>
I guess this is where 'travel agents' once used to shine.Score one for self-service software "improving lives" and "increasing productivity" by allowing everyone to do the job that would previously be done much more efficiently by dedicated specialists :).
Still, reading that:
> Even for my own travel, there are like a dozen things I'm trying to optimize for. Time, money, seat, travel to/from airport (traffic, train cost, taxi pickup/dropoff ease), lounge quality, layover length or complexity vs cost calculus, loyalty program, airport navigation, airport amenities, flight hospitality quality etc. etc.
I envy your dedication. Halfway through reading this list, I already feel like going by a train instead. I can't imagine doing it myself without some specialized software; I'd lose my mind trying to do it with the normal travel/accommodation search and booking websites.
> Also: I want to be _absolutely_ certain the flight was booked -- that nothing was dropped, that no weird API failed to callback, that no letter was dropped from my name, that no silly email parser thought I meant London, Ontario, Canada.
Very much this. It's my main concern here, too. I need live feedback on every input at every step throughout the process, because I don't trust software to not screw this up.