Websites offering cheap deals via algorithms

[Jleno]

Interesting article on ft.com (Subscribe to read | Financial Times - unfortunately paywalled).

The article talks about companies that use algorithms to find cheap deals:

“We’re flight hackers. We’ve developed algorithms to tell the hunters about price fluctuations, but knowing a desirable deal is quite different. A good deal isn’t just a cheap fare. Members’ happiness drives our revenue.”

The article refers to the following services:

HolidayPirates | Cheap holidays, city breaks, flights & hotels
Jack's Flight Club
srprs.me

Curious if anyone has tried these or similar websites and their thoughts on it.

 

[Nerdnotgeek]

Seem a little bit UK based to be of much use.

 

[The man with no name]

Their paywall is no match for me


‘Flight hackers’ tap into the holiday market
JONATHAN MARGOLIS MARCH 14, 2019

• 'Flight hackers' tap into the holiday market.
• The four-figure fares on major airlines almost snuffed out the plan, but Air China was offering London to Sydney at £505.
• "We have some systems in place now, looking every day and all day for what's unusually low," Mr Wintermantle explained, "But there's still a lot of human knowledge needed".
• "We're flight hackers. We've developed algorithms to tell the hunters about price fluctuations, but knowing a desirable deal is quite different. A good deal isn't just a cheap fare. Members' happiness drives our revenue."
• Berlin-based Holiday Pirates have sold bargain packages since 2011, growing to a transaction volume last year of €425m. "For the past two years, our hunters' work has been semi-automated," said chief executive David Armstrong.
• "We're automating more and more," said founder and CEO Raymond Klompsma, "But it's still all human, technology should never work on its own. We all use it, but it's the human factor that makes the difference".
• Mr Sheldon and his colleague Philip Wintermantle run an online service from Barcelona, Jack's Flight Club, offering their 75,000 subscribers paying £35 a year, and 1.2m trial users, advice on bargain fares.
• The market they serve is an interesting travel variant - people whose trips are determined not by specific destination, but by fare.
• In the light of my excellent Australia trip, I thought I could be a modern-day happenstance traveller too, and joined Jack's Flight Club.
• Among the eye-catching deals that have come since have been a £462 fare from London to Madagascar return, £283 to Bangkok and £301 to Vancouver.
• Knowing you want to go to Sydney and stumbling on a good deal is one thing, but finding cheap and enticing fares to non-specific destinations sounds tougher.
• The pick of these bin-ends are the real diamonds in the rough, known as error fares.
• Sniffing out anomalous air fares is, it seems, one of the last redoubts of human intelligence over machine learning.
• The internet is the basis of the business - what they do would be near-impossible without it - but human ingenuity, curiosity and, ultimately, discernment is the secret sauce.

Not sure if I got all of the article but I think I got most...

 

[jch]

Have signed up to mightytravels.com

Can set by region airline or alliance. Also tells you how many points you will earn per FF program.

 

[Lemon_Party]

are these any different from secretflying and the fares that get posted on ozbargain?