Flightfox, your thoughts?

[LiamR]

Some of you that know me more personally might be aware I’ve recently started working for a new company called Flightfox.

Flightfox is a platform for crowd-sourced (or human-powered) flight search, it works by each user starting contest by providing their trip details and committing a finder’s fee, then other users (known as flight experts) compete to find you the best flights, and cheapest deals according to the requirements you set out when you began your competition. Finally, the user (who made the contest and paid the finder’s fee) picks a winner and then follows the booking instructions and books their trip.

The person (Also known as a Flight Expert) whose entry was chosen as the winning entry, is awarded the finder’s fee (minus a small commission taken by Flightfox)

A ‘Flight Expert’ is anybody on the internet who is interested in making some additional cash (or just for fun) while putting their airline/flight/loyalty program knowledge to work. If you are interested in this, PM me.

The goal of this website is to save people money, or find then a better flight (‘better’ is to be defined individually by each customer as to what they want). Keep in mind we are not a booking website, and only provide suggestions for flights. The responsibility of booking flights rests with the customer. (Flightfox does however; ensure flight entries are up to standard meeting or exceeding MCT ect...)

As most of the AFF community is already experts in airlines and flight bookings, the need for anybody here to use a service like Flightfox is minimal, I am however keen to head what the AFF community think of this idea, and any feedback you have. I’m all ears!

You can find out more about Flightfox here Never Search for Flights Again! - Flightfox

I have spoken with the admin of The Australian Frequent Flyer who has approved this post.

 

[elbarto]

What happens if I find you a flight at a certain price, but by the time you go to book it it's gone up?


Sent from my iPhone

 

[awilcockson]

What happens if I find you a flight at a certain price, but by the time you go to book it it's gone up?

Or isn't available any more. Tickets can be quite fluid, both in pricing and availability.

 

[LiamR]

What happens if I find you a flight at a certain price, but by the time you go to book it it's gone up?


Sent from my iPhone

Or isn't available any more. Tickets can be quite fluid, both in pricing and availability.

There's no magical answer for this, Flightfox doesn’t work with the airlines and has no control over prices.

We encourage customers that if they find a deal they like, they should book ASAP. It's up to them if they book right away and secure a deal, or wait incase a better one comes along. It's the exact same way dilemma we all have when booking flights.

 

[awilcockson]

There's no magical answer for this, Flightfox doesn’t work with the airlines and has no control over prices.

We encourage customers that if they find a deal they like, they should book ASAP. It's up to them if they book right away and secure a deal, or wait incase a better one comes along. It's the exact same way dilemma we all have when booking flights.

Let me rephrase the question.

What happens if you are a "flight expert", find the "best" fare for someone, but by the time they go to book it is no longer available?

Do you still get the finders fee?

 

[LiamR]

Let me rephrase the question.

What happens if you are a "flight expert", find the "best" fare for someone, but by the time they go to book it is no longer available?

Do you still get the finders fee?

Yes.

Throughout the site and with emails, we're telling the flyer that if they receive a good flight deal and don't book it straight away, they risk missing out. The Flightfox expert still did their job, and thus are paid. It's the responsibility of the customer to book if they find a good deal because it could disappear very fast.

However...

We are offering refunds if flyers aren't satisfied with the results, but we're encouraging more dialogue and interaction with the experts so they don't miss out on the finder's fee. If the deal is no longer available, we encourage the flyer working with the expert to find another flight.

 

[jneufeld]

I've signed up as an expert, to see if I am as good as I think
Looks like a great idea, especially for those with out of the norm multi-city flights.
I'll let you know how its goes, and if I make any money at all!

 

[BensAdventures]

I've just registered (or I think I have), I guess I'll wait and see. I filled in my details, clicked to button to submit and it just took me back to the main site. I hope it worked...

 

[moa999]

Great idea.
Logo is pretty average.

Questions is in the selection of the winner.
Is it purely cheapest, or can a person prefer a 5-segment oneworld itinerary over a 7-segment star alliance with three airport overnights.

Would also be useful if it could display the best routings/ pricing etc// although this may may give up some 'tricks'

 

[Reg Reagan]

Yes.

However...

We are offering refunds if flyers aren't satisfied with the results, but we're encouraging more dialogue and interaction with the experts so they don't miss out on the finder's fee. If the deal is no longer available, we encourage the flyer working with the expert to find another flight.

Question - what's to stop a dishonest flyer from saying they're not satisfied & then going ahead with the booking anyway in order to avoid the finder's fee?

 

[jneufeld]

The winner can pick any of the options submitted to them I think. When you submit a flight, you are encouraged to put in as many details as you can.
Similarly if a flyer wants a OW or *A fare they simply have to mention it in their contest details.

In terms of displaying routings etc I think they keep it all hidden in the name of competition, and to protect each experts tricks.

Correct me if I am wrong LiamR

 

[FuzzyAUS]

Think i might give it a go, need to get from LAS to DFW in may (international SYD-LAX-LAS and then DFW-LAX-SYD all booked), the AA YUPP/KUPP's have gone through the roof so might look at some creative routing (that i havent had time to look at yet)..

FASA/JASA stuff might be interesting too

 

[pagingjoan]

Think i might give it a go, need to get from LAS to DFW in may (international SYD-LAX-LAS and then DFW-LAX-SYD all booked), the AA YUPP/KUPP's have gone through the roof so might look at some creative routing (that i havent had time to look at yet)..

FASA/JASA stuff might be interesting too

Let us know how you get on. The concept is interesting but the execution raises many questions. Maybe the experience of the last few posters will shed light.

 

[MrHyde]

Question - what's to stop a dishonest flyer from saying they're not satisfied & then going ahead with the booking anyway in order to avoid the finder's fee?

Also, whats to stop a dishonest expert from putting up a routing and fake pricing knowing that if anyone goes to look, they can just say "you didn't book quickly enough".

 

[straitman]

Question - what's to stop a dishonest flyer from saying they're not satisfied & then going ahead with the booking anyway in order to avoid the finder's fee?

Also, whats to stop a dishonest expert from putting up a routing and fake pricing knowing that if anyone goes to look, they can just say "you didn't book quickly enough".

I guess you have to trust peoples integrity at some point.

 

[LiamR]

Great idea.
Logo is pretty average.

Questions is in the selection of the winner.
Is it purely cheapest, or can a person prefer a 5-segment oneworld itinerary over a 7-segment star alliance with three airport overnights.

Would also be useful if it could display the best routings/ pricing etc// although this may may give up some 'tricks'

The contest holder (the one creating the request) picks the winner based on their own criteria. Most of the time people are looking for the cheapst flights, but as you suggested, some are also looking for comfort (Ie, this flight may cost $40 more, but it's direct instead of two stopovers and one overnight in Singapore)

The person who is holding the contest, is the person who selects the winner.

 

[MrHyde]

I've been playing around with the site and it looks good so far. I tried some of the searches and just could not come up with any of the prices that were listed as the cheapest on the first page. Shows that I still have a lot to learn in finding the best deals.

One suggestion though is that it would be nice to be able to insert flight details in an easier format than the Additional Information area. There are APIs available where you just need to enter a date and flight number and other details like Arrival/Departure times are automatically filled in. It will also standardise atleast the basic information that people are looking for and then the additional info field can be used to specify other things like alliances, extras, etc.

 

[LiamR]

Question - what's to stop a dishonest flyer from saying they're not satisfied & then going ahead with the booking anyway in order to avoid the finder's fee?

Also, whats to stop a dishonest expert from putting up a routing and fake pricing knowing that if anyone goes to look, they can just say "you didn't book quickly enough".

I guess you have to trust peoples integrity at some point.

Each time there is a dispute, it's manually looked at. If a customer isn't happy with it, why? What did we do wrong?

Same goes with a dispute with an entry, Flightfox staff go and manually investigate it, it's surprisingly easy to tell if an entry was genuine or not.

 

[LiamR]

One suggestion though is that it would be nice to be able to insert flight details in an easier format than the Additional Information area. There are APIs available where you just need to enter a date and flight number and other details like Arrival/Departure times are automatically filled in. It will also standardise atleast the basic information that people are looking for and then the additional info field can be used to specify other things like alliances, extras, etc.

Thanks for the feedback, I completely agree with you - Something like this is in the works at the moment.

I've been playing around with the site and it looks good so far. I tried some of the searches and just could not come up with any of the prices that were listed as the cheapest on the first page. Shows that I still have a lot to learn in finding the best deals.

I'm quite surprised at just low some experts can get the price of flights.

 

[jneufeld]

I'm quite surprised at just low some experts can get the price of flights.

Have you got access to see their sources