Scott's Cheap Flights: Growing a small side project into a booming business • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by gommm » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 1:20 AM UTC

Naritai wrote: post #80

bkidwell wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have plenty of copycats out there (one of the downsides of us trying to share our learnings online haha). I'd just look at when the domains were purchased if you want to know who was first ;) Also, we send deals from almost every continent (launching Africa by the end of the year).

Still looking forward to you having dedicated emails for international business class tickets. I know the tickets won't be cheap that the total cash savings on cheap seats can be significant. Here's hoping!

Same here. For long trips > 6 hours, I usually avoid economy seats.

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

#202

Post by gommm » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 1:25 AM UTC

mherdeg wrote: post #79

lavezzi wrote: post #73

Still don't see the appeal. I get better and quicker results from theflightdeal.com and flyertalk.

As far as I can tell Theflightdeal is basically the same service -- a small army of people searches for fares (HOPEFULLY WITH SOME AUTOMATION!), checks whether there are any results whose price is very low relative to historical prices they have logged for that route, and publishes a blog post if the price is very low. They have little blurbs about each destination prewritten so it's very easy to make the blog post o…

Any recommended services for premium-cabin travel? Email is in my profile. Thanks!

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

#203

Post by joelrunyon » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 1:30 AM UTC

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…

Posting this from below because you're making sound as if they're selling emails, when the terms of the giveaway are stated quite clearly.

>Here's a version that's hosted on ProductHunt - https://giveaway.producthunt.com/landing?promo_id=83848bb5-f... > By entering this campaign I agree and consent to recieve emails, communications and promotions from Product Hunt Inc., theSkimm (a daily email newsletter to stay in the know), Scott's Cheap Flights, Journy, The Wirecutter and Conde Nast Traveler.

>You can hate the promotion, but you're certainly not required to join it. And, it's certainly not the same thing as Scott selling addresses of people already on his mailing list.

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

#204

Post by dewey » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 1:38 AM UTC

joering2 wrote: post #58

If you receive Scott's emails for longer than one week, you will quickly have the answer to your question "why not to scrap". I think enough people turn to premium member exactly because a personal touch of Scott and his team. You have this feeling this is not simple aggregate -- I always enjoy reading Scott little tips "when you buy ticket to certain city, don't forget to visit specific point of interest". I end up…

This is in the article, search for Business Insider.

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

#205

Post by BryanBryce » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 1:50 AM UTC

The system is down

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

#206

Post by concede_pluto » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 1:54 AM UTC

bkidwell wrote: post #94

jwong_ wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you've looked at what gets sent out, but the e-mails sent for the Giveaways are extremely spammy. I get that you probably added it somewhere in the giveaway text, but from a post somewhere, it was indicated the giveaways were more to garner attention, not as a profit-making venture. It turned me off completely when I started getting those. It gave me a negative impression on both Scott's Cheap Flights…

Yeah I hear you. I really appreciate the feedback as well. We only try to partner with high quality companies. For example this Tokyo one were running right now is with journy, ProductHunt, theSkimm, The Wirecutter, and Conde Nast Traveler. All legitimate companies. It's unfortunate that their emails are seen as spam because that's not good for anyone. We'll keep this in mind moving forward. Thank you again :-)

If I want you to email me, I will give you my address. If I haven't done that, there's no legitimate reason to pay a third party for it. 100% of your partners are spammers.

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

#207

Post by Xt-6 » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 2:03 AM UTC

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…

Hipmunk can do that.

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

#208

Post by maksimum » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 2:24 AM UTC

arjunrc wrote: post #77

throwahey wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate to piggyback but I noticed that whenever this service gets posted on Reddit there are dozens of accounts that reply addressing Scott by name and have little to say. Upon checking their comment history, I saw that most users hadn't posted anything for months, or even ever. It was clear that there was some kind of voting manipulation going on, and as reddit goes, if something gains traction it's bound to get upvot…

Can you post some of these reddit links? I'd imagine several small businesses these days would opt for the "vote manipulation" marketing since its easy. (The Silicon Valley TV show had a similar plot point).

I'll do you one better, "Reddit For Sale", investigatie journalism in a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxNvUWN3vYk

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

#209

Post by jmarbach » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 2:55 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #172

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…

Suggestion for your site. I'd change the front page header text that says: "Discover cheap flights with Concorde." It's not the text I disagree with it, it's how you're using it. You've made it so that you have to mouse over that text to make it react (segments change color) and figure out that each section may be clickable (how do I know where they go, if I'm an average user and don't necessarily know to look at the…

First I just want to say thank you for your blunt feedback on the sign up flow that I've implemented. Feedback like this is what helps me truly think critically about my assumptions and divert towards more logic-driven choices.

My hesitation for not implementing traditional "sign up" language in the sign up flow is most likely due to my over-emphasis on the personality of the product at the expense of usability. On the flip side, I hope that for at least some set of users they feel as if the product is leading them on a fun adventure.

That said, I like your suggestions. The path to a sign up would be abundantly clear. I'll have to experiment with more traditional language and examine the results.

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

#210

Post by sokoloff » Sat, Jul 01, 2017, 2:56 AM UTC

izacus wrote: post #177

yellow_postit wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most fliers want the lowest price, full stop. They'll complain about it to no end but will still keep voting for it with their wallets. Must be an interesting challenge separating out real user issues from the volume of complaints about the service people were advertised and agreed to up front.

How do you "vote with your wallet" when your flight to see your family (or destination) is operated by a single airline and you have no choice? Do you ever use brain when you repeat this religious mantra?

It's not necessary for every single flight to have multiple acceptable flight options for the market forces ("vote with your wallet") to have an effect. You could not go. You could drive. You could fly into another airport and drive the last leg. You could charter.

I go out of my way to choose Delta(/KLM/AF), JetBlue, and Southwest over United, Frontier, Spirit, and Ryan. That works, even if it means I once in a great while fly on United because that's the best choice for that particular trip/leg.