New, Easy Way to Find Cheap Flights

Aiming to simplify the daunting task of online flight searching, MIT engineering student Adam Goldstein and Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman have created Hipmunk, which has become an instant success. Hipmunk matches travel shoppers with flights, arranging them on a colorful, user-friendly grid. After just a couple of days, the site is already getting rave reviews from both Lifehacker and TechCrunch.

Here is the general layout of Hipmunk:

Hipmunk cuts the clutter, displaying all flight options on one screen. Prices show on the grid’s vertical axis, with departure times on the horizontal axis. Airlines are color-coded — JetBlue (JBLU) flights in blue, Delta (DAL, Fortune 500) in orange, and so on — allowing searchers to zoom straight in on their favorites.

From there, browsers can sort by factors including price, flight length, and the number of stops. The aptly named “agony” button is a one-click combination of all three. Users can search in multiple tabs, filter out flights that depart too early or late, and share links to their searches with friends.

The site will no doubt continue to grow, but its creators say that they plan to stick to their core mission: to maintain a user-friendly layout to make finding cheap flights easy.

Be sure to check out Hipmunk if travel is in your immediate future. Thanks to CNN Money for the tip!

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