Flightfox.com - New Website With Experts To Help Find Good Fares

[craigt3365]

Flightfox

I just read about this website. Has anybody ever used it? Looks like a great way to have "experts" find the best fare for you for a relatively small amount of money.

http://toomanyadapters.com/flightfox-review/

[USNret]

Seriously? Pay a website $24US to help me search for tickets? I don't think so.

[canuckamuck]

I would use this for long haul flights.

I don't enjoy looking for flights

[steelepulse]

Don't all the so called experts either use the websites listed in the pinned thread or are travel agents and use that? I'm all for saving money on longhaul expensive flights, but most information is out there if you look. Nowi if they offered a money back guarantee if they couldn't find any savings based upon what the searching consumer found, they'd have a winning formula.

[rakman]

Don't all the so called experts either use the websites listed in the pinned thread or are travel agents and use that? I'm all for saving money on longhaul expensive flights, but most information is out there if you look. Nowi if they offered a money back guarantee if they couldn't find any savings based upon what the searching consumer found, they'd have a winning formula.

Not really.. Travel agents often get into the real ticketing computers.

This concept does have some merit as Flightfox uses freelancers to supply the brain power. While I think it is a novel concept on "routine" flights I doubt you'd get better than the search engines, but not all airlines are listed on them.

Before the web, I once made a reservation by phone with an airline. I joking asked if there were any bargains and I got a First Class from LAX-ATL cheaper than coach. So possibly a freelancer with the right connections could do some magic.

[el jefe]

The fee is *only* $24 for a one-way flight in economy. For Bus Class tix the fee starts at $94!

No refunds and there is no guaranty that they will find a better fare than you can do on your own.

And there's no guaranty that the best "experts" will even try to find a fare. The expert gets 3/4 of the fee. How much time do you expect someone to spend on a complicated itinerary for a small fee, when they're competing against all the other experts and may wind up with nothing?

The most useful section of the link is that anyone can be an "expert". I think many of the regular posters in this forum offer free advice that they could be getting paid for.

Paying for this service is a joke.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

Dont quite see why I should pay someone else to do a worse job than I can do on my own.

I also apply that logic to most so-called "professional" services that dont involve medical care (estate agents, financial advisers, architects, affiliated <deleted>) and it doesn't seem to have done my bank balance any harm over the years.

[Misterwhisper]

Good idea, bad execution. I will gladly spend a couple of hours on the Internet to save $94 in extra fees for a business class ticket that I can source myself, and possibly even cheaper than some obscure "expert".

[craigt3365]

Flightfox actually does refund your fees if they can't help you out or meet your requirements. If you read the review I posted, someone was able to save a bunch of money in one of the examples. I've also read about others who saved a bunch. And others who got their money back because they couldn't meet the requirements set up for the search.

Kayak: $1149

Flightfox: $571

Yes, you read that right, less than 1/2 price, a savings of $578.

WOW!

Not only that, but the expert worked with me to see if we could make an itinerary that might have fit my needs a little bit better, even if it would cost a bit more.

The difference in the second itinerary was two-fold. First, there was a charter company who had cheap flights between Canada and Europe. Second, a low cost carrier in Europe took me to Barcelona from there (Lisbon). Both are typically omitted from the typical flight search engines, but the experts knew the tricks and the deals.

One other difference was that when I launched my first contest above (KL –> DEN), there was no option to give a price you had already found. That has now been added, and I wouldn’t have awarded it otherwise.

[el jefe]

Your quote above is from the TooManyAddapters.com website.

This is a direct quote from the FlightFox website:

Refunds

Finder's fees are non-refundable because you are
paying experts to spend time searching. We may issue refunds in special
cases, at our own discretion, when results are clearly sub-optimal. This
is only in cases where you can provide proof of a much better available
price on exactly the same flight. In this case, you must request a
refund within three (3) days of your contest finishing. After that, to
be fair to the Experts, we auto-hire an expert and transfer your
finder's fee. The maximum refund is 100% of your finder's fee. We do not
insure or reimburse airfares, fees or surcharges. We suggest purchasing
travel insurance to protect against mistakes, misadventure and
misfortune.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

The difference in the second itinerary was two-fold. First, there was a charter company who had cheap flights between Canada and Europe. Second, a low cost carrier in Europe took me to Barcelona from there (Lisbon). Both are typically omitted from the typical flight search engines, but the experts knew the tricks and the deals.

I dont think one needs to pay an "expert" to know that the budget airlines dont normally appear on search engines and that if one wants (dares?) to use them one has to book on their own websites.

As for using charter companies, that's not a saving I would be prepared to make either.

If these experts want to attract me they would need to charge a percentage of whatever saving they come up with over whatever fare I managed to find before consulting them, rather than a fixed fee. And even then I dont really want the cheapest possible ticket; I want the best price for a flight at convenient times with a decent airline and telling me that I can save $20 by using some weird Chinese airline that takes 4 days and 7 planes to get me to my destination just isnt going to cut it.

[Paul888]

Services like this exist because there are a hell of a lot people around who either can't be bothered to do their own leg work or don't spend all their day at their pc.

It is not for everybody, but I am sure the link will help somebody.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Paul888

[craigt3365]

I've been researching this quite a bit. Some have saved quite a bit of money. Others, not so much or none at all.

I noticed some members here don't really know about all the online search engines, or just don't have the time. For them, this might be a good option. For those of us who really know how to work the system, maybe not such a good option. But for only $30 or so, there is the potential to save some money. Especially for more expensive and complicated flights.

Anyway, an interesting website.

[craigt3365]

The difference in the second itinerary was two-fold. First, there was a charter company who had cheap flights between Canada and Europe. Second, a low cost carrier in Europe took me to Barcelona from there (Lisbon). Both are typically omitted from the typical flight search engines, but the experts knew the tricks and the deals.

I dont think one needs to pay an "expert" to know that the budget airlines dont normally appear on search engines and that if one wants (dares?) to use them one has to book on their own websites.

As for using charter companies, that's not a saving I would be prepared to make either.

If these experts want to attract me they would need to charge a percentage of whatever saving they come up with over whatever fare I managed to find before consulting them, rather than a fixed fee. And even then I dont really want the cheapest possible ticket; I want the best price for a flight at convenient times with a decent airline and telling me that I can save $20 by using some weird Chinese airline that takes 4 days and 7 planes to get me to my destination just isnt going to cut it.

Do a little research on this. You can set your preferences for time, cost and airline quality.

[phuketrichard]

Seriously? Pay a website $24US to help me search for tickets? I don't think so.

agree , what a rip off;

kayak is free

[BlackPuddingBertha]

Do a little research on this. You can set your preferences for time, cost and airline quality.

I did look at it (but not via that naughty link). The preference settings are there but are a little too vague for my taste. For example, on my most recent booking I gave a lot of weight to a direct flight, and accepted one bad (for me) flight time when I found a direct flight with a good airline at a very low price. However had the price been higher (as it normally would be) I would have gone with a 1-stop flight at better times for less cost. The options aren't there to explain all that. A real bargain may require me to make a significant change to my plans to take advantage of it, and whilst I am probably prepared to do this they cant know what would suit me.

A live test would certainly be interesting.

I expect that people who cant be bothered to make any effort themselves may like this site, and there are certainly plenty of people like that in the world.

[yermanee]

quote

I expect that people who cant be bothered to make any effort themselves
may like this site, and there are certainly plenty of people like that
in the world.

unquote

Yes indeed a good friend of mine is one of these, and I know plenty people who don't know the difference between airlines can be huge in terms of price, comfort, direct flights etc.

I think for these kind of people this website might be a good alternative and I also believe that these are the kind of persons this service is aimed at.

Having said that I prefer to do the legwork myself.

Yermanee

[craigt3365]

For me, the legwork is half the fun of the trip!

[yermanee]

For me, the legwork is half the fun of the trip!

Well for me not realy half the fun but part of it anyway

Yermanee