44 ms·

Welcome to being an outlier.

davidw 14y ago
Yep, my guess is that people who instantly grok > when an airline runs a 3x miles qualifying special, a $500 transpac costs about $0 if you value the miles to hit a tier. Are a small percentage of people who fly. Of course, they probably spend a lot of money flying, so are worth their own sites, but they're likely a different target.
- rdl 14y ago
  I think most people who fly live in crappy underserved markets with a single airline, so there's really only one choice anyway. The people with discretion are in multi-airline hubs (or within driving distance of multiple), or flying international routes (where anyone who does it frequently probably does have strong preferences). The tool I want is ITA/GFS + certain Sabre features + Kayak + Tripit + Flyertalk, all rolled in one. Would be appealing to a few hundred thousand (or maybe a few million) flyers, but people who fly a lot, and often in premium cabins; 10-100x more flight dollars, maybe 10x more flight miles, than the infrequent holiday market.
  - saryant 14y ago
    If I were trying to get into this market I'd try to find something I could sell to United 1Ks and AA ExPlats. I'll take ten of them over 100 leisure flyers. That market, however, is probably booking directly through their respective airlines or a corporate TA. Makes it tough to break into.
    - rdl 14y ago
      Not always; there are a lot of the hardcore travelers who hate their corp TA, and who want to maintain status with 2+ airlines. Add in hotels, and there's a market. Especially if you fly international a lot -- the foreign airlines are usually pretty bad at handling principals who make their own travel reservations, and most of the <40yo tech/law/etc. professionals who have to travel a lot prefer doing their own arrangements (with help) to blindly trusting someone else. There's also a market for people who fly a huge amount but are cheap and micro-optimizers. Not enough $ to get United Global Services, but 1K, and 1K doesn't actually help much except at the airport (and clearing waitlists). The other market might be lazy/late optimization. i.e. passively looking at your travel patterns, and if I see you fly in J/F SFO-IAD-KWI once a month for 6 months, proactively negotiating a rate with UA for you to do so at a discount in the future. That's not something UA will offer, but something a company or group could push for based on observed travel, especially if they can present LH as a credible alternative.

Yep, my guess is that people who instantly grok > when an airline runs a 3x miles qualifying special, a $500 transpac costs about $0 if you value the miles to hit a tier. Are a small percentage of people who fly. Of course, they probably spend a lot of money flying, so are worth their own sites, but they're likely a different target.

rdl 14y ago
I think most people who fly live in crappy underserved markets with a single airline, so there's really only one choice anyway. The people with discretion are in multi-airline hubs (or within driving distance of multiple), or flying international routes (where anyone who does it frequently probably does have strong preferences). The tool I want is ITA/GFS + certain Sabre features + Kayak + Tripit + Flyertalk, all rolled in one. Would be appealing to a few hundred thousand (or maybe a few million) flyers, but people who fly a lot, and often in premium cabins; 10-100x more flight dollars, maybe 10x more flight miles, than the infrequent holiday market.
- saryant 14y ago
  If I were trying to get into this market I'd try to find something I could sell to United 1Ks and AA ExPlats. I'll take ten of them over 100 leisure flyers. That market, however, is probably booking directly through their respective airlines or a corporate TA. Makes it tough to break into.
  - rdl 14y ago
    Not always; there are a lot of the hardcore travelers who hate their corp TA, and who want to maintain status with 2+ airlines. Add in hotels, and there's a market. Especially if you fly international a lot -- the foreign airlines are usually pretty bad at handling principals who make their own travel reservations, and most of the <40yo tech/law/etc. professionals who have to travel a lot prefer doing their own arrangements (with help) to blindly trusting someone else. There's also a market for people who fly a huge amount but are cheap and micro-optimizers. Not enough $ to get United Global Services, but 1K, and 1K doesn't actually help much except at the airport (and clearing waitlists). The other market might be lazy/late optimization. i.e. passively looking at your travel patterns, and if I see you fly in J/F SFO-IAD-KWI once a month for 6 months, proactively negotiating a rate with UA for you to do so at a discount in the future. That's not something UA will offer, but something a company or group could push for based on observed travel, especially if they can present LH as a credible alternative.