How does FlightFox makes money? Given that both the expert and FF needs a cut, how does this scale?
how many airline tickets are sold a day?
Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
21–30 of 57 posts
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#22Your pricing/trips page ( https://flightfox.com/trips ) is really lacking some direction and information. I can easily see new Flightfox users being really confused. I was slightly confused and I've used Flightfox twice before. I would suggest carrying over the 3 steps graphic/info from the main page to the top of the /trips page. But more importantly, you really need a better breakdown of exactly what those prices a…
Hi brett, we're working madly on this now. We built the new version from scratch (very little in common), so we're a few-week-old startup all over again.
We can imagine these products being their own page with details, testimonials, examples, etc. Something like http://elto.com, whereas our current page is more like the 99-designs one.
Just wanted to mention, "clarifying" our products/pricing is priority #1.
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#23Has anyone tried FlightFox? I wonder if it's worth using for simple flights like NYC-Paris or NYC-SF.
I've used it twice. Once for a Seattle -> Berlin -> Munich -> Seattle trip. Another time for my honeymoon (Seattle -> Krabi -> Tokyo -> Seattle)
Both times I found business class tickets for not a crazy spread over coach retail and significantly below the business class prices I was finding on my own.
I've had great experiences both times. For complex / long haul flights where you want to find a cheap business class seat, I'd recommend them without question. I'm a big fan of flightfox.
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#24Great write up. It left me wondering - do you think you could have started here? Or did the competitive format bring you the talented experts & public attention you needed to make consultation work?
Congrats on the re-launch.
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#25Congratulations. You invented travel agents. Modernized them, I suppose. Not exactly an exciting and thrilling turn of events but it seems the metrics all point toward this as a better solution so I suppose "exciting" is overrated.
Hi encoderer, we were saying the same thing before testing this format.
However, unlike travel agents, our guys are genuine flight experts. If you travel wide, fly a lot, or use miles, you'll understand why this matters.
Behind the scenes, it's all about commissions. Agents work on commissions and most flights don't pay commissions. So it makes little sense for agents to spend hours on your flights.
This manifests in the wide skill gap between (most) agents and our experts. Most agents won't save you a cent, they'll just be there for good service. But our guys get insane deals you won't find anywhere else. Often they involve shorter flights with fewer stops too.
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used it a 1.5 years ago, during the competitive phase, for a two destination trip on a different continent. I came away not entirely thrilled by the results of the experts. After paying the fee, what they found was slightly cheaper than what I was able to do independently, but had a funkier itinerary that didn't justify the slight price reduction (that may have been actually offset by the cost of using the service)…
Hi kingnight, our experts will refund you if they can't help or you're not happy. In the old system, there was always a lot of tension when we'd refund customers, because the experts would have already spent a lot of time. But in the new system, we made it so we (admin) can't actually refund you, only the experts can. This has worked wonders because they now use refunding as a form of segmentation. Often they'll refu…
That's interesting about the tension — I didn't really think about it that way, and the new system does indeed sound much better for all parties involved.
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#27I used the new 'consultant' model last week and loved it. I really liked that the consultant could help me get what I wanted, not what I asked for ("I'm cold, put me in South America." "Buenos Aires is expensive. How do you feel about La Paz or Lima?").
I hope they standardize on it. The rest of the site seems to reflect the old models. For just one consultant, why do I need 27 different pricing options for 'kinds of flights'? I don't know what I want. Just charge me one price and be done with it. And the ratings system needs a field akin to 'money saved vs kayak' in addition to the 1-10 scale, because I'm no longer sure I got the lowest price as opposed to a consultation.
But I loved it all the same and will be back. Flightfox is doing a great job.
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#28Great write up. It left me wondering - do you think you could have started here? Or did the competitive format bring you the talented experts & public attention you needed to make consultation work? Congrats on the re-launch.
hi emhart, interesting question. The contest format was certainly novel and helped garner a lot of early attention from press. So there's that. But I think you may be right that the contests helped us a) find experts, but also b) learn what was possible.
That somewhat fits with the idea that crowdsourcing is best when you have less info. Once you have more info, then (at least we think) it's best to work with fewer specialists. Although this is mostly referring to the customer, maybe we can apply the thinking to our product lifecycle too.
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#29[deleted]
Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing
#30Congratulations. You invented travel agents. Modernized them, I suppose. Not exactly an exciting and thrilling turn of events but it seems the metrics all point toward this as a better solution so I suppose "exciting" is overrated.
Hi encoderer, we were saying the same thing before testing this format. However, unlike travel agents, our guys are genuine flight experts. If you travel wide, fly a lot, or use miles, you'll understand why this matters. Behind the scenes, it's all about commissions. Agents work on commissions and most flights don't pay commissions. So it makes little sense for agents to spend hours on your flights. This manifests in…
A lot of travel agents are genuine flight experts. If you don't believe that then you haven't spent much time with good travel agents.
Also, it's not about the commissions. That went out with the '90's
Source: I've worked in this field for 13 years now and sell a SAAS product to travel agents.