Love this! Design is stellar. Very well done!
Thank you! If you have any questions, please let me know
Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
61–70 of 137 posts
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#62Could you make an onboarding guide for points? My impression is if you fly for work, you get a lot of employer sponsored points, so it's interesting. But if I fly 5-10 trips a year personally, why would I try points when I can get 3-5% cash back on my various cards?
Great question. So the corporate travelers actually do not get the most value/benefit from points travel because corporate travelers already fly on business. Flying on business class is just a given. Corporate travelers also do not have as much flexibility with their travel schedule or destinations. It's really the average consumer who has never flown business class that gets the most value and just 1 credit card bon…
> To the average consumer, flying on business class is a dream experience.
Is this true? I feel like the "average" person cares a lot more about their destination than the experience of the flight.
Going to Disney World or the Carribean might be a dream experience, but having a bit more legroom and drinks on your flight is way, way down the list.
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#63Cool idea!
Is this product of interest to Europeans?
It is unclear from the signup page.
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! In our view, the more tools, the better to help educate and bring more people into the points world. We're focused on the beginner points user and helping them through the learning curve of points. Want people to use our engine to book their first ever business class flight. In terms of product, we provide 365 days of free real-time search across all the loyalty programs we cover and any fare class.
How are you going to deal with the fact that airlines don't want more people in the points world? (Or at least, they don't want people finding inexpensive redemptions, which cost them money.) The fundamental reason that it's hard to find cheap redemptions is that the economic incentives are aligned against cheap redemptions existing in the first place. Airlines want the revenue stream from points to be as high as pos…
So this is an interesting question because there isn't a clear cut answer. The airline industry is fragmented globally, there are tons of national carriers. And each airline team has different incentives.
Airlines, especially US airlines are making billions of dollars a year by selling points to credit card companies. So in theory, they actually want as many people in the world of points as possible because they a consistent high margin revenue from credit card companies.
I believe the real difference between airlines is how they balance loyalty redemptions vs. revenue sales. Airlines full control the pricing of the points redemptions, but they have to balance pricing with capacity and fixed costs. If the flight is only 50% full, then that points redemption is going to help amortize the large fixed costs of operating that half empty flight. So having a bargain points redemption rate, would look attractive.
Now, if that flight is 90% full, then the airline may not offer seats to redeem with points or raise the price to something extremely high like 200,000 points.
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great question. So the corporate travelers actually do not get the most value/benefit from points travel because corporate travelers already fly on business. Flying on business class is just a given. Corporate travelers also do not have as much flexibility with their travel schedule or destinations. It's really the average consumer who has never flown business class that gets the most value and just 1 credit card bon…
> To the average consumer, flying on business class is a dream experience. Is this true? I feel like the "average" person cares a lot more about their destination than the experience of the flight. Going to Disney World or the Carribean might be a dream experience, but having a bit more legroom and drinks on your flight is way, way down the list.
I don't have readily available hard data, but flying first or business class is glamorous and an aspirational luxury product. I believe the reason why the average consumer wants to buy luxury goods like Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, etc., is the same reason they would want to experience first and business class.
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great question. So the corporate travelers actually do not get the most value/benefit from points travel because corporate travelers already fly on business. Flying on business class is just a given. Corporate travelers also do not have as much flexibility with their travel schedule or destinations. It's really the average consumer who has never flown business class that gets the most value and just 1 credit card bon…
> To the average consumer, flying on business class is a dream experience. Is this true? I feel like the "average" person cares a lot more about their destination than the experience of the flight. Going to Disney World or the Carribean might be a dream experience, but having a bit more legroom and drinks on your flight is way, way down the list.
For you, maybe.
For my diabetic mother who has really bad legs, or for me who has had back issues his whole life, or for someone who is treated like they deserve to be there in first class instead of being cattle called into a tiny seat with a bag of pretzels for fourteen hours…
Different priorities.
Flying business or first class is not something I do often (I’ve flown a single digit number of times on either, and all but once on points) but when I do the amount of stress that is relieved is actually very significant. It’s hard to understand until you’ve done it.
And it may not matter to you! And that’s also okay.
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! In our view, the more tools, the better to help educate and bring more people into the points world. We're focused on the beginner points user and helping them through the learning curve of points. Want people to use our engine to book their first ever business class flight. In terms of product, we provide 365 days of free real-time search across all the loyalty programs we cover and any fare class.
How are you going to deal with the fact that airlines don't want more people in the points world? (Or at least, they don't want people finding inexpensive redemptions, which cost them money.) The fundamental reason that it's hard to find cheap redemptions is that the economic incentives are aligned against cheap redemptions existing in the first place. Airlines want the revenue stream from points to be as high as pos…
The long term answer to this is easy: the airlines (really just Air Canada, and that will set a precedent) will lose this battle.
They will devalue points, change award charts, play the stupid cat and mouse game of trying to prevent scraping, but they will lose.
Even Southwest is giving up; they’re switching to assigned seats after many decades, because no amount of trying to prevent bots from checking you in has worked, long term, and checking in exactly at the minute and getting a C group number is infuriating. This isn’t a Taylor Swift concert; it’s a goddamn flight to JFK, lol.
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#68I’ve been looking for something like this. I don’t see many options for Brex points. Are those harder to transfer and take advantage of? Is Brex too new? Small feedback: Skyview is a very confusing subscription term. Why not Roame Lite/Pro/Enterprise/etc
Hope our tool serves your needs!
So Brex only has 7 airline transfer partners right now, so results where Brex points can transfer to will be limited depending on the routes you are searching for.
Brex's current transfer partners:
1. Air France/KLM Flying Blue - Really good for Europe
2. Aeromexico Club Premier
3. Avianca LifeMiles
4. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - US to Hong Kong flights are still significantly below 2019 levels.
5. Emirates Skywards
6. Qantas Frequent Flyer
7. Singapore Airlines
Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points
#69Cool idea! Is this product of interest to Europeans? It is unclear from the signup page.
Thank you! On the European side, we do support Flying Blue (Air France & KLM), SAS, and Virgin Atlantic loyalty programs.