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Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension

flightpenguin.com

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Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension

#41

Post by ajoseps »

maxmorlocke wrote: post #38
ajoseps wrote: post #36

I'm confused as to how to actually book a flight through this. I selected NYC->SFO and found some flights I'm interested in. When I click through, I get redirected to another site e.g. trip.com. I try searching for the flight in question on the actual airline's page and nothing comes up for it. I'm guessing I'm misunderstanding how flights are booked on planes. Does trip.com act as a wholesaler or something of that s…

We don't handle the booking, we redirect you to the travel site that we found the best price on. Many online travel search agencies and metasearch sites can put together itineraries the airlines don't offer directly.

just out of curiosity, why don't they offer these directly?

Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension

#42

Post by raylad »

maxmorlocke wrote: post #33
captn3m0 wrote: post #17

Why does the extension need a Google login? I deleted the login div from the HTML, and the extension works fine without the login.

There are a few reasons: 1.) When a user reports an issue to us, it is much easier to find any issues in our error reporting stack. if we have their name and email address attached to the issue as opposed to asking them for all the search terms, time of issue, etc. and then hunting through to see if we've already found (and hopefully fixed) the issue. This practice started when we were a paid subscription, and I've f…

Requiring login and claiming not to sell PII look contradictory though, and will prevent some people (me for instance) from using your service.

Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension

#46

Post by vosper »

raylad wrote: post #42
maxmorlocke wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few reasons: 1.) When a user reports an issue to us, it is much easier to find any issues in our error reporting stack. if we have their name and email address attached to the issue as opposed to asking them for all the search terms, time of issue, etc. and then hunting through to see if we've already found (and hopefully fixed) the issue. This practice started when we were a paid subscription, and I've f…

Requiring login and claiming not to sell PII look contradictory though, and will prevent some people (me for instance) from using your service.

Why does it look contradictory? Are you saying you just don't trust anyone who collects PII not to sell it, even if they've said they won't?

Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension

#47

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

maxmorlocke wrote: post #33
captn3m0 wrote: post #17

Why does the extension need a Google login? I deleted the login div from the HTML, and the extension works fine without the login.

There are a few reasons: 1.) When a user reports an issue to us, it is much easier to find any issues in our error reporting stack. if we have their name and email address attached to the issue as opposed to asking them for all the search terms, time of issue, etc. and then hunting through to see if we've already found (and hopefully fixed) the issue. This practice started when we were a paid subscription, and I've f…

Wouldn't session-based rate limiting realistically accomplish the same goal for (2) ?

Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension

#48

Post by adav »

The real "agony" I find when flying is the faff of getting to or from the airport at weird times of day. From the airport onwards it's usually a pretty relaxed affair whatever the time of flight. Wish I had one button/dial to balance price against that faff!

Maybe it's just a London/big city thing?

Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension

#50

Post by maxmorlocke »

adav wrote: post #48

The real "agony" I find when flying is the faff of getting to or from the airport at weird times of day. From the airport onwards it's usually a pretty relaxed affair whatever the time of flight. Wish I had one button/dial to balance price against that faff! Maybe it's just a London/big city thing?

I don't think this is a big city thing. I live in a medium sized city in the states and I hate going to the airport. 20-30m commute there, parking, walk, wait in line, go through the scanner, inevitable pat downs, cinch back up the belt, etc. Not what I look forward to. On our long term feature list is adding commute time and time to get through the airport to the timeline view as an optional setting, as well as potentially factoring that into our pain algorithm. This is really handy when you're flying to/from a big city like London or NYC, where airport choice my matter at a particular day/time. A similar long term add is factoring in having to go through customs on a layover. This is another awful part of the flight experience we can track and influence decision making through.
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