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

What is Ixigo?

Ixigo is an Indian travel booking app, strongest on trains. People use it to book trains, flights, buses, 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 Ixigo 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 Ixigo a good app, and is it a good Pilot alternative?

Ixigo is a real, working travel app: it books hotels, flights, trains, and buses, mostly for travel in India, and it has a voice-and-text AI assistant called TARA, Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes, and boarding passes over WhatsApp. As a Pilot alternative for booking a hotel and planning a trip, though, Pilot does more. Pilot lets you book hotels at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and with real people on support instead of only a bot or a voice assistant. On top of booking, Pilot helps you plan your whole trip: a flexible day-by-day itinerary, a map of every pinned place, notes and checklists, and real-time collaboration with your group, none of which Ixigo does. The honest caveat is that Ixigo books trains, buses, flights, and rental cars, which Pilot does not, so for those it still has a role.

Is Ixigo legit and safe to use?

Ixigo is a legitimate, publicly listed travel company that has been around since 2007 and books hotels, flights, trains, and buses. That said, it rates around 3.3 on Trustpilot, where reviews reflect how a company treats its customers, with recurring complaints about refunds and fees added at checkout. Pilot is rated 4.7 by 50,000+ travelers, lets you reserve your hotel instantly with its hotel partners, and we work with the hotel on your behalf, with a real person confirming each booking if anything comes up, and lets you always reach a real person on our team in the in-app chat or by email.

Is Ixigo free, and how does Ixigo make money?

Ixigo is free to download and use; you pay only for what you book. It makes money by earning a margin and commissions on the bookings it sells, hotels, flights, trains, buses, and rental cars, plus add-ons like travel insurance, and by selling sponsored placement to partners who want to rank higher, so the top result is not always the best deal for you. Pilot is also free to use, and it earns from hotels when you book, not from selling your attention, so it doesn't run sponsored results, and the whole planner stays free. Where Ixigo is built mainly to sell you a booking, Pilot helps you plan the trip and books the stay at a private rate straight from the hotel.

Can you book hotels in Ixigo?

Yes. Ixigo books hotels in the app, alongside flights, trains, and buses. Pilot lets you book hotels too, over 3,000,000 of them, right in the app, but at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and the booking lives with the rest of your trip. The difference is that Pilot also helps you plan the whole trip around the stay and reserves your room instantly with its hotel partners and works with the hotel on your behalf, with a real person confirming each booking if anything comes up, while Ixigo is built mainly to sell the booking and move you along.

Does Ixigo add fees at checkout?

Ixigo is widely reported to add fees and add-ons at checkout, like convenience fees, insurance, or service charges that were not obvious when you started, and refunds can be slow. Pilot lets you book your stay at a private rate straight from the hotel, with no sponsored results, and you can reach a real person on our team if anything goes wrong with the booking.

Does Ixigo plan your trip, or just book it?

Ixigo is built to sell you a booking, a hotel, a flight, a train, or a bus, and it has an AI assistant that can suggest options. It does not build you a trip you can shape and share. Pilot does: a flexible day-by-day itinerary you can drag and drop, a map with custom pins, notes and checklists, and real-time collaboration so your whole group plans in one shared trip. Then you book the hotel inside the same trip, at a private rate, so the plan and the booking live together instead of scattered across tabs and confirmation emails.

Pilot vs Ixigo: which should I use?

Use Pilot to plan a trip and book the stay: private rates straight from hotels, results ranked for you rather than for advertisers, real support, and your whole trip, the plans, the group, and the booking, in one place, for free. Use Ixigo if you mainly book trains, buses, and flights inside India and don't need a trip planned in one place, and are willing to accept the fees added at checkout and the slower refunds that tend to come with it.