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Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

flightfox.com

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Re: Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

#21

Post by todsul »

bengl3rt wrote: post #17
todsul wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, absolutely. You could do that know, but we need to build our expert base a little larger before we target this market specifically. Also, we need to find a way to add these options without confusing the average person. We're pretty obsessed with analytics and we've seen that even just minor details confuse people and reduce conversions. Maybe a separate menu/link/section/subdomain is needed.

Cool! I am working on automated mileage run finding at mileagebrain.com - hoping this will turn out to be complementary :)

Looking good. Definitely a need for a tool like yours. Let's keep in touch to see if we can work together once we get settled.

Re: Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

#22

Post by todsul »

sivers wrote: post #20

Brilliant! I'll be using this for some upcoming flights. I daydreamed of something like this 2½ years ago. See http://sivers.org/semi-expert Thanks for making this come true.

Wow! Thanks Derek. Great post; exactly what we were thinking in building the product. Lots of iterating to go to get it working seamlessly, but exciting times ahead. Would love your feedback when you get around to using the product.

Re: Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

#23

Post by bengl3rt »

todsul wrote: post #21
bengl3rt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool! I am working on automated mileage run finding at mileagebrain.com - hoping this will turn out to be complementary :)

Looking good. Definitely a need for a tool like yours. Let's keep in touch to see if we can work together once we get settled.

You should put an email address in your HN profile!

Re: Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

#24

Post by montitro »

May I suggest adding more flexible options? I often find myself wanting to plan a vacation but not knowing where or when I want to go - on traditional travel sites, this is a problem, because everything has to be run through an algorithm, but as a crowdsourcer, you might be able to get away with saying 'two week trip, sometime between August and November', and just give me good options.

Re: Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

#25

Post by stfu »

drags wrote: post #5

My first thought was: what's to stop someone from waiting for some responses and then running over to Kayak to book once they know the best dates/airlines. But it looks like they take the finder's fee upfront. It would be nice if there were an option to only pay the finder's fee if someone significantly beats the best price you were able to find. Everyone does at least an _initial_ search to get an idea of price when…

While I like the idea, I can see this as a problem too.

Those who want a peace of mind booking are probably running their flights on corporate accounts, are miles collecting or have established flight booking relationships. And price sensitive customers are most likely going to try finding the best deal themselves. Maybe the best way to solve that would be to give for 24h a best-price guarantee. Just for the "peace of mind" for the consumer - I am sure only a very low percentage is ever going to make use of it.

Re: Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

#26

Post by mistermann »

Extremely interesting.....a few questions that come to mind for me:

1. Is it worthwhile using for simple flights? Ie: Toronto to las Vegas, direct?

2. Can it handle extremely complex (maybe even almost freeform) scenarios beyond the displayed +\- x days, such as: I have 14 days available (but would settle for an 11 day trip), and I can take travel any time between these dates, and I am willing to travel to a, b, or c - what are my options?  (This is getting into the realm of travel agent services....for which I would gladly pay, assuming one might actually be able to find a competent one through this site).

3. Does the service tend to work much less well in Canada compared to the US?

4. Is it conceivable that if this service is successful enough (market penetration wise), that some of the optimizations used may start to disappear, or affect pricing from airlines?

5. Any plans of extending it to vacations (flight, hotel, all-inclusive)?

6. You mention frequent flyer plans on the site - for a person who has no clue, any (long term) plans for offering sign up for those types of things integrated with your service?

7. Are you running some customized search tools in house, or does each person fulfilling contests just using their own secret tips and tricks?

Good luck on this, truly one of the most interesting initiatives I've heard of in a very long time!

Re: Crowd-Sourced Flight Search

#27

Post by mistermann »

todsul wrote: post #6
drags wrote: post #5

My first thought was: what's to stop someone from waiting for some responses and then running over to Kayak to book once they know the best dates/airlines. But it looks like they take the finder's fee upfront. It would be nice if there were an option to only pay the finder's fee if someone significantly beats the best price you were able to find. Everyone does at least an _initial_ search to get an idea of price when…

Hi drags, co-founder here... We tried your suggested method, but there were too many complications in practice. Many people quoted fake prices and, of course, prices and availability change regularly. Most of all, we'd rather not create a competitive relationship with the customer. The idea of the concept is to relieve you of all the time and stress related to flight search (especially on more complex itineraries). S…

I agree....I think there is more than enough incompetence and inefficiency in this industry that you will have plenty of customers who won't think twice about the fee, as long as you can ensure that they are getting a competent person planning their flight, and the result will be the best that can be done.
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