In the beginning there was the Web and Web pages looked simple, and were dominated mainly by what the authors wanted to write or express. Along came menus, ads and other cluttering material that made a royal mess of one’s browsing experience. And this has been especially true of travel sites which are riddled with so much, that one often loses sight of what one was searching for in the first place.
There are some travel sites and services, however, that try to stand out from this clutter and one of them is ClearTrip which in almost Google-like fashion has decided to keep things simple, and stick to flight bookings. The site is all about giving you the best flight options between two locations in India or abroad - all you have to do is enter information about where you want to go and from where and the site gives you the best options. There are a few bells and whistles too, but what marks ClearTrip out is its speed and clear interface - getting some good flight deals does not harm either.
And fortunately, the
ClearTrip iOS app does not compromise on these core values. The app is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store and at 1.4 MB is a very light download. Launching the app provides you with the option of choosing the two cities between which you travel - the app can also sense which city you are in, if you give it permission. All you need to do is pick the cities (the app suggest name options even as you type in a neat touch), the date of your journey, and the number of travellers and hit the “Search flights” button and the app promptly shows you the flight options available, giving you the option to sort them by duration, time and price. To get to a date ahead or before, simply hit the arrow to the right or left of the date (see what we mean by elegant interface?). You can also choose to filter the results based on the kind of flight you want, and by carrier.
The interface of the app is clean and simple with large numbers and letters.
Once you have chosen your flight you can go right ahead and book your tickets, either by entering your credit card details or by using the site’s Expressway system where you enter your credit card details just once and then get one-click bookings, saving you from the hassle of entering the information again and again. It all works quite beautifully - we love the way recent searches are shown when you slide the screen to the left! You can also access details of your previous, as well as booked trips once you register (registration is free). And best of all, all this is done through a neat, simple interface with large letters and numbers, which makes the entire task of booking a flight very easy indeed.
Enter your destination and where you are travelling from and the app will show you different flights between the places.
Mind you, the app is not quite the finished product yet. For one, it allows flight bookings only within India at the moment (we hear an update will give you more options in the coming days). For another, it does miss some of the features of the website - most notable is the absence of including Travellers, which lets you enter the details of other people who travel with you just once on the site, saving you the hassle of entering them again and again in the app. There also seemed no way of importing our Facebook profile from the app or sharing travel plans with Facebook friends (again something we could do from the website) We also heard some grumblings from seasoned travellers that the deals offered were not always the best, and that some rival services had better options. We cannot comment on that - these are very early days and we have not travelled enough using the app to draw conclusions.
You can filter your results based on the kind of airlines you want, time of travel, etc.
But all said and done,
ClearTrip’s iOS app avatar reflects the site’s elegant interface and ease of use. Yes, it could get better. And we are sure it will. If you are a person to tends to fly often within the country, do all your flight planning yourself and have an iOS device, then no app makes the process as smooth as this one.
You can review your itinerary and fare break-up - once again, note the elegant interface.
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