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FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

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Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#11

Post by JimmyL »

developer123 wrote: post #10

I saw this comment on the WSJ - * This is an intriguing idea, but the problem I see is that airlines will not rebook you (fee-free, at least) until their own internal procedures have declared a delay or cancellation of a flight. By that point having the intel becomes useless. Seems like a good point

It depends on who "you" are in this example. If you're someone who is flying for personal reasons or non-mission critical business reasons, then you're 100% right - knowing ahead you'll probably be late is interesting, but not enough to do anything about since you don't want to pay change/cancellation fees. I'm this guy when I travel for personal reasons.

But I also travel a lot for business, and when I do, travel is 100% critical. If I don't show up when I am scheduled to, there will often be several thousand people - not to mention three national news networks - waiting for me and my traveling party. Those people won't wait around, and will embarrass me and my people on a national stage.

Hence, for business travel, I use a travel management company for all my movements. I fly full-fare economy (so there are effectively no penalties to change my flights), and have a someone who gets paid a significant commission to monitor the status of my travel plans and adjust them on the fly based on weather and traffic conditions. Maybe 1.5 times per month I'll get a call/email from my travel guy some time between a day and a few hours before my departure telling me something has changed - either my routing or my departure time (incidentally, my travel guy is the only person outside my team who has access to our detailed daily calendar, so he can adjust for this).

I have no doubt that my travel manager would pay good money for this information, if it was statistically reliable. For people who travel for fun, I think you're right - a delay isn't a delay until the airline says it is. But for people who absolutely have to get where they're going - to the level that they'll charter a plane on an hours' notice if needed - this would be invaluable.

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#12

Post by teej »

developer123 wrote: post #10

I saw this comment on the WSJ - * This is an intriguing idea, but the problem I see is that airlines will not rebook you (fee-free, at least) until their own internal procedures have declared a delay or cancellation of a flight. By that point having the intel becomes useless. Seems like a good point

I wish FlightCaster was available last June.

Fresh from my wedding, I waited in Dulles airport with my wife to take a trivial flight to JFK. From there, I would catch an international flight off to my honeymoon. Of course, things are never that easy.

It started with United claiming weather issues at JFK. Understandable, as getting delayed in to New York is a common occurrence. But we noticed things weren't adding up when the scheduled departure time would come and go while we were still on the ground. United delayed our flight -and no other- 30 minutes at a time for 6 hours straight.

I tried to find out what was going on. I checked FAA reports, I called multiple airline booths in both airports, no one could explain why -only- our flight was delayed and why it had been delayed for so long.

With FlightCaster, I get the ability to calculate opportunity cost. For my case, we missed our international connection, had to pay for a last-minute hotel in New York, and lost a day of our honeymoon. The direct cost to us, in both economical and emotional terms, was WAY higher than the cost of switching to a different flight.

Knowing the winning horse after the race is useless intel. But knowing which horse has a edge is powerful information before the fact.

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#13

Post by developer123 »

JimmyL wrote: post #11
developer123 wrote: post #10

I saw this comment on the WSJ - * This is an intriguing idea, but the problem I see is that airlines will not rebook you (fee-free, at least) until their own internal procedures have declared a delay or cancellation of a flight. By that point having the intel becomes useless. Seems like a good point

It depends on who "you" are in this example. If you're someone who is flying for personal reasons or non-mission critical business reasons, then you're 100% right - knowing ahead you'll probably be late is interesting, but not enough to do anything about since you don't want to pay change/cancellation fees. I'm this guy when I travel for personal reasons. But I also travel a lot for business, and when I do, travel is…

Previous comments from JimmyL :

"I work in a moderately-progressive workplace, and if I ever need to seek the input of a supervisor on a big issue/something that may come back to haunt me, I'll talk to them about it, and then send them an email saying what we decided. This makes it clear what the decisions was (and more importantly, how I interpret it) and provides documentation to both sides that the issue was discussed and a conclusion reached."

"When I know I am wrapping up a coding session, I'll often leave a few trivial things unfinished - so that when I sit back down again for the next session, I'll have an easy place to jump right back in, and it will force me to (consciously or otherwise) get back to somewhere near the mental state I was in when I half-finished the thing."

Are you really as important as you make out?

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#14

Post by dartland »

bobbyi wrote: post #8

Flightcaster manages to predict ten times as many delays as the airlines do. And they manage to stay 90% accurate (which is on par with the airlines). They're equally accurate, but predict ten times as many delays? Doesn't that imply that only a negligible percentage of flights are successfully predicted as delayed by either party?

4 hours out, airlines notify users of ~4% of flights that will eventually be delayed 1+ hours.

FlightCaster right now captures 40% of those flights 4 hours out (and growing as the algorithm is improved).

That is the origination of the statistic.

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#15

Post by wallflower »

developer123 wrote: post #13
JimmyL wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on who "you" are in this example. If you're someone who is flying for personal reasons or non-mission critical business reasons, then you're 100% right - knowing ahead you'll probably be late is interesting, but not enough to do anything about since you don't want to pay change/cancellation fees. I'm this guy when I travel for personal reasons. But I also travel a lot for business, and when I do, travel is…

Previous comments from JimmyL : "I work in a moderately-progressive workplace, and if I ever need to seek the input of a supervisor on a big issue/something that may come back to haunt me, I'll talk to them about it, and then send them an email saying what we decided. This makes it clear what the decisions was (and more importantly, how I interpret it) and provides documentation to both sides that the issue was discu…

Yes, I had the same idea after reading his comment above. I went back and read his last X comments.

He seems to be a Canada-based programmer.

EDIT: However:

"I mentioned that I've got no in-industry peer networking contacts, but I have a few very good ones in politics. Specifically, I've got a possible job offer through one to be one of the two or three advance guys for a very senior national politician. It would be a year of traveling around the country with them, likely including an election, and would be incredibly exciting."

Note: It is scary how much we reveal ourselves through our Internet postings

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=667547

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#16

Post by JimmyL »

developer123 wrote: post #13
JimmyL wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on who "you" are in this example. If you're someone who is flying for personal reasons or non-mission critical business reasons, then you're 100% right - knowing ahead you'll probably be late is interesting, but not enough to do anything about since you don't want to pay change/cancellation fees. I'm this guy when I travel for personal reasons. But I also travel a lot for business, and when I do, travel is…

Previous comments from JimmyL : "I work in a moderately-progressive workplace, and if I ever need to seek the input of a supervisor on a big issue/something that may come back to haunt me, I'll talk to them about it, and then send them an email saying what we decided. This makes it clear what the decisions was (and more importantly, how I interpret it) and provides documentation to both sides that the issue was discu…

Believe me or not, it's up to you.

As for who/what I am, wallflower is correct in that I used to be a Canada-based programmer. While I'm still based here in Canada, I now do something 100% different (having nothing to do with software development) that necessitates this kind of travel.

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#17

Post by JimmyL »

wallflower wrote: post #15
developer123 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previous comments from JimmyL : "I work in a moderately-progressive workplace, and if I ever need to seek the input of a supervisor on a big issue/something that may come back to haunt me, I'll talk to them about it, and then send them an email saying what we decided. This makes it clear what the decisions was (and more importantly, how I interpret it) and provides documentation to both sides that the issue was discu…

Yes, I had the same idea after reading his comment above. I went back and read his last X comments. He seems to be a Canada-based programmer. EDIT: However : "I mentioned that I've got no in-industry peer networking contacts, but I have a few very good ones in politics. Specifically, I've got a possible job offer through one to be one of the two or three advance guys for a very senior national politician. It would be…

I took that job - hence the travel.

If you're interested in the back story, shoot me an email at M8R-houvju@mailinator.com and we'll chat.

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#18

Post by wallflower »

JimmyL wrote: post #16
developer123 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previous comments from JimmyL : "I work in a moderately-progressive workplace, and if I ever need to seek the input of a supervisor on a big issue/something that may come back to haunt me, I'll talk to them about it, and then send them an email saying what we decided. This makes it clear what the decisions was (and more importantly, how I interpret it) and provides documentation to both sides that the issue was discu…

Believe me or not, it's up to you. As for who/what I am, wallflower is correct in that I used to be a Canada-based programmer. While I'm still based here in Canada, I now do something 100% different (having nothing to do with software development) that necessitates this kind of travel.

Congratulations on getting to go behind-the-scenes in a way most of us only wonder what it could be like. A real "Ops" job.

I'm curious - how did you leverage your technical engineering ability to land the job, or was it more business/social acumen? I get a sense that you are very strategic from your advice about college to karate background. Especially, the novel idea about using Github to prove you wrote a paper (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=757295)

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#19

Post by hboon »

developer123 wrote: post #10

I saw this comment on the WSJ - * This is an intriguing idea, but the problem I see is that airlines will not rebook you (fee-free, at least) until their own internal procedures have declared a delay or cancellation of a flight. By that point having the intel becomes useless. Seems like a good point

This article explains it. 2 groups of people (1) they just want to know they might be late, telling their friends, etc (2) business travellers will pay to avoid the risk of a delayed flight

Re: FlightCaster (YC S09) Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

#20

Post by [deleted] »

dartland wrote: post #14
bobbyi wrote: post #8

Flightcaster manages to predict ten times as many delays as the airlines do. And they manage to stay 90% accurate (which is on par with the airlines). They're equally accurate, but predict ten times as many delays? Doesn't that imply that only a negligible percentage of flights are successfully predicted as delayed by either party?

4 hours out, airlines notify users of ~4% of flights that will eventually be delayed 1+ hours. FlightCaster right now captures 40% of those flights 4 hours out (and growing as the algorithm is improved). That is the origination of the statistic.

[deleted]
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