What hop does, and clear answers to the things people ask most. Can't find it? Email us — a real person reads it.
hop answers one question for every flight: book with points or pay cash? It knows your real loyalty balances, prices the same trip across cash, miles, and transfer partners, and tells you which one actually wins — with the math shown, not asserted. Three steps:
No. You can search and see the cash-vs-miles math without an account. But once hop knows your balances it can tell you what you can afford and which of your programs to use — that’s where it earns its keep.
On your account, add each loyalty program with its current balance. You can type balances in by hand, or connect AwardWallet to sync them automatically. Manual entries are always under your control — edit or remove them any time.
Both feed the same engine. Manual balances are numbers you enter and keep current yourself. AwardWalletis a live link that syncs balances for the programs it covers, so you don’t have to. If you use both, AwardWallet wins for any program it covers and your manual entries fill in the rest — no double-counting.
For manually entered programs, update the number on your account. For AwardWallet-synced programs, the balance reflects AwardWallet’s last sync — if it’s behind, refresh the connection there. Balances power the “what you can afford” call, so it’s worth keeping them honest.
Bank points — Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One, and others — can transfer to airline programs, often 1:1. hop factors this in: if you can’t book an award directly but could reach it by transferring points first, it shows that path so you don’t miss a redemption you actually have the points for.
For each option hop computes cents per point (¢/pt): how much real value each point pulls in that redemption. Higher is better. It backs out taxes and fees, then divides the cash price by the points required: ¢/pt = (cash − taxes) × 100 ÷ points. At or above 3.0 ¢/pt the value is strong; below 1.5 ¢/pt it’s weak. When the best award clears 2.5 ¢/pt, points usually win; when it’s lower, cash is the better buy.
No. Every number — the ¢/pt, the ranking, the pick, the verdict, and the dollars saved — is computed by hop’s own deterministic code, not written by a language model. The concierge can explain a result in plain language, but it never invents the figures: it reads the same engine. Run the same search twice and you get the same answer.
Because spending miles on a low-value redemption is a worse deal than paying. If an award comes in under 2.5 ¢/pt, your points are worth more saved for a richer redemption later, so hop says pay cash. The verdict is about value per point, not whether you can cover it.
Fares, taxes, and award availability come from the airlines and third-party sources, and can change at any moment before you book. hop shows the best information it has, but the provider’s live price at checkout is the real one. The figures are informational, not financial advice — always confirm with the airline before booking.
When an upstream source (cash prices, award space, or your balances) is briefly unavailable, hop degrades just that part of the result and tells you, rather than failing the whole search. The rest of the answer still stands; re-run the search in a minute to fill the gap.
Award (points) tickets are issued by the airline’s own loyalty program, so hop links you to the airline’s site to complete the redemption directly with them, under their terms. hop doesn’t process award bookings.
For paid flights, hop links you out to book the fare it found. The airline is the provider of the ticket; complete payment and ticketing through the booking flow you’re sent to, and keep the confirmation it gives you.
Changes, cancellations, refunds, and disruptions are handled by the provider that issued your ticket, under their rules — not by hop. For an awardticket, contact the airline’s loyalty program; for a cashticket, contact the airline or the site you booked through. Have your booking reference ready. If you’re not sure who that is, email us and we’ll point you to the right place.
hop doesn’t add a fee to your ticket. You pay the airline (in miles or cash) at the price they charge. Cash links may be affiliate links, which doesn’t change your price.
hop’s engine is available as an MCP server, so you can call it from any MCP-capable client and get the same deterministic answers you’d get on the site — pricing a trip, the full verdict, sweet-spot redemptions, and transfer paths.
On your account, open Use hop from your AI assistant (MCP) and mint a token. Add it to your MCP client and your assistant can run hop on your behalf. A token is tied to your account: when it’s present, the tools see your real balances and tell you what you can afford. Treat the token like a password — anyone with it can read your balances through hop.
Yes. Without a token the tools run in a stateless mode: they still price trips and compute the verdict, but using balances you supply rather than your saved ones. Your account data is only ever reachable with your own token.
Open your account and update your home airport. New searches default to it.
On your account, revoke the AwardWallet connection. hop stops syncing balances from it immediately. Any balances you entered manually stay until you remove them.
Your identity comes from Google sign-in; your balances, home airport, and any tokens are scoped to your account and never exposed to other users. For the full picture — what’s collected, why, and who it’s shared with — see the Privacy Policy.
Request deletion from your account, or email us. The Privacy Policy lists exactly what gets removed.
Still stuck? Email support@hop.flights — a real person reads it. Include your account email and, for a booking issue, the booking reference; it helps us help you faster. For a quick question about a redemption or where your miles go furthest, the concierge answers on the spot.