I might be missing something, but why an extension instead of a website?
Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
71–78 of 78 posts
Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
#72I'm all about this! I used to be a Hipmunk power user and still can't find that level of visibility or service anywhere else. This is going to be AWESOME!
Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The short answer is because certain airlines behave in ways I can best describe as 'scummy'. Some airlines are now demanding anti-consumer provisions when they do deals with travel sites, such as insisting that sites hide cheaper flights, hide multi-airline itineraries, and hide certain booking options. We think this compromises the user experience heavily and erodes trust - you don't know if you're getting the best…
If the travel sites hide the cheapest flights to users, then where does your extension 'scrape' its data from. Is this more like a crowd-sourced data gathering, where every extension user gathers data for you?
They don't hide the cheapest flights to direct users. They hide them from aggregators (like Kayak).
Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
#74Why did SAP shut down Hipmunk?
Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
#75Is there a roadmap? It would be nice to check multiple dates or have flexible dates. Good luck with your interesting project!
Thanks. Our roadmap isn't currently public, but this is on it. That being said, this is a medium-term priority, so definitely not something coming in the next couple weeks.
Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re: airports. You can select any airport or the city - which should grab them all (e.g. City of London (LON), London Heathrow (LHR), etc.). Re: Noscript. I haven't tested with noscript, but have with most major adblockers. We do use the chrome extension API to open windows in the background to collect flight data and eventually to redirect you to for booking. I'll get it installed and see if I can replicate it. Might…
> You can select any airport or the city - which should grab them all Not everyone lives equidistant to all airports. Heathrow and Gatwick are close to me; Luton, Stansted and City are not. I'd want to see options for both of the former. Loved HipMunk, so glad you are back (why was it killed off to begin with?), but don't understand why it's a browser extension. Edit: seems you can only select one airport in any case…
Okay, I see the issue, it describes London as "City of London", which is not the same thing. That's a bug. (The City of London is a square mile near the centre of London [0].)
It's also frustrating not being able to see the departure/arrival airports at a glance so that I can ignore the airports that are not close to me (given that you can't be selective about which airports to include). It shows connecting airports, so why not departure and arrival?
For Paris to Tenerife, for which there's (surprisingly) no direct flight, it's missing Easyjet via London. For options with one connection, some list the two airlines by name, others say "multiple airlines", when there are only two, so you have to invoke the tooltip to discover them.
I don't appear to be able to select a currency to display prices in.
It seems there's still some work to do on UI/UX, so the announcement here might have been a bit premature! Hope you have better luck with this than HipMunk, but for now it's not especially useful.
Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
#77Earlier 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.
The extension is pretty good, they're free to sell my PII in exchange for its use.
Re: Show HN: Flight Penguin – Like Hipmunk, but a browser extension
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You can select any airport or the city - which should grab them all Not everyone lives equidistant to all airports. Heathrow and Gatwick are close to me; Luton, Stansted and City are not. I'd want to see options for both of the former. Loved HipMunk, so glad you are back (why was it killed off to begin with?), but don't understand why it's a browser extension. Edit: seems you can only select one airport in any case…
Okay, I see the issue, it describes London as "City of London", which is not the same thing. That's a bug. (The City of London is a square mile near the centre of London [0].) It's also frustrating not being able to see the departure/arrival airports at a glance so that I can ignore the airports that are not close to me (given that you can't be selective about which airports to include). It shows connecting airports,…
Our latest release should have more clear language on airports and 'All London Area Airports' as opposed to 'City of London Airports'. The point about multiple airlines should also be addressed.
Your point about at a glance determination of the departure/arrival airport is really good. I expect to have a UX enhancement for that next week. Currency and manually selecting multiple airports are still a fair ways off.