Kayak Hacker Fare Review: Everything You Need To Know About Hacker Fares

The struggle of accomplishing a pocket-friendly trip starts with online ticket booking and stretches to finding the best spot to stay and then coming back via economic transport. The online ticket reservation is taken care of by Kayak Hacker Fare. 

In this Kayak Hacker Fare review, we shall address questions like: What is Kayak Hacker Fare? How does it function? Is it trustworthy or not? 

An Overview Of Kayak

Before we dig into the details of the Kayak Hacker Fare review, let’s take a quick look at the overview of the platform. Kayak was founded in 2004, and since then it has done a wonderful job of providing the best travel options to its users.

Kayak is not a flight booking site; it’s a travel search engine. As they have mentioned over their Twitter handle:

Now, before we delve into an in-depth Kayak Hacker Fare review, let’s have a look at it in brief:

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What Is A Hacker Fare?

A hacker airfare is the fare generated when the user books one-way flights instead of round-trip ones. So instead of booking a roundtrip flight, the user can book one-way flights from both sides i.e., the departing and returning end. 

One-way flight tickets are sometimes cheaper than roundtrip, and travelers can sometimes save a good amount of money by using them. 

To put it simply, hacker fare flights are two one-way flights instead of one round-trip flight.

Although it is not that easy to look for the ideal one-way flights for the respective flying dates, looking over various sites and comparing them can be time-consuming and hectic. 

To help you with this, Kayak came up with its new tool, Kayak Hacker Fare. It does the work for you and gives you the best results possible.

What Is Kayak Hacker Fare?

Kayak Hacker Fare is a tool offering the best and most affordable flight tickets by searching numerous ticket booking sites. The idea is that you can save money by buying two one-way tickets, each with a separate airline, rather than booking a roundtrip from one company. 

However, this is not a novel idea. Anyone can check one-way tickets to determine what’s best for them. 

Simply put, Kayak is providing to carry out that task for you in order to save you time and give you better results. 

How Do Kayak Hacker Fares Work?

For your departure and arrival dates, respectively, Kayak Hacker Fare searches a large number of flight booking websites. However, these are one-way flights, not round-trips. It displays the most affordable tickets on both sides, allowing you to significantly reduce your overall cost.

The Kayak Hacker Fare search covers multiple flight ticket websites when you look for tickets to and from your journey location. 

They often display the most affordable round-trip flights after filtering through an extensive list of websites. 

However, once you apply the hacker fare filter, the best deal with both flights being one-way will be displayed.

In a press release about this new feature, Kayak explains:

“We do the work for you, showing you one-way flight combos right in your search results, only when and where it can actually save you time or money… Instead of making you book one round-trip ticket from a single airline, KAYAK plays airfare matchmaker by finding two one-way tickets that together make a round-trip flight.”

How To Book Hacker Fares On Kayak?

Once you go to the Kayak website, a search bar will appear at the top, from where you can look for the availability of the flights. You can clearly see “Hacker Fare” listed under the price after finding a flight using the search engine. To begin, just click on the “View Deal” button. Just make sure the pricing is available before making a reservation for both tickets.

Here is a step-by-step guide to booking hacker fares on Kayak.

Step 1- Fill In The Details In The Search Bar

Go to the official website and fill in the details on the search bar. 

The details include departure location, arrival location, and date of travel. You can also choose your trip plan from the dropdown menu placed just above the search bar.

Step 2- Select The Filter 

You may not be able to find any deals that show hacker fare. In that case, you need to set the filter in the “flight quality” option present on the left-hand side. 

Select the “show hacker file” filter. It’s likely that there are no less expensive hacker fare offers available if you are still unable to find hacker fare deals after applying the filter.

Step 3- Make Sure To Double Check The Price

Once you have found a cheaper hacker fare deal, you can proceed to book the tickets. 

But before proceeding, you should double-check the price of both of the one-way flights on the respective booking pages to see if they are the same as quoted on the Kayak Hacker Fare deal or not.

Things To Consider While Booking A Hacker Fare On Kayak

You can save some money on ticket purchases with Hacker Fare, but there are a few factors to take into account. Included in this is the airport’s location, the baggage fees, the use of the hacker fare filter, and keeping a return ticket to home when traveling to multiple cities. 

Don’t worry; these terms are explained below:

Airport’s Location

Sometimes the best affordable flight combination in cities with numerous airports will come and go from different airports. However, Kayak Hacker Fare highlights the airports in the search results to let you know. 

But before you head to the airport, be sure to double-check the address stated on your bookings. Pay close attention when two airports may have codes that are identical. Like this one-

Baggage Charges

Make sure to take your luggage into account when reserving a hacker fare that combines different airlines. 

While from one way you can get a waiver on the baggage charge and on the other side you may not. 

However, you can use the “Fee assistant” feature to include all baggage expenses when you search.

Set A Filter For Hacker Rates

Filtering your search results to display Hacker Fares is simple. 

Simply tick the box next to the Flight Quality filter when searching for flights if you can’t see them. 

If they still don’t arrive, there could not be any Hacker Fare choices for that specific route.

Multiple-City Travel

During a multi-city trip be sure to have your return ticket to home. Keep proof of your onward travel available while passing through border control if you are planning a multi-city trip that will involve flying into and out of several cities over a prolonged period of time.

Are Kayak Hacker Fares Worth It?

The hacker fare on Kayak is indeed worth a try. It frequently displays the greatest bargain and aids in money savings. You can just go with the round trip if the hacking fare is more expensive. It is always wiser to consider your options before making a purchase for flights.

Reviews of Kayak Hacker Fare are conflicting; some claim it is definitely worth it, like this reviewer.

“I just bought a “hacker” fare suggested by Kayak. I’m flying to Denver, and my options from my small city are pretty limited. I found a round trip on United for a fare that wasn’t horrible (BTW, it’s about twice what it would cost from a major airport, like PDX, SFO or LAX, but such is life in the boondocks) But in order to avoid a 10+ hour day of flying the return flight from DEN left at 6:00 in the morning, which I wasn’t crazy about.

Not only is the hacker fare a better price by about $50, but the routing is better too.”

While some say that hacker airline fares are not that good, and for some, sometimes it does provide great results while other times it may not. 

In any case, checking for flights on Kayak won’t cost you anything. It will only make the availability of transport options better.

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Kayak Hacker Fare Review | Benefits And Limitations

As per this Kayak Hacker Fare review one of the biggest benefits is that you can save a good amount if you find the best deal. On the contrary, there are also some limitations, like traveling to different airport locations and different baggage charges for different airlines.

Let’s explore these pros and cons separately.

Benefits

• Kayak Hacker Fare searches various websites to give you the most affordable flight deals. In the end, it is you who choose the package for yourself.
• Even when you put in a hacker fare filter, the hacker fare deal won’t pop up until it is the best option available.
• They provide various other offers to make your journey wholesome, like kayak stays, rental cars, and many more.
• “Kayak Explore” and “Kayak Direct” are some other nice features that make your travel search easy.

Limitations

• While booking one-way tickets for both sides of your trip, you may get the other flight that departs from a different airport than the one on which you arrived. Although this is not a very big issue, for new travelers, it may be a little inconvenient.
• In hacker fares, you sometimes get tickets from two different airlines, and this may result in a difference in baggage charges.
• The hacker fares are not always cheaper than the round trip, so make sure to check them too. However, Kayak shows only the best deal at the top, even if it is not hacker fare.
• You will need to book each flight separately. Hacker Fares tickets are sold with different airlines and are subject to each airline’s booking terms, including changes to itineraries.

Is Kayak Hacker Fare Legit?

Until and unless there is any hidden city fare, Kayak Hacker Fare is safe and legit. Also, there is no law against using hacker fares. This combination of flights is sometimes cheaper than a roundtrip. However, in the case of hidden city fare, it may become risky. 

So in short, the answer to your question, “Is hacker fare legit?” is yes.

Hidden City Fare: A flight with a layover rather than the final destination is known as a hidden city flight/fare. For instance, a ticket from New York to Orlando might cost $300, whereas the same journey with a stopover in Orlando from New York to Dallas might cost $190.

Although hidden city fares are not illegal, most airlines disapprove of them. If you are caught, you can be subject to penalties.

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FAQs

Can You Always Save Money By Kayak Fare Hacker?

No, it is not necessary that Kayak flight tickets always help you save money on your flight bookings. There are times when hacker fares are not the cheapest ones on Kayak. In order to get the best deal, avoid being fixated on hacker fares. 

You should always check around. The travel search engines like Kayak do the search for you and offer you the best deal.

How Does Kayak Hacker Fare Find Cheaper Flights?

Kayak Hacker Fare scans hundreds of air ticketing sites and compares them for price and availability. It then provides you with the best combination of one-way tickets. These tickets are again classified as ‘cheapest’, ‘best’, and ‘quickest’ categories. This allows you to choose the best deal and save money.

What Is The “Flexible Date” Option On Kayak And How Does It Work?

If there is some flexibility with your intended travel dates, flexible dates will provide flights up to three days before or after your chosen dates. You can then determine whether departing a day or two earlier will result in a better value. 

To expand your search area and get the best price, you may also use the adaptable “weekend” or “month” search choices.

What Is Kayak Explore?

This tool helps you see where you can fly within the criteria you specify by entering your home airport, a date range, a price range, and the length of your trip. It’s a great tool for when you know when you might like to travel but not where.

What Does Kayak Direct Do?

This tool will show you every destination to which you can book a direct flight from your airport of origin. Additionally, this tool shows the approximate flight duration, route length, and participating airlines. With it, you can find a place you can fly to without making a stopover.

Bottom Line

Kayak Hacker Fare can sometimes be cheaper than the roundtrip, and sometimes it may not. 

It is not mandatory to book a ticket through Kayak if you use its search engine; you can always choose another option.

But for that, you need to have options. Kayak provides you with all the flight options available so that you can choose the best.