新应用助你找到便宜机票

A new app promises to save travellers money by pinpointing the cheapest days of the year to take a flight.

一款新的手机应用能确切指出一年中乘坐航班最划算的时间，从而为旅客省钱。

Hopper, available in the App Store since yesterday, claims to analyse “billions” of prices before identifying the cheapest time to travel on thousands of routes. Hopper believes it can save fliers 40 per cent, on average.

这款名为Hopper的手机应用，自1月28日起在苹果应用商店（the App Store）开放下载。Hopper声称，在数千条航线中找出最划算的时间点前，会分析数十亿条航班价格数据。Hopper认为，该款应用平均可以为旅客节省40%的花费。

Users can even request real-time alerts, ensuring they’re notified when a cheaper offer on their selected journey becomes available – and told if the price is about to go up.

用户甚至可以设定实时提醒服务，确保如果其选定的行程有更便宜的报价或及机票价格将要上涨时，他们会收到通知。

This, the company says, is what makes it stand out from the competition. "A lot of the flight alert products others are offering are almost a daily digest," Patrick Surry, chief data scientist at Hopper, told Mashable. “The real-time side of it is really important."

该公司说道，这就是Hopper得以从竞争中脱颖而出的法门所在。“很多航班提醒产品基本就是每日信息摘要，”Hopper的首席数据专家帕特里克·萨里（Patrick Surry）向Mashable表示：“实时提醒这方面是非常重要的。”

To use the free app, travellers must first enter a route. They are then shown a calendar, with days colour-coded depending how cheap it is to fly.

使用这款免费应用，旅客首先须输入一条路线，之后就会看到日历，上面用不同颜色标注着该航线不同时间的价格便宜程度。

A search for flights from London to Barcelona, for example, suggested that the most expensive days to travel this year are currently Sunday, February 15 – the day after Valentine’s – and July 27, when travellers can expect to pay more than $300 (£199) per person.

例如，搜索从伦敦到巴塞罗那的航班，结果显示，今年价格最高的日期是7月27日和2月15日，这天恰好是周日，又是情人节的后一天。这两天每位旅客将要支付超过300美元（约199英镑）的费用。

That’s if you book immediately. Choose the days you want to travel and Hopper will predict the best time to buy. For flights departing London on July 1, and returning from Barcelona two days later, the lowest available price is currently $130 (£86) - that's for a 7.15pm departure from Gatwick with Norwegian. But it believes that prices could fall to as low as $85 (£56) over the next four months. After May 1, however, it suggests that fares will rise by at least $70 (£46).

如果你马上订票就会出现上述情况。选好出发的时间，Hopper将预测最佳购票时机。比如7月1日从伦敦起飞，2天后自巴塞罗那返回的航班，目前能买到的最低票价是130美元（合86英镑）——这趟挪威航空的航班晚上7点15分从盖特威克（Gatwick）出发。但Hopper认为，在未来的四个月，该行程的票价可能会降至85美元（约56英镑），但5月1日之后，票价将上升至少70美元（约46英镑）。

“You should wait for a better deal, but book before May 18,” is the final verdict – and travellers have the option to watch the route and receive updates.

最终结论是“你应该等待一个更好的报价，但要在5月18日前进行预订，”——旅客可以选择继续关注路线并接收最新信息。

Another search for flights from London to New York, departing on May 29, and returning a week later, produced a different result.

另一趟机票搜索，则产生了不同的结果。该行程是伦敦到纽约，5月29日起飞，并于一周后返回。

“A great deal is available right now at $590 (£391) roundtrip,” it urges. “You should book now. We haven’t seen a price this low for the past seven months.”

“现在就有非常好的报价，往返票价为590美元（约391英镑），”应用极力向你推荐。“你应该现在就订票。这是7个月来，我们看到的最低价格。”

If you want to book (it's a 7.55am departure via Dusseldorf, incidentally), you're redirected to the airline's website to do so.

如果你想订购（顺便一提，该航班早7点55分从杜塞尔多夫出发），你会重新转到航空公司网站来完成后续操作。

Telegraph Travel's consumer editor, Nick Trend, said: "If this app proves reliable, then it could save time and money. But it will need to prove that it can guage and predict future fares, and there are lots of complications and pitfalls in doing this - such as the effects of one-off events on demand for flights, for example. The app is also currently showing fares only in US dollars - British users will want prices in pounds. So, it is worth looking at, but I would also check fares on another app, such as Skyscanner, to be sure you are finding the best prices."

《每日电讯》旅游版消费编辑尼克·特伦德（Nick Trend）说：“如果这个应用被证实是确实可靠的，那么它将可以节省时间和金钱。但它需要证明它可以测量和预测未来的价格走势，而在此过程中会出现一次性事件对航班需求的影响等很多复杂的问题和缺陷。而应用目前价格显示只有美元——英国用户则希望价格以英镑形式显示。因此，它是值得一看，但我也会通过Skyscanner等其他应用程序查询票价，确保你能找到最好的价格。”

Vocabulary

pinpoint: 精确地找到

digest: 摘要

real-time: 实时的

verdict: 结论

roundtrip: 往返航程

reliable: 可靠的

（译者：490252028 编辑：丁一）