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

What is Omio?

Omio is a European train, bus, and flight booking app. People use it to book trains, buses, and flights across Europe. It books transport tickets rather than hotels, and it does not plan the wider trip.

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, notes, and your group, and you book your hotel in the app at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents. Where Omio books the transport, Pilot books your hotels and plans the whole trip around the legs you book.

Is Pilot a good Omio alternative?

It depends on what you need. Omio is a booking app for European trains, buses, and flights, so if all you want is a single transport ticket, that is what Omio does. Pilot is for planning the whole trip and booking the stays: it lets you book over 3,000,000 hotels at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and it helps you plan the whole multi-stop trip around them. You can drop the trains, buses, and flights you booked on Omio straight into a Pilot itinerary, see every stop on a map, keep your notes and files in one place, and plan it together with your group, none of which Omio does. The honest caveat is that Pilot lets you book hotels, not transport, so the two can work side by side: book your tickets on Omio, then plan and book the stays in Pilot.

Is Omio legit and safe to use?

Omio is a booking platform for European trains, buses, and flights, founded in 2013, and it sells real tickets, with mobile QR tickets and support for Apple Wallet, Alipay, and WeChat Pay. It rates around 4.9 on the App Store and 4.8 on Google Play, and around 4.1 on Trustpilot. It is a transport ticketing service, though, not a trip planner or a hotel booker. Pilot lets you book your hotels at private rates and helps you plan the whole trip around the transport you book, with real people on our team you can reach in the in-app chat or by email.

Is Omio free?

Omio is free to use as a search and booking app, and it earns by marking up fares and adding service fees at checkout, so the headline price can be higher than booking the carrier directly. Pilot is completely free too, with no paywall on the basics, because people can book hotels through Pilot, so we earn from hotels rather than charging you to plan. With Pilot you get private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, no sponsored results.

How does Omio make money?

Omio earns by adding a margin to the train, bus, and flight fares it sells and by charging service fees at checkout, on top of commercial deals with carriers. That is a normal model for a transport booking platform, but it means the price you pay is usually above the carrier's own. Pilot earns from hotels when you book a stay, not from marking up what you plan, so the planner stays free, results are ranked for you rather than for whoever pays the most.

Can you book hotels on Omio?

No. Omio books European trains, buses, and flights, not hotels. That is the main reason to pair it with Pilot: Pilot lets you book over 3,000,000 hotels right in the app, at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, and keeps the booking with the rest of your trip. So you can buy your transport on Omio and book your stays, plan the multi-stop itinerary, and bring your group together in Pilot, for free.

Does Omio plan your trip for you?

Not really. Omio is built to sell you a transport ticket between two points, so it does not lay out a multi-stop itinerary, put your trip on a map, or let your group plan together. Pilot does all of that: a flexible itinerary across several stops or cities, a map of every place, notes and checklists alongside the plan, real-time collaborative editing for your group, and your hotel bookings in the same place. You can also add the trains, buses, and flights you booked on Omio into the Pilot itinerary so the whole trip lives in one place.

Pilot vs Omio: which should I use?

Use Omio to buy a European train, bus, or flight ticket. Use Pilot to plan the whole trip and book the stays: private rates straight from hotels, your whole multi-stop itinerary on a map, your group in one shared trip, and your plans, notes, and bookings in one place, for free. They are not really either-or: Omio handles the transport ticket, and Pilot handles the stays and the planning around it. If you are choosing one tool to organize the trip and book where you sleep, that is Pilot.