5 ms·

The Lowest Fare? Ask the Crowd

64 points by todsul 14y ago

s_henry_paulson 14y ago
This is definitely a "Why didn't I think of that?" moment.
usaar333 14y ago
From experience, it is tough for the crowd to beat skyscanner.
- marquis 14y ago
  matrix.itasoftware.com is also where i check first.
  - what_ever 14y ago
    SkyScanner has better fares most of the times. But the sites it points to have bad reviews, so I have never yet tried booking though SkyScanner.
  - chrisdroukas 14y ago
    ITA Software (by Google) — would it be reasonable to guess that this flight tracker is built into http://flights.google.com http://flights.google.com?
- matt4711 14y ago
  Flight search engines don't include budget carriers. Most flightfox contests are won by a combination of low cost carriers like airasia or airberlin.
  - jka 14y ago
    Not entirely true - Skyscanner certainly does include budget airlines (in fact, long ago it supported only budget carriers); see below for plenty of easyJet flights between London and Berlin http://www.skyscanner.net/flights/lond/berl/1302/1302 http://www.skyscanner.net/flights/lond/berl/1302/1302 There are definitely challenges in gathering & displaying a combination of budget and 'traditional' carrier fares, but to say that either set isn't available via flight search isn't accurate
- jka 14y ago
  As a former long-time engineer there, it's nice to see them getting some praise here - thanks - there's a ton of impressive technology and data behind their engine, and that's without me knowing what they've been up to in the past year or so.
- hooande 14y ago
  I'm sure the flight hackers are aware of skyscanner, and probably know how to use it better than the average person. There are probably many exceptions like "Oh, if you're flying here skyscanner sucks and you really want to use X instead". You don't really have a control group to know that skyscanner consistently provides the best results. It's possible that you were happy with your skyscanner experience and believe that you got the best deal, while there was an alternative that would have been much better for you. Flightfox is a relatively cheap insurance policy against that.
  - usaar333 14y ago
    Flightfox is a good idea (though I'll admit I'm unconvinced computers cannot reliably beat the crowd), but it needs work on implementation. I tried it out and the winner quoted me an incorrect itinerary cost -- didn't notice that the airline's quoted price did not include airline fees and taxes (which are in the hundreds of $$ for international flights). In the end, the true winner beat skyscanner by less than the cost of the contest. Honestly, I find skyscanner amazing; it is the only system I know that finds airline consolidators (well flightfox does of course too) - and has a very easy to use tweaking interface.
kanamekun 14y ago
Congrats to Flightfox, YC S12: http://www.startupsmart.com.au/success-stories/flightfox-accepted-into-y-combinator-after-snagging-$800000/201205306453.html http://www.startupsmart.com.au/success-stories/flightfox-acc...
cocoflunchy 14y ago
Is anyone here an 'expert' for Flightfox? Can you share you thoughts about it?
patio11 14y ago
I tried this for booking my current business trip. I offered a $100 reward for a five city US excursion, originating in Japan, with the proviso "I use Delta. Make sure I get miles for this, either with them or an allied carrier." The best offer I get that actually read that instruction knocked $3,000 off the $5,000 that Delta.com quoted me. I went with Delta. I have the utmost respect for the amount of searching which went into it, but the instructions I got back were 6 steps long, with each step sounding like "Book a one-way flight from X to Y using this web interface", and I was terrified of getting halfway through and then being stranded in Des Moines not able to book the rest of the flights at anything near the quote. I'm so there if they can handle the bookings themselves, such that I'm not the one bearing the risk-of-failure-to-book.
- nopassrecover 14y ago
  Agree with your general point but with those kinds of savings it seems fairly irrational not to. With $2k in pocket I can't imagine being stuck in Des Moines with no options.
lsh 14y ago
I had $300 shaved off of a $1100 trip. Some of the posters really must read the criteria first and one, who I ended up going with, went way above and beyond in his helpfulness for the default bounty ($30?). The only thing I'm worried about now is somehow getting my luggage wired through all legs of my trip rather than my having to go through immigration at each stop and pick it up, only to go back through again and drop it off :P

64 points by todsul 14y ago

s_henry_paulson 14y ago

This is definitely a "Why didn't I think of that?" moment.

usaar333 14y ago

From experience, it is tough for the crowd to beat skyscanner.

marquis 14y ago
matrix.itasoftware.com is also where i check first.
- what_ever 14y ago
  SkyScanner has better fares most of the times. But the sites it points to have bad reviews, so I have never yet tried booking though SkyScanner.
- chrisdroukas 14y ago
  ITA Software (by Google) — would it be reasonable to guess that this flight tracker is built into http://flights.google.com http://flights.google.com?
matt4711 14y ago
Flight search engines don't include budget carriers. Most flightfox contests are won by a combination of low cost carriers like airasia or airberlin.
- jka 14y ago
  Not entirely true - Skyscanner certainly does include budget airlines (in fact, long ago it supported only budget carriers); see below for plenty of easyJet flights between London and Berlin http://www.skyscanner.net/flights/lond/berl/1302/1302 http://www.skyscanner.net/flights/lond/berl/1302/1302 There are definitely challenges in gathering & displaying a combination of budget and 'traditional' carrier fares, but to say that either set isn't available via flight search isn't accurate
jka 14y ago
As a former long-time engineer there, it's nice to see them getting some praise here - thanks - there's a ton of impressive technology and data behind their engine, and that's without me knowing what they've been up to in the past year or so.
hooande 14y ago
I'm sure the flight hackers are aware of skyscanner, and probably know how to use it better than the average person. There are probably many exceptions like "Oh, if you're flying here skyscanner sucks and you really want to use X instead". You don't really have a control group to know that skyscanner consistently provides the best results. It's possible that you were happy with your skyscanner experience and believe that you got the best deal, while there was an alternative that would have been much better for you. Flightfox is a relatively cheap insurance policy against that.
- usaar333 14y ago
  Flightfox is a good idea (though I'll admit I'm unconvinced computers cannot reliably beat the crowd), but it needs work on implementation. I tried it out and the winner quoted me an incorrect itinerary cost -- didn't notice that the airline's quoted price did not include airline fees and taxes (which are in the hundreds of $$ for international flights). In the end, the true winner beat skyscanner by less than the cost of the contest. Honestly, I find skyscanner amazing; it is the only system I know that finds airline consolidators (well flightfox does of course too) - and has a very easy to use tweaking interface.

kanamekun 14y ago

Congrats to Flightfox, YC S12: http://www.startupsmart.com.au/success-stories/flightfox-accepted-into-y-combinator-after-snagging-$800000/201205306453.html http://www.startupsmart.com.au/success-stories/flightfox-acc...

cocoflunchy 14y ago

Is anyone here an 'expert' for Flightfox? Can you share you thoughts about it?

patio11 14y ago

I tried this for booking my current business trip. I offered a $100 reward for a five city US excursion, originating in Japan, with the proviso "I use Delta. Make sure I get miles for this, either with them or an allied carrier." The best offer I get that actually read that instruction knocked $3,000 off the $5,000 that Delta.com quoted me. I went with Delta. I have the utmost respect for the amount of searching which went into it, but the instructions I got back were 6 steps long, with each step sounding like "Book a one-way flight from X to Y using this web interface", and I was terrified of getting halfway through and then being stranded in Des Moines not able to book the rest of the flights at anything near the quote. I'm so there if they can handle the bookings themselves, such that I'm not the one bearing the risk-of-failure-to-book.

nopassrecover 14y ago
Agree with your general point but with those kinds of savings it seems fairly irrational not to. With $2k in pocket I can't imagine being stuck in Des Moines with no options.

lsh 14y ago

I had $300 shaved off of a $1100 trip. Some of the posters really must read the criteria first and one, who I ended up going with, went way above and beyond in his helpfulness for the default bounty ($30?). The only thing I'm worried about now is somehow getting my luggage wired through all legs of my trip rather than my having to go through immigration at each stop and pick it up, only to go back through again and drop it off :P