can find on the internet on the feedback.
after i check the price is RM 700+ then the next saying the up dated price is RM 915 + why ?