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Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

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Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#111

Post by munchman »

jwong_ wrote: post #95
breakingcups wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an incredible response, have you not read it yourself? "Our subscribers are too important to us to ever sell their information to someone else. We never have and never will sell users information like that. Our only source of income is subscriptions and occasional advertisements in the free emails. Ruining our reputation to make a few extra bucks would be an extremely stupid decision on our end." Is at complete…

Thanks for putting my feelings into words. And their partners are extremely spammy at best. They're all trying to force engagement and word of mouth. Here's an excerpt from one of the intro e-mails I got: > Welcome to the #SkimmLife! Here's how it's going to work: > We'll meet you back here, in your inbox, bright and early tomorrow morning (PS If it's Friday or a weekend, > you'll get theSkimm on Monday). We're a com…

barf

Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#112

Post by jmarbach »

dabernathy89 wrote: post #101
jmarbach wrote: post #72

Disclosure: I built a competing tool for finding cheap flights, https://concorde.io . I think the secret of Scott's success is his incredible writing ability. Finding the cheap flights is the easy part. Communicating with users in a way that consistently wins over their hearts and minds takes a high level of consideration and creativity. This writing ability combined with his co-founder's understanding and applicatio…

FYI: I am trying to update my user settings (for my airport preferences) but it won't let me without re-entering my CC information.

Thank you for mentioning this. I'm sorry for the unnecessary repetitive credit card input. My plan is to separate the editing of payment and location preference to their own pages in the future.

Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#113

Post by jmarbach »

flanbiscuit wrote: post #92
jmarbach wrote: post #72

Disclosure: I built a competing tool for finding cheap flights, https://concorde.io . I think the secret of Scott's success is his incredible writing ability. Finding the cheap flights is the easy part. Communicating with users in a way that consistently wins over their hearts and minds takes a high level of consideration and creativity. This writing ability combined with his co-founder's understanding and applicatio…

I replied to one of his emails and we had a nice back and forth even laughing at a pic response I sent him. He seems like a good person and I signed up for his premium service. I was already very interested in his premium svc but that interaction really sealed the deal for me.

Thank you :)

Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#114

Post by Fezzik »

sv123 wrote: post #31
triangleman wrote: post #30

So, Scott originally accumulated all those miles working for ThinkProgress? How does that work? You buy the flights and expense them back to the company, pocketing the miles?

Yes, that is how it works at most companies AFAIK.

Most companies I have worked for/heard about have the option of 1) using a company card with the company keeping the perks, 2) using your own card and getting reimbursed or, less often, 3) using a company card that is in our name, paid by the company, with all perks going to you. I've seen 3 most often with Diner's Club cards that cover only meals and 2 most often with travel, if you opt for it. I have seen a surprising number of people who do not want to deal with another bill though, and opt for 1, leaving all the perks with the company. I never understood that, but I enjoy any perks I can get.

Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#115

Post by joelrunyon »

jwong_ wrote: post #78

One thing I'd like to vent about is that Scott seems to be making a lot of money selling e-mail addresses. I signed up for a couple different contests using unique e-mail addresses generated specifically for the contest (Yes, they were separate e-mails for separate contests; No, I did not double-dip my entrees). I was then signed up for 2-3 e-mail lists for 3rd party companies over the course of a couple weeks. These…

This isn't really "selling" email addresses. It seems much more like it's a lead gen strategy that multiple companies are participating.

Providing an incentive to sign up isn't quite the same as sending all those subscribers to the giveaway that didn't opt-in to it?

Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#117

Post by downandout »

chrisballinger wrote: post #64

Something I've noticed that's lacking from most aggregators like Kayak and SkyScanner (my current fave), is the ability to increase the price of the ultra-budget carriers by adding their carry-on baggage fees and whatnot. I don't care about checked bag fees, but some of the carry-on fees are ridiculous ($60 per overhead item?). These budget carriers are cheating the system by looking like the cheapest option, when in…

Add-on fees have gotten out of control, both in the hotel and airline space. There is a race to the bottom for having the lowest price to show on booking sites. This is a form of SEO for airlines and hotels.

I am not familiar with any airlines that charge for carry-ons, but for example I know that many hotels in downtown Las Vegas have mandatory "resort fees" that on many nights actually exceed the nightly rate shown in booking engine search results - so the actual cost of staying is more than double the advertised rate. Most booking sites have heard so many complaints about this that they do show the total (including resort fees) just prior to booking. But the "headline rate" - the one shown in search results and used by the sites in arranging results by price - is the one sans resort fees.

Taken to an extreme level, hotels could advertise a $1 nightly rate and a $200/nt "resort fee". It wouldn't surprise me if this actually started happening, given the competition among hotels to show up first in search results. It sounds like some budget airlines are headed in a similar direction.

Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#118

Post by chriskingnet »

I'm not a fan of the fact that on their website the testimonials are the same (with the currency changed) no matter what location I choose.

The destinations in the locations are of course also the same, so it just kinda seems like they are trying to trick me. Kind of reinforcing the feeling I generally get from this kind of business. If they have that many happy users, they could at least get real testimonials from each place.

Re: Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business

#120

Post by jjallen »

jakub_g wrote: post #83
chrisballinger wrote: post #64

Something I've noticed that's lacking from most aggregators like Kayak and SkyScanner (my current fave), is the ability to increase the price of the ultra-budget carriers by adding their carry-on baggage fees and whatnot. I don't care about checked bag fees, but some of the carry-on fees are ridiculous ($60 per overhead item?). These budget carriers are cheating the system by looking like the cheapest option, when in…

Out of curiosity, which airlines charge $60 for cabin bag? The most passenger-squeezing-until-recently airline in Europe (Ryanair) now allows two cabin bags for free (one standard ~55cm bag and one small bag). Apparently Wizzair charges 10-20€ for "large" (aka regular) cabin bag though, only small ~42 cm bag is allowed for free.

Wow does too. They actually make sure it's not too big sometimes as well. That said Wow can be 4-5x cheaper otherwise, so an extra ~$50 bucks for a carry on is still worth it. No entertainment and wifi but you'll sure get there cheaply!
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