How to search Hotwire for flights

Hotwire is an Expedia Group site best known for opaque hotel and car rates. Its flight search is a conventional agency listing rather than a mystery deal.

What Hotwire is good at

• Hot Rate hotels and cars. You get the star rating and the area and find out the brand after paying. The discount is genuine.
• Flight and hotel together, which is where the flight side is actually useful.

What to watch for

Opaque bookings are non-refundable. If there is any chance your dates move, this is the wrong product regardless of the saving.

For a plain flight there is nothing here that Expedia does not have, because it is the same company and the same inventory.

Use it like this

1. Start with the hotel. Set the area and the star rating you will actually accept, because you cannot change your mind afterwards.
2. Look up what the named hotels in that area and rating cost elsewhere. That is how you tell whether the opaque rate is a real discount.
3. For the flight, search it here only as part of a package. On its own there is nothing here that Expedia does not have.

Verdict

Good for a cheap bed near an airport. Not a flight search site in any meaningful sense.

Common questions

Who owns Hotwire?

Expedia Group.

Does Hotwire sell tickets directly?

Yes. It is an online travel agency, so the ticket contract is with them rather than the airline.