Pilot vs. Cleartrip: feature comparison, ratings, and FAQ

What is Cleartrip?

Cleartrip is an Indian travel booking site. People use it to book flights, trains, and hotels in India. It is built to complete a booking rather than plan the trip around it, and it books as a middleman rather than directly with the hotel.

What is Pilot?

Pilot is a trip booking and planning app. You plan the whole trip in one place, a flexible itinerary, a map of your stops, and notes, and you book your hotel in the app at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents. Where Cleartrip completes a booking, Pilot plans the whole trip around the stay, instantly reserves your room with its hotel partners and has a real person confirm each booking with the hotel, and keeps the planner free.

Is Cleartrip legit?

Cleartrip is a real, established travel booking site, founded in 2006 and now owned by Flipkart (Walmart), and it books flights, hotels, trains, buses, and rental cars, mainly across India. That said, it rates around 1.2 on Trustpilot, which reflects how a company treats its customers, with recurring complaints tied to refunds and support, so 'legit' does not mean problem-free. Pilot lets you book hotels too, at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and with real people on support you can reach in the app or by email. On top of booking, Pilot helps you plan your whole trip, which Cleartrip does not do.

Is Cleartrip free to use?

Cleartrip is free to browse and book on, but it earns by marking up prices, adding fees at checkout, and taking commissions, so the headline price is not always the best deal for you. Pilot is also free to use, and free to plan and book, because Pilot earns from hotels when you book rather than from user fees. With Pilot you get private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, no sponsored results, plus the full trip-planning suite at no charge.

How does Cleartrip make money?

Cleartrip earns commissions on every booking, marks up prices, and adds fees at checkout, which is why the price you see is not always the cheapest. Pilot earns from hotels when you book and does not sell placement, so results are ranked for you, not for whoever pays the most, and the planner stays free. The booking runs through Pilot, so we work with the hotel on your behalf and can sort out problems.

Can you book hotels on Cleartrip?

Yes. Cleartrip books hotels, and also flights, trains, buses, and rental cars, with strong coverage across India and instant confirmation. Pilot lets you book hotels too, over 3,000,000 of them, right in the app, at private rates straight from hotels rather than a marked-up public price,. The difference is that Pilot also helps you plan the whole trip around the stay and keeps the booking with the rest of your trip, while Cleartrip is built mainly to sell you a booking. Pilot does not book flights, trains, or cars, so if you need those, Cleartrip still has a role.

Is Cleartrip's customer service reliable?

Cleartrip rates around 1.2 on Trustpilot, with recurring complaints tied to refunds and support being hard to reach. With Pilot, you can always reach a real person on our team in the in-app chat or by email, not an outsourced call center, a ticket inbox no one answers, or a bot that loops you in circles. Because the booking runs through Pilot, we work with the hotel on your behalf if anything goes wrong, which is part of why reviewers single out support that steps in.

Is Cleartrip worth it?

If you need to book flights, trains, buses, or rental cars in one app across India, Cleartrip covers that, and it can book a hotel in under two minutes with extras like an Alexa skill and Apple Wallet passes. The trade-offs are marked-up prices, fees added at checkout, and a 1.2 Trustpilot record. For planning a trip and booking the stay, Pilot does more for free: a flexible day-by-day itinerary, a map of your whole trip, real-time group planning, and hotels booked at private rates straight from hotels with real support. Pilot lets you book hotels only, not flights or cars, so the two can be used together.

Cleartrip vs Pilot: which should I use?

Use Pilot to plan a trip and book the stay: private rates straight from hotels, real support, and your whole trip, the plans, the group, and the booking, in one place, for free. Pilot lets you book over 3,000,000 hotels in the app and plans everything around them, with no sponsored results. Use Cleartrip if you need to book flights, trains, buses, or rental cars in one app, especially across India, and you are willing to accept the markups, checkout fees, and 1.2 Trustpilot support record that tend to come with it. Many travelers use Cleartrip for transport and Pilot to plan the trip and book the hotel.