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

What is MakeMyTrip?

MakeMyTrip is an Indian online travel agency. People use it to book flights, trains, 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 MakeMyTrip 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 MakeMyTrip legit?

Yes, MakeMyTrip is a real, established company. It is India's largest online travel agency, listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker MMYT, and it books flights, hotels, trains, buses, and holiday packages. Being legitimate is not the same as being the cheapest or the smoothest, though: as an online travel agency, MakeMyTrip marks up prices, can add fees at checkout, and sells sponsored placement, and on Trustpilot it sits around 1.2 with recurring complaints about refunds and cancellations. Pilot lets you book hotels too, at private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and with real people on support. For planning a trip and booking the stay, Pilot does more, for free.

Is MakeMyTrip free to use?

MakeMyTrip is free to browse and book on, the same as most online travel agencies: it does not charge a membership fee, it earns from the bookings themselves. The catch is in the price you pay, not a subscription. As an agency it marks up rates, can add service or convenience fees at checkout, and sells sponsored placement, so the top result is not always the best deal for you. Pilot is also completely free, with no paywall on planning, and it lets you book hotels at private rates straight from hotels with no sponsored results, so you are not paying for the top slot to be sold to someone else.

How does MakeMyTrip make money?

MakeMyTrip earns the way online travel agencies do: commissions and margin on every flight, hotel, train, bus, and package it sells, fees added at checkout (service, convenience, and the like), and sponsored placement from properties and airlines that want to rank higher. That is why the first result 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 whole trip-planning suite stays free.

Can you book hotels on MakeMyTrip?

Yes. Hotels are one of MakeMyTrip's core products, alongside flights, trains, buses, and packages, and it confirms bookings in-app. Pilot lets you book hotels too, over 3,000,000 of them, at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, pushed during checkout. The difference is that MakeMyTrip is built mainly to sell you the booking, while Pilot lets you reserve the stay instantly with its hotel partners and helps you plan the whole trip around it: a flexible day-by-day itinerary, a map of your pinned places, notes, and real-time collaboration with your group. Where MakeMyTrip wins is breadth, it also books flights, trains, buses, and packages, which Pilot does not.

Is MakeMyTrip good for booking flights and trains?

MakeMyTrip does cover flights, trains, buses, and holiday packages in one app, especially for travel within India, which Pilot does not. Pilot is honest about its lane: Pilot lets you book hotels in-app at private rates and helps you find flights (flight search links out via Skyscanner), but it does not book flights, trains, or buses itself. So if your trip is mostly about ground and air transport on one invoice, MakeMyTrip has the inventory. If it is about booking the right hotel and planning the whole trip around it, Pilot does that better, at private rates, and for free.

Is Pilot a good MakeMyTrip alternative?

For the hotel-and-planning side of a trip, yes. Pilot lets you book hotels like MakeMyTrip does, but at private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, with no sponsored results, and with real people on support instead of an outsourced center or a bot. On top of booking, Pilot helps you plan your whole trip: a flexible day-by-day itinerary, a map, notes, and real-time collaboration with your group, which MakeMyTrip does not do. The honest caveat: MakeMyTrip also books flights, trains, buses, and packages and has far broader inventory, especially in India, so for multi-mode transport on one invoice it still has a role. For planning a trip and booking the stay, Pilot does more, for free.

MakeMyTrip vs Pilot: which should I use?

Use Pilot to plan a trip and book the stay: private rates straight from hotels, real human support, and your whole trip, the plans, the group, and the booking, in one place, for free. Use MakeMyTrip if you need to book flights, trains, buses, or a packaged tour, especially within India, on a single invoice, and you are willing to accept the markups, the fees added at checkout, and the refund and support complaints that tend to come with a large online travel agency.