3 ms·

Show HN: I built a site that tracks short-lived flight deals

13 points by airninja 2y ago

So, this summer I was hunting for a flight from Calgary to Tokyo with WestJet, and I kept seeing these random cheaper flights popping up. I got tired of refreshing the site non-stop, so I whipped up a script to scrape the flight data. It paid off—I scored a roundtrip for $1000 CAD in July! Naturally, I decided to turn this into a full-fledged project and built flight-price-alert.com! Tech details: Built with Go for the backend and SQLite for the database. Added some TLS spoofing to get around Cloudflare’s JA3 fingerprinting that was blocking my requests. Styled the site with PicoCSS—it was super easy and kept things neat. Generated tons of images with Recraft.ai. Seriously, I must’ve churned out hundreds. It was a blast! Hosted on a single EC2 instance with EBS attached for SQLite storage. It’s pretty simple right now, and I’m debating whether to keep developing it or move on. If you have any questions or ideas for improvements, I’d love to hear them!

airninja 2y ago
I'm also on the lookout for new opportunities. If you know of any openings for a DevOps Engineer or Software Engineer, feel free to reach out!
rafram 2y ago
I'm not sure I get the point of the AI art, but this is a pretty good idea for a site!
- yieldcrv 2y ago
  It’s a migratory bird that OP was able to generate faster than waiting for an artist commission, and cheaper, and likely better
  - rafram 2y ago
    I wouldn’t say likely better. It’s very… recognizable.
    - yieldcrv 2y ago
      my calculus is that most artists aren’t as detailed, and of the artists that are, most of the time they wouldn't exhibit those traits you were looking for in your commission takes many drafts, misaligned expectations, and many weeks to come up with a similar character its fine if you don’t like that result and aesthetic, I can appreciate that people - who weren't ever going to commission an artist - can express themselves and personify a brand now on random side projects
- chipweinberger 2y ago
  yes AI art is starting to look really tacky I had a similar thought maybe 3 pictures is just too much
- airninja 2y ago
  The AI art is there mainly because the page would be pretty empty otherwise, and I wanted to have some fun generating images :)
mattfrommars 2y ago
What do you mean by scrapping the flight data? What is this data and how did you come across it? As far as I know, the data used by Google Flight, Kayak,etc all pay, I think IATA some fees to access. Don't know if it makes sense, did you scrape IATA data?
- airninja 2y ago
  By “scraping” the data, I mean I’m just going straight to airline websites like WestJet and grabbing the info they show publicly. I’m not using any paid services or IATA data—just parsing whatever’s on the page. This helps me track price changes directly from the source.
dboreham 2y ago
Airlines are going to block your scraping.
- airninja 2y ago
  That’s going to be a fun challenge then! I’m up for it and will see how it goes. Thanks for the heads-up!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- fragmede 2y ago
  Skiplagged is still around, so they can try.
quesera 2y ago
I like the idea, but airlines are notoriously scraper-hostile, so this might require active cat & mousing to sustain operations. I also like the one-hit pricing idea, but it occurs to me that because it's bound to a single dep/arr pair, and for only one month, that it's probably not the ideal model for most people.
- airninja 2y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, airlines are definitely tough when it comes to scraping, so I’m expecting a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with their anti-scraping measures. As for the one-hit pricing model, the idea is to keep it super simple and easy for people to sign up for alerts with minimal hassle. By sticking to specific origin/destination/month combos, I’m also trying to keep the scraping load manageable. I know it might not fit everyone’s needs right now, but it’s a start. I’m open to any ideas on how to make it better!
  - quesera 2y ago
    I wish I had a suggestion on pricing. If I'm looking for a low-priced fare that would motivate me to travel, I am probably less picky about destination, and possibly about timeframe. I.e. there are a dozen places I'd love to go for fun if the opportunity presented itself. I'd even drive an hour or two to another departure airport, if it made sense. So that's a combinatorial explosion of dep-arr pairs. SFO-*, OAK-*, SJC-*, etc. At $5/pair/month, my example costs ($5*3*12==$180) per month, which I definitely will not spend. I don't want to limit my alerts, because the three departure origins are functionally equivalent for me, and the 12 arrival destinations are interestingly equivalent enough that I'd regret missing out on a less-obvious pair. ... It's entirely possible that I'm unusual in this. And I get that each pair is a new query/scrape for you. Although it seems likely that, at scale, you'll have enough people from an area that a lot of the pairs are duplicates across users, even considering flexible departure airports. Good luck, and I hope you'll share your scraping experiences. There are a lot of interesting stories to be told in that business.
tetrisgm 2y ago
Would you consider making a self-hosted version? Lot less likely to get blocked and die :)
- airninja 2y ago
  I’ve been considering making it open source, so the community could add airline implementations for different airlines and self-host it. I’m not sure yet if I should go ahead with this or not.
  - tetrisgm 2y ago
    I can totally see the appeal of trying to build a business out of it. As a user I worry about how long it'd last. I would buy a license or whatever, but definitely think it could benefit from continued updates to the parsers.
ungreased0675 2y ago
How do you determine when a price is a good value?
- airninja 2y ago
  I don’t really track historical prices, so I can’t say what’s a “good value” in that sense. I just send an email whenever I spot a lower price for a flight. That way, you get the heads-up on any deals as soon as they show up!
andrewinardeer 2y ago
You want $5 to set up an alert. For Show HN, the product/project needs to actually exist and there needs to be a way for people to try it out. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336638 It should be easy for users to test the site out. Paying $5 to see if it works isn't as far as I'm concerned 'easy'. This could be a scam site for all I know. How can I test without payment? https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
- airninja 2y ago
  Thanks for the heads-up! I get where you're coming from. I’m thinking about adding a free tier so people can test things out. In the meantime, if you want to give it a try, just let me know and I’ll set up a test alert for you. Thanks for your patience!
  - andrewinardeer 2y ago
    If you do international flight please set an alert for Melbourne (MEL) to Narita or Haneda (HND). Email: flight-price-alert.0t3tk@silomails.com
    - airninja 2y ago
      Right now, the service only tracks Canadian airlines and airports. I’m working on adding international flights down the road. Sorry about that!
gregjor 2y ago
All of the big aggregator sites have price alerts. To grab short-term deals you have Airfarewatchdog and Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights, subscription needed for the best deals). All of those cover many more countries and airlines than you offer, without the risk of the airlines blocking them. Subscribing to the airline promotional emails can yield some big offers for members of frequent flyer programs. Last year I got two business class r/t Bangkok to LAX half price because Singapore Air sent an email to me.

13 points by airninja 2y ago

airninja 2y ago

I'm also on the lookout for new opportunities. If you know of any openings for a DevOps Engineer or Software Engineer, feel free to reach out!

rafram 2y ago

I'm not sure I get the point of the AI art, but this is a pretty good idea for a site!

yieldcrv 2y ago
It’s a migratory bird that OP was able to generate faster than waiting for an artist commission, and cheaper, and likely better
- rafram 2y ago
  I wouldn’t say likely better. It’s very… recognizable.
  - yieldcrv 2y ago
    my calculus is that most artists aren’t as detailed, and of the artists that are, most of the time they wouldn't exhibit those traits you were looking for in your commission takes many drafts, misaligned expectations, and many weeks to come up with a similar character its fine if you don’t like that result and aesthetic, I can appreciate that people - who weren't ever going to commission an artist - can express themselves and personify a brand now on random side projects
chipweinberger 2y ago
yes AI art is starting to look really tacky I had a similar thought maybe 3 pictures is just too much
airninja 2y ago
The AI art is there mainly because the page would be pretty empty otherwise, and I wanted to have some fun generating images :)

mattfrommars 2y ago

What do you mean by scrapping the flight data? What is this data and how did you come across it? As far as I know, the data used by Google Flight, Kayak,etc all pay, I think IATA some fees to access. Don't know if it makes sense, did you scrape IATA data?

airninja 2y ago
By “scraping” the data, I mean I’m just going straight to airline websites like WestJet and grabbing the info they show publicly. I’m not using any paid services or IATA data—just parsing whatever’s on the page. This helps me track price changes directly from the source.

dboreham 2y ago

Airlines are going to block your scraping.

airninja 2y ago
That’s going to be a fun challenge then! I’m up for it and will see how it goes. Thanks for the heads-up!
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
fragmede 2y ago
Skiplagged is still around, so they can try.

quesera 2y ago

I like the idea, but airlines are notoriously scraper-hostile, so this might require active cat & mousing to sustain operations. I also like the one-hit pricing idea, but it occurs to me that because it's bound to a single dep/arr pair, and for only one month, that it's probably not the ideal model for most people.

airninja 2y ago
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, airlines are definitely tough when it comes to scraping, so I’m expecting a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with their anti-scraping measures. As for the one-hit pricing model, the idea is to keep it super simple and easy for people to sign up for alerts with minimal hassle. By sticking to specific origin/destination/month combos, I’m also trying to keep the scraping load manageable. I know it might not fit everyone’s needs right now, but it’s a start. I’m open to any ideas on how to make it better!
- quesera 2y ago
  I wish I had a suggestion on pricing. If I'm looking for a low-priced fare that would motivate me to travel, I am probably less picky about destination, and possibly about timeframe. I.e. there are a dozen places I'd love to go for fun if the opportunity presented itself. I'd even drive an hour or two to another departure airport, if it made sense. So that's a combinatorial explosion of dep-arr pairs. SFO-*, OAK-*, SJC-*, etc. At $5/pair/month, my example costs ($5*3*12==$180) per month, which I definitely will not spend. I don't want to limit my alerts, because the three departure origins are functionally equivalent for me, and the 12 arrival destinations are interestingly equivalent enough that I'd regret missing out on a less-obvious pair. ... It's entirely possible that I'm unusual in this. And I get that each pair is a new query/scrape for you. Although it seems likely that, at scale, you'll have enough people from an area that a lot of the pairs are duplicates across users, even considering flexible departure airports. Good luck, and I hope you'll share your scraping experiences. There are a lot of interesting stories to be told in that business.

tetrisgm 2y ago

Would you consider making a self-hosted version? Lot less likely to get blocked and die :)

airninja 2y ago
I’ve been considering making it open source, so the community could add airline implementations for different airlines and self-host it. I’m not sure yet if I should go ahead with this or not.
- tetrisgm 2y ago
  I can totally see the appeal of trying to build a business out of it. As a user I worry about how long it'd last. I would buy a license or whatever, but definitely think it could benefit from continued updates to the parsers.

ungreased0675 2y ago

How do you determine when a price is a good value?

airninja 2y ago
I don’t really track historical prices, so I can’t say what’s a “good value” in that sense. I just send an email whenever I spot a lower price for a flight. That way, you get the heads-up on any deals as soon as they show up!

andrewinardeer 2y ago

You want $5 to set up an alert. For Show HN, the product/project needs to actually exist and there needs to be a way for people to try it out. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336638 It should be easy for users to test the site out. Paying $5 to see if it works isn't as far as I'm concerned 'easy'. This could be a scam site for all I know. How can I test without payment? https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

airninja 2y ago
Thanks for the heads-up! I get where you're coming from. I’m thinking about adding a free tier so people can test things out. In the meantime, if you want to give it a try, just let me know and I’ll set up a test alert for you. Thanks for your patience!
- andrewinardeer 2y ago
  If you do international flight please set an alert for Melbourne (MEL) to Narita or Haneda (HND). Email: flight-price-alert.0t3tk@silomails.com
  - airninja 2y ago
    Right now, the service only tracks Canadian airlines and airports. I’m working on adding international flights down the road. Sorry about that!

gregjor 2y ago

All of the big aggregator sites have price alerts. To grab short-term deals you have Airfarewatchdog and Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights, subscription needed for the best deals). All of those cover many more countries and airlines than you offer, without the risk of the airlines blocking them. Subscribing to the airline promotional emails can yield some big offers for members of frequent flyer programs. Last year I got two business class r/t Bangkok to LAX half price because Singapore Air sent an email to me.