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Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

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Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#91

Post by abadpoli »

timqin wrote: post #59
debbiedowner wrote: post #55

Could you make an onboarding guide for points? My impression is if you fly for work, you get a lot of employer sponsored points, so it's interesting. But if I fly 5-10 trips a year personally, why would I try points when I can get 3-5% cash back on my various cards?

Great question. So the corporate travelers actually do not get the most value/benefit from points travel because corporate travelers already fly on business. Flying on business class is just a given. Corporate travelers also do not have as much flexibility with their travel schedule or destinations. It's really the average consumer who has never flown business class that gets the most value and just 1 credit card bon…

> corporate travelers actually do not get the most value/benefit from points travel because corporate travelers already fly on business. Flying on business class is just a given.

I’m not sure what your background is, but this seems like a starkly false assumption to me. I’ve worked in multiple industries, including consulting (the one most famously known for frequent corporate travel) and I wouldn’t even come close to saying it’s a “given”. Only very high levels executives or the very elite companies fly their employees business class. In my years and years of weekly travel for consulting, my company paid for business class a grand total of 0 times (I’ve flown business a handful of times, but always upgraded with my own points). My colleague has only flown business paid for by the company once on a particularly long international flight.

I think you’re really shooting yourself in the foot by not paying more attention to corporate travelers. Corporate travelers are by _far_ the most likely to have credit card or loyalty points to spend, but it seems like you’re just brushing them off.

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#92

Post by flippyhead »

I'm excited about this. However, when I attempt to find some of the best-seeming deals, I cannot find them on the airline site. You list a flight from SEA to TYO on 10/16/24, booked via AA that appears to use Alaksa to SFO, then JAL to TYO for 80k points one way. That's great! However, following the links on your site, the lowest point option is 275k points. This is just one example of several I found.

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#93

Post by misterbwong »

Beijinger wrote: post #88
misterbwong wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: not sure if your comment was meant for me or timqin. Leaving it up just for general awareness General tips: - Never carry a balance, ever. If you do, forget about playing this game because it'll cost you more than you gain. Pay off your CC debt first. - There are many blogs/sites that push "their" link over ones that pay more to the user because they get paid a hefty affiliate fee. Be wary. - Have a goal in min…

Thanks, great info. I never accrued points wiht my CC. Is it really worth it compared to 1-2% cash back? I just collected by flying. You have to ask yourself: What do I want to achieve? 1. Fly free with points 2. Have gold status and access to the lounge, more luggage, faster check-in 1 is hard. It basically makes only sense if you really fly a lot and your company pays for it. 2 is easier, IF you chose the right air…

Agree 100% everyone should ask what you want to achieve before even considering starting. General archetypical goals of travel hackers I've seen are:

  1. Maximum number of trips
  2. Minimum cost for trips (cheap or free travel)
  3. Free or discounted luxury travel (business class, luxury hotels, etc)
  4. Maximum cash back (to the point of being a full time job)
  5. Maximizing elite status (for business travel, etc)
  6. Short term, saving up for one or two big bangs (honeymoon, bucket list item, etc)
  7. Any combination of above and more.
Each one of those goals require a different strategy. If you're aiming for maximum cash back, I personally think the work involved in the CC game would be worth the time but everyone is different. A sign up bonus generally represents 7-10% cash back on the bonus spend so I'm ok with spending a bit of time updating spreadsheets and keeping track.

On the other hand, I have some friends who do not want to bother due to the stress and overhead involved (finances can be difficult). For those types, I usually recommend foregoing the CC game and putting everything on a no annual fee 2% card.

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#95

Post by nerdbert »

So is all this data scraped by creating fake frequent flyer accounts and then making new ones as each one gets banned by the airline? Doesn't seem sustainable in the long term. As soon as it starts to meaningfully impact their ability to do whatever value maximization they have in mind, they are going to clamp down on this activity, right? They could require you to have some actual mileage activity before you can do searches, for example.

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#96

Post by timqin »

flippyhead wrote: post #92

I'm excited about this. However, when I attempt to find some of the best-seeming deals, I cannot find them on the airline site. You list a flight from SEA to TYO on 10/16/24, booked via AA that appears to use Alaksa to SFO, then JAL to TYO for 80k points one way. That's great! However, following the links on your site, the lowest point option is 275k points. This is just one example of several I found.

Got it. I just checked and don't see it on Roame live search.

80K points booked via AA and including JAL leg to Tokyo, sounds like a JAL First Class from SFO to Tokyo saver fare with an Alaska domestic leg thrown in.

If that is the case, it could be that the flight was booked or in someone's cart in between your search and going to the website. Japan routes are extremely popular right now.

Please let me know if you run into this again.

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#97

Post by digging »

cheeze wrote: post #89
xyst wrote: post #72

Products like this only support more wasteful air travel. Not a fan of min-maxing “credit card points” either. These points programs are funded largely due to various fees imposed on the merchants that are often forced to accept the credit cards. Note: the airline and “signature” cards often impose “premium” card fees in addition to the bevy of other fees (bank, network, transaction, …) associated with accepting debi…

Counterpoint: I do like min-maxing credit card points, and I love products like this because I know I want to go on a vacation but don't really care where. So I use something like this and see where I can fly international first class. Haven't used this tool but I've used point.me a handful of times and have had success doing so. Nothing but positives from my end.

That's not a counterpoint. The root comment says "this harms others for personal gain," and your rebuttal is "but I gain something".

Just to be clear, playing these ridiculous point games isn't something I'm going to come at you over. It's probably not even the most unethical thing you do, intentionally or otherwise, and I won't pretend I'm living a blameless lifestyle either.

And with that out of the way, yes the entire points system is a huge fucking scam and a leech on our economy. The more you "beat the system" and profit off points, the more you care about rewards programs existing at all. That's why "The Points Guy" lobbies for these programs to not get banned. Those wins aren't a loss for the system, they're costs of advertising.

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#98

Post by arcticbull »

timqin wrote: post #37
misterbwong wrote: post #28

Congrats on the launch! Been using your free product for a little while. As a fellow traffic hacker, some random comments: - I've been in the points game for a long time so I may not be your target customer. Take feedback with a grain of salt, I guess. - Commissions & Trust: You should disclose (more clearly?) that you're getting commissions from the CC signups and, ideally, that those may not be the best offers avai…

Thank you! Love more feedback, especially from travel hackers. 1) You're right. We have Advertiser Disclosures on all other pages, but will make the disclosures more prominent. Going to push out a change today/tomorrow. Affiliate commissions are not a big revenue driver right now. 2) We're working on a new design so the last refresh is more prominent. Currently, you'll be able to see the "Update ## ago" when you eith…

> 4) We're working on adding more loyalty program coverage. Our free tool is in real-time though, so slightly different than the cached tools. We do have a cached tool called SkyView.

Many loyalty programs are very prickly about scraping. Are you planning direct integrations, or are you just going to go head-to-head with Akamai's anti-botting tech?

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#99

Post by shiroiushi »

digging wrote: post #97
cheeze wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: I do like min-maxing credit card points, and I love products like this because I know I want to go on a vacation but don't really care where. So I use something like this and see where I can fly international first class. Haven't used this tool but I've used point.me a handful of times and have had success doing so. Nothing but positives from my end.

That's not a counterpoint. The root comment says "this harms others for personal gain," and your rebuttal is "but I gain something". Just to be clear, playing these ridiculous point games isn't something I'm going to come at you over. It's probably not even the most unethical thing you do, intentionally or otherwise, and I won't pretend I'm living a blameless lifestyle either. And with that out of the way, yes the en…

>And with that out of the way, yes the entire points system is a huge fucking scam and a leech on our economy. The more you "beat the system" and profit off points, the more you care about rewards programs existing at all.

I disagree. Yes, I see how they're really a scam, but I think the scam isn't quite what you think it is: the companies offering points are hoping that you won't use them. Of course, they know that people will use some of them, and that some people will maximize their use of their points, but the whole thing I think is basically trying to get people to use their card/service, but hoping they won't game the system by using all their points, maximizing their usage, etc.

If everyone stopped using the points they accrued, the companies aren't going to lower their fees and make things cheaper for people. They're already in an oligopoly position and don't need to lower fees. So anything that helps consumers make the most of these points, I think, should help reduce these companies' profits.

If everyone was really skilled at maximizing their points usage, I think the companies would have to stop offering them, or make them less valuable, so until that happens, by maximizing your usage, you're basically profiting off all the other people who are too lazy to do so, and also profiting off the companies offering these ridiculous schemes and hoping you won't use them very effectively.

Re: Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – Flight search engine for your credit card points

#100

Post by thecleaner »

timqin wrote: post #57
thecleaner wrote: post #35

I am happy simply because this isnt AI this-that. Congrats on the launch, will definitely use as I am someone who frequently forgets that points exist. For me, Qatar or any of the mid-east carriers have been the worst since their websites are awful.

Thank you! May I ask, where do you typically store your points / where would like you to go? Not sure if you're an expert or more intermediate, but I can offer some general thoughts / tips if you would like.

I signed up for Star Alliance which is typically linked to your user account. Atleast for Qatar airways I've had issues with redeeming because sign-in is not reliable. Most of the time I just don't want to go through the rather tedious sign-in process for most airlines. I've also traveled with JetBlue where I found the process was a lot smoother. Not sure if I am just bad with money / lazy.
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