Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur • Hacker News Board

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#71

Post by jmarbach » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 4:05 AM UTC

hueving wrote: post #59

jmarbach wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I created Concorde. Concorde — Discover cheap flights to hundreds of destinations worldwide: https://concorde.io

You mention mileage runs, but is there an option to only receive email alerts about cheap airfare for a particular airline?

Currently the email notifications are triggered based on your home airport. If we post a deal from one of your home airports, we send you an email. However, as I continue to develop the site, I intend to offer more granular settings for receiving email notifications, similar to more granular settings for the Discovery results as well.

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#72

Post by UlyssesSKrunk » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 4:21 AM UTC

raldi wrote: post #8

kylecordes wrote: post #4

Hipmunk has been an excellent flight search tool, the best I have found as of a few years ago. Shockingly better than most of the rest of them back when it started, in terms of being able to understand and choose among numerous choices. Unfortunately, that was then and this is now. Several of the airlines have dropped out of participating in flight comparison sites, and those that do apparently pay staggeringly littl…

If you have a Bloomberg terminal, there's a function like this that's been around for decades. If I remember correctly (I haven't had access to one since 2007) it might have been FLTS or maybe just FLY . You plug in your cities and dates, and you get an 80x25 screen with the raw data in an easy-to-read (once you're used to it) tabular view. Of course, that only works if by "some dollars" you meant like $25,000/year.…

Is there any way to get access to that info without paying? It's okay if it's illegal, I don't mind.

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#73

Post by UlyssesSKrunk » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 4:22 AM UTC

neptunespear wrote: post #61

kylecordes wrote: post #4

Hipmunk has been an excellent flight search tool, the best I have found as of a few years ago. Shockingly better than most of the rest of them back when it started, in terms of being able to understand and choose among numerous choices. Unfortunately, that was then and this is now. Several of the airlines have dropped out of participating in flight comparison sites, and those that do apparently pay staggeringly littl…

> Several of the airlines have dropped out of participating in flight comparison sites, and those that do apparently pay staggeringly little per referral. This is greatly eroded the usefulness of Hipmunk and similar sites, and taken away the motivation for anyone to pressure airlines to participate. This sounds like something for the Justice Department to get involved in.

What the fuck are you talking about? How does that have anything to do with the justic department at all?

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#74

Post by benjaminRRR » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 4:29 AM UTC

alberth wrote: post #17

Anyone have insight into the sale price? Hipmunk raised $55M over 7 rounds [1] and had 51 employees [2]. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/hipmunk#/entity [2] https://www.hipmunk.com/about

My guess is that, given it has not been disclosed, the investors got as much of their money back as they could through liquidation preferences and there's not much to get excited about after that.

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#75

Post by dtparr » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 4:34 AM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #68

op00to wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who protects the consumer when weather or FAA traffic management makes you miss your connecting flight?

Obviously adequate connection time between flights is an important factor. Especially important if you're traveling with kids.

A 4 hour weather delay will blow away anything I might consider an adequate connection time under normal conditions, so the question seems quite important.

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#76

Post by raldi » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 4:43 AM UTC

UlyssesSKrunk wrote: post #72

raldi wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a Bloomberg terminal, there's a function like this that's been around for decades. If I remember correctly (I haven't had access to one since 2007) it might have been FLTS or maybe just FLY . You plug in your cities and dates, and you get an 80x25 screen with the raw data in an easy-to-read (once you're used to it) tabular view. Of course, that only works if by "some dollars" you meant like $25,000/year.…

Is there any way to get access to that info without paying? It's okay if it's illegal, I don't mind.

Sure, absolutely. Just get a job at Bloomberg or any of its clients.

Alternately, visit your local university business school library.

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#77

Post by chrismcb » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 5:52 AM UTC

neptunespear wrote: post #61

kylecordes wrote: post #4

Hipmunk has been an excellent flight search tool, the best I have found as of a few years ago. Shockingly better than most of the rest of them back when it started, in terms of being able to understand and choose among numerous choices. Unfortunately, that was then and this is now. Several of the airlines have dropped out of participating in flight comparison sites, and those that do apparently pay staggeringly littl…

> Several of the airlines have dropped out of participating in flight comparison sites, and those that do apparently pay staggeringly little per referral. This is greatly eroded the usefulness of Hipmunk and similar sites, and taken away the motivation for anyone to pressure airlines to participate. This sounds like something for the Justice Department to get involved in.

Why? Why do You think the justice department needs to get involved? This is a place where capital am actually works. If people only use aggregators then airlines not listed won't get much business. I actually check swa because swa us the online airline that doesn't charge bag fees. So I go out of my way to give them business when I can.

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#78

Post by gregmac » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 6:34 AM UTC

kylecordes wrote: post #4

Hipmunk has been an excellent flight search tool, the best I have found as of a few years ago. Shockingly better than most of the rest of them back when it started, in terms of being able to understand and choose among numerous choices. Unfortunately, that was then and this is now. Several of the airlines have dropped out of participating in flight comparison sites, and those that do apparently pay staggeringly littl…

I too was a huge fan of Hipmunk, but have found that it's frustratingly difficult (anywhere) to get an "all-in" price, and last time I used Hipmunk I was really wishing they'd do it.

It's a difficult problem, for sure, but I'd like to be able to specify, for example, 1 checked bag, minimum 33" legroom, and then have the prices include checked baggage and any seat upgrade costs (if necessary, based on the airline's plane configuration).

The 'sort by agony' thing is great, but after getting stuck in a tiny seat sometime last year, I now pay close attention to seat size/pitch (I'm 6'0", my knees were on the back of the seat in front of me if I sat as far back in my seat as I could). I would have definitely loved to have Hipmunk rank 'agony' high on that one.

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#79

Post by joshwa » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 6:49 AM UTC

joelrunyon wrote: post #7

rebelidealist wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the best flight search these days?

Google flights or matrix.itasoftware.com (you can't book here though)

I use this userscript to book directly from ITA matrix:

https://github.com/SteppoFF/ita-matrix-powertools

Re: Hipmunk (YC S10) Acquired by Concur

#80

Post by cousin_it » Wed, Sep 14, 2016, 7:09 AM UTC

raldi wrote: post #55

function_seven wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding this to my private list of reasons whenever someone scoffs at "paying $25k a year for a pair of LCDs and a cheap keyboard". Thanks.

Yeah you can be on the phone with the company travel department telling you the United flight at 10:13 doesn't fly between Dulles and New York on Tuesdays, and quickly type FLY IAD NYC and you'll see a line like 12. UA 456 10:13 IAD 11:35 LGA vvvv vv (Where the v's are checkmarks in day-of-week columns; so you know it flies every day but Thurs) Then you type 12 and get all the details. It all happened as fast as you…

You can get the same info by typing "flight schedule iad nyc" into Google. It gives you a box that shows all flight numbers, takeoff and landing times, airport codes, and which days of the week they fly. (You might need to disable adblock though.)