Where can I fly for how much? • Hacker News Board

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#21

Post by hugh3 » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:04 PM UTC

travisp wrote: post #13

This is great and I've been looking for something like this for a long time. The only thing it needs now is to allow you to better refine the time period (e.g. only weekend trips, or only two weeks in October, etc). As it is now, it's great for people with a month or more off of vacation, but doesn't quite do it for the rest of us yet.

Well, it gives a rough order of magnitude, and might encourage people to consider destinations that they would have thought were too expensive. As in "Gee, I was going to go to Salt Lake City, but it turns out I can get to Lima for the same price..."

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#22

Post by qeorge » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:06 PM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #4

OMG, I've been waiting for someone to build something like this forever. I've always hated the fact that all major travel sites work based on the assumption that you already know exactly when and where you're going, rather than at least giving you the option to explore your options.

Me too! www.voyij.com is the closest I've seen. Really glad one of the bigger sites started doing this too.

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#23

Post by thrdOriginal » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:06 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #8

mcav wrote: post #5

Cool. Couple thoughts: - Are prices one-way or round trip? It's not obvious to me. - I tried to type a zip code at first, before realizing that it would only work with the City name.

Based on what the prices look like I'm fairly sure it'd have to be return (or else it's doing a lousy job of finding the best available fares).

Yup, they don't do a very good job of making it obvious, but clicking on "check latest air fare" confirms these are round-trip prices (other than that, this is really cool).

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#24

Post by borism » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:06 PM UTC

bryanh wrote: post #2

Wow, talk about impressive. Just curious about the tech behind this. Do they just cache a bunch of average prices together between major airports and just set a max limit? Surely it can't do fully comprehensive search at the speed it runs at.

judging from other Kayak tools I've seen they cache searches by actual users.

plus they might have robots crawling popular searches at different dates.

so it benefits to be around very large hubs like NYC, but if you're out in the country you may not be so lucky.

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#25

Post by nooneelse » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:07 PM UTC

For more visual intuitiveness, perhaps some isolines or a 3d, height based on price kind of thing? Probably just flashiness for no end though. But, using different colors for the labels along the price axis probably wouldn't be.

Seems to be &-ing the checkboxes, which is a bit odd for the languages.

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#26

Post by hugh3 » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:08 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #19

It's a neat tool (if you're in the UK check out the similar "I'll fly anywhere" option at http://flightchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/ ) but the problem with it is that for most people the cost of the flight is going to be less than the cost of the hotel. So if you're after a cheap holiday it's much more important to fly somewhere where you can get a cheap hotel than to get a cheap flight. Hopefully they'll add hotels…

If you're travelling in a pair, and you're staying for a reasonable length of time (say, a week) then the hotel cost shouldn't dominate. 7 nights * $100 a night / 2 people is only $350 -- less than the airfare to most places.

Besides, saving money on a hotel is mostly a matter of deciding how awful a place you're willing to put up with. You don't get that option with airfares.

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#27

Post by orblivion » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:10 PM UTC

nooneelse wrote: post #25

For more visual intuitiveness, perhaps some isolines or a 3d, height based on price kind of thing? Probably just flashiness for no end though. But, using different colors for the labels along the price axis probably wouldn't be. Seems to be &-ing the checkboxes, which is a bit odd for the languages.

Isolines I'm not sure, the market does weird things with pricing, something further away may end up being cheaper.

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#28

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:14 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#29

Post by noodle » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:15 PM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #4

OMG, I've been waiting for someone to build something like this forever. I've always hated the fact that all major travel sites work based on the assumption that you already know exactly when and where you're going, rather than at least giving you the option to explore your options.

so, i built something almost exactly like this for myself to use, except it doesn't display itself on a google map. instead, it cross-references itself with a database of people.

i use it when i'm hiring sports officials, to find the ones that would be the cheapest to fly in. never really considered how useful it would be for others.

i feel dumb as hell, looking at this and seeing what i could've done :*-(

Re: Where can I fly for how much?

#30

Post by madmaze » Thu, Jun 10, 2010, 9:17 PM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #4

OMG, I've been waiting for someone to build something like this forever. I've always hated the fact that all major travel sites work based on the assumption that you already know exactly when and where you're going, rather than at least giving you the option to explore your options.

Yea but dont rely on the data that is displayed, i just checked out 5 flights and the flights listed there were not even close to what i found on the website itself.

But otherwise definitely damn cool