Shortcut to escaping
EscEscape is a free-to-install extension for Google Chrome users. When a user taps their keyboard ‘Esc’ key twice, a live flight search runs to find the cheapest, quickest and smartest return flights to nearby destinations. Results are pulled from Cheapflights’ own search engine API and the users’ nearest airport is detected as their departure airport. The flight results open in a new browser tab and will be the cheapest option for a weekend break in the next eight weeks. The user is then free to go ahead and book if they like the look of what they see – if not, another ‘double tap’ of the Esc key throws up a new option.
“We want people to rediscover their ‘Esc’ key, and make it their shortcut to escaping for real - double tap quick,” comments Andrew Shelton, Cheapflights’ managing director.
Initially, a choice of five destinations will be featured each day, selected at random from the top 200 searched-for holiday hot spots on the Cheapflights website and app, per market. For the UK, US, Canada, and South Africa, only flights within a five-hour flight time are selected. For flights departing from Australia and New Zealand, flights within an eight-hour flight time are selected, giving people popular getaway destinations such as Fiji.
Shelton continues, “We can spend hours every day tapping away at a keyboard, dealing with dozens of unread emails, thinking it's Thursday when it’s only Tuesday. According to our research, that’s enough to drive over half of us to search for flights when we’re at work. “With EscEscape, we’ve made that much easier to do. We want this neglected keyboard function to become the biggest and most important key people tap each day.”
The extension is available for free from today from the Chrome Web Store. A version of the extension for Safari users is planned shortly.
