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CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

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Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#21

Post by JonLim »

xb95 wrote: post #19
MichaelGG wrote: post #17

The thing that bothers me here is the same as with 99Designs. You pay an award fee but that only goes to the winner, right? After using 99Designs a couple of times, I'm happy with the results, but probably won't use such a system again; it just feels a bit exploitative. I know, people elect to enroll in the system and compete so it's "fair" that way, but it just feels sorta icky to know I had X people spending so muc…

In my case on Flightfox, the person was clearly just using some software. The time investment was probably minutes. The value for me is that this person knows all of the rules -- cheap legs, good days to fly, how to get X or Y, fare codes, etc. Plus they have the underlying software that powers ticket searching, they don't have to use ridiculously terrible web portals like us normal folk. In my case, Flightfox took w…

Curious: given that you saved about $300 despite all the extra time abroad, aren't you just making up for it by spending more on accommodations and food?

I mean, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but you aren't saving that much more, I gather. If at all.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#22

Post by xb95 »

JonLim wrote: post #21
xb95 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case on Flightfox, the person was clearly just using some software. The time investment was probably minutes. The value for me is that this person knows all of the rules -- cheap legs, good days to fly, how to get X or Y, fare codes, etc. Plus they have the underlying software that powers ticket searching, they don't have to use ridiculously terrible web portals like us normal folk. In my case, Flightfox took w…

Curious: given that you saved about $300 despite all the extra time abroad, aren't you just making up for it by spending more on accommodations and food? I mean, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but you aren't saving that much more, I gather. If at all.

Absolutely, yes. In my case I was annoyed that my round trip from Orbitz took me through Hong Kong for 3 hours, so I went to Flightfox to see if I could make it 3 days. They said yes -- AND made the flight cheaper!

The other option was to try to book multiple round trips or a multi-city with Orbitz/Expedia/etc and in my case it was driving the cost way up. I wasn't happy with the result, and couldn't get the price sub-$3500 to do what I want -- and then I would have had to pay food and accomodations on top of the higher price.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#23

Post by todsul »

tlrobinson wrote: post #20

Is there a more complete service, like a travel agent, to help book an entire trip? e.x. I want to go to a beach in country A, B, or C, on X dates, I prefer Y type of hotel/resort, my budget is $Z, what are my options? So far I've been using a combination of TripAdvisor, Hipmunk, etc, but it's still really painful. I looked into using an old school travel agent, but it seems like they work on commission from the hote…

It's definitely in the pipeline for us, but our most redeeming feature (not being restricted by traditional search APIs) is also the thing that makes automated bookings the most difficult. But we have a solution; stay tuned.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#24

Post by todsul »

MichaelGG wrote: post #17

The thing that bothers me here is the same as with 99Designs. You pay an award fee but that only goes to the winner, right? After using 99Designs a couple of times, I'm happy with the results, but probably won't use such a system again; it just feels a bit exploitative. I know, people elect to enroll in the system and compete so it's "fair" that way, but it just feels sorta icky to know I had X people spending so muc…

Hi Michael,

We have a lot planned to reduce the amount of unpaid work. Think of getting quotes from say a plumber. A handful may offer free quotes and then you choose one to complete the work. The initial quote does take some effort, but only a fraction of the total effort.

We're working towards this "free quote" model. There will always be a significant amount of work required upfront, but if we can increase value more and more on the backend, the upfront work will reduce in comparison and get closer to, for example, a plumber's "free quote".

Also, as someone else suggested, the experts tend to find flights much quicker than the rest of us. Sometimes it's software, and sometimes it's just from doing it so often.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#25

Post by bdesimone »

I just similarly booked a round the world honeymoon ticket. I'd consider myself pretty good at scheduling domestic and international travel, and I'm an American-Airlines life-time platinum member. That said, the experts really impressed me and were able to find me business class flights for the entire trip for 7k a head. Not bad.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#27

Post by cperciva »

laumac wrote: post #15
xb95 wrote: post #11

Flightfox is neat, but the thing that wasn't super clear and I found out later, after paying a finder's fee, is that you have to go through hoops to book your tickets. This isn't just -- they put it together and you click a button and suddenly you have your tickets. This is "now you have to spend hours on the phone, attempting to book these tickets, and you don't have enough information to really do it -- nor enough…

Thanks for the feedback, we're looking into booking options now so that you don't have spend time trying to book yourself. For others it has been an easy process to book as we have some verified travel agents on board. Other times when your trip is super complex, you may have to book on different websites. We're definitely aware that it's a friction point though so we're trying to fix it asap.

we're looking into booking options now so that you don't have spend time trying to book yourself

This is the pain point which has prevented me from recommending flightfox to anyone else yet: When I tried it, I was pointed towards orbitz for flights which it turned out that they were advertising but (after I provided my credit card details) they didn't actually have. I'm still glad that I used flightfox, because the expert advice I got saved me $300 by pointing out that returning to Canada from Germany was much cheaper than returning from Austria -- but the booking instructions were completely useless.

If you can add a "book via flightfox" mechanism which guarantees that the flights actually exist, I'll tell everybody I know to use flightfox every time they travel.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#28

Post by mixmastamyk »

xb95 wrote: post #18
laumac wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback, we're looking into booking options now so that you don't have spend time trying to book yourself. For others it has been an easy process to book as we have some verified travel agents on board. Other times when your trip is super complex, you may have to book on different websites. We're definitely aware that it's a friction point though so we're trying to fix it asap.

I wasn't aware of/able to find the travel agents, so I paid the finder's fee but never actually booked tickets. It was too intimidating for me and I was too worried about ending up with half of the tickets and the other half becoming unavailable and ending up holding expensive partials. Anyway, I'd be happy to pay for someone to handle it -- I'd even pay going rates -- but the whole process of me having to take the i…

In general when you book flights you don't have to pay for a day or two. This is in part to solve the problem you mention.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#29

Post by iag »

bdesimone wrote: post #25

I just similarly booked a round the world honeymoon ticket. I'd consider myself pretty good at scheduling domestic and international travel, and I'm an American-Airlines life-time platinum member. That said, the experts really impressed me and were able to find me business class flights for the entire trip for 7k a head. Not bad.

I think the cheapest was $7,500 for economy, and business class for $16,000.

That is still amazing consider when I book business class flights on my own, it's usually $3-4k per round trip.

Re: CardMunch CEO uses Flightfox for 29-Country Startup Trip

#30

Post by petsos »

todsul wrote: post #24
MichaelGG wrote: post #17

The thing that bothers me here is the same as with 99Designs. You pay an award fee but that only goes to the winner, right? After using 99Designs a couple of times, I'm happy with the results, but probably won't use such a system again; it just feels a bit exploitative. I know, people elect to enroll in the system and compete so it's "fair" that way, but it just feels sorta icky to know I had X people spending so muc…

Hi Michael, We have a lot planned to reduce the amount of unpaid work. Think of getting quotes from say a plumber. A handful may offer free quotes and then you choose one to complete the work. The initial quote does take some effort, but only a fraction of the total effort. We're working towards this "free quote" model. There will always be a significant amount of work required upfront, but if we can increase value m…

How is this similar to getting a quote? The flightfox agent has done all the work either he/she wins or not. This is nothing like plumber quotes.
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