Your pricing/trips page (<a href="https://flightfox.com/trips" rel="nofollow">https://flightfox.com/trips</a>) is really lacking some direction and information. I can easily see new Flightfox users being really confused. I was slightly confused and I've used Flightfox twice before.<p>I would suggest carrying over the 3 steps graphic/info from the main page to the top of the /trips page. But more importantly, you really need a better breakdown of exactly what those prices are. Even the "Guaranteed" keyword seems out of place and confusing. What exactly is the guarantee? That you'll charge me $149 no matter what?<p>Your create trips page is also lacking a bit of focus to me. Would be useful to have some more tangible examples of trips and example trip descriptions. I'm sure if you provided a simple example/template, you'd reduce some initial friction on first contact with an expert.
I've been a huge FlightFox fan and used them for several big (and complicated) trips - they've gotten me spectacular deals each time. This was all in the competitive phase, btw - haven't tried the new format yet.<p>One thing I just saw -- they dramatically raised the price if you're doing a "miles flight" -- it's now $99. I suppose I understand the thought process -- if you're not spending $$ on the flight, you're more willing to spend $$ on the consultation?<p>But honestly it makes me less-likely to use them. I use miles on some flights precisely because I DON'T want to spend any cash. Adding $100 in cash to the cost of the trip feels counter-productive.<p>Anyway, still a fan of the service, even if I've been priced out of using it :/
Congratulations. You invented travel agents.<p>Modernized them, I suppose.<p>Not exactly an exciting and thrilling turn of events but it seems the metrics all point toward this as a better solution so I suppose "exciting" is overrated.
Honestly the pricing is the real unnerving part here and it's definitely going to be a deal breaker for much of your audience.<p>Personally I'd prefer something like this: I enter my current flight details and the price I was going to pay (your experts should be able to verify this price as correct pretty quickly?), and then your experts would give me a better flight plan and I'd pay you 10% of the difference or something, and nothing if your experts don't find a better plan. This way I'd always feel like I'm 'winning' by using your service and not taking an expensive shot in the dark.
Good to see that crowdsourcing, one of the darlings of web commerce, is getting exposed for what it is: Cheap and crappy. The web capitalists loved the idea of labor competing against itself, maximizing value for the customer and minimizing labor costs. I.e. free work by 90% of the labor.<p>Good luck with the new system! Although you're doing it for practical reasons, I still applaud you moving away from this practice.
Wish I'd known about this change a few weeks ago - would have tried the new format - wife just booked a flight. I used flightfox once before, and while the idea was novel, the execution was... a bit weird.<p>Something that wasn't addressed in this article write up was how customers felt. I felt <i>bad</i> for having 4 or 5 people doing work on my behalf, giving them feedback ("change these days, find it cheaper", etc) then only 'awarding' one of them. I did not enjoy that experience - it made me feel like I was abusing their time.<p>Additionally, I never quite got the price my FF person found me - perhaps I waited too long, or something else happened. I think he'd sent me a screenshot showing that <i>he</i> was being shown that price as available, but when I went to the airline (delta, iirc) I wasn't getting that price. I was still getting a better price than I'd been aware of before, but not quite as good as what the guide claimed to have found.<p>Again, the contest format was not just bad for the reasons listed - users (well, at least this one) felt uncomfortable using it.<p>Good luck with the new format!
I used the new 'consultant' model last week and loved it. I really liked that the consultant could help me get what I wanted, not what I asked for ("I'm cold, put me in South America." "Buenos Aires is expensive. How do you feel about La Paz or Lima?").<p>I hope they standardize on it. The rest of the site seems to reflect the old models. For just one consultant, why do I need 27 different pricing options for 'kinds of flights'? I don't know what I want. Just charge me one price and be done with it. And the ratings system needs a field akin to 'money saved vs kayak' in addition to the 1-10 scale, because I'm no longer sure I got the lowest price as opposed to a consultation.<p>But I loved it all the same and will be back. Flightfox is doing a great job.
Disclaimer: I was a Flightfox expert. It was one of the best computer games I ever played and it occasionally paid me to play. (In a similar vein, Drupal development is the best MMO I could imagine -- the graphics surely leaves something to be desired but the social aspect is literally life changing and the quests keep you in flow.)<p>I am not sure whether flight search in a crowdsource format could or should arise again but Flightfox made the (deliberate?) blunder of revealing all expert email addresses to the other experts in an email announcing big changes coming on January 14. If this would be a bigger industry, that'd been quite some news... I know at least one person who is thinking on continuing -- thanks Flightfox for keeping the community alive.
I think crowdsourcing's issue is with the experience. For a customer, crowdsourcing requires more effort than plan google searching for example. You need to submit your issue, come back, edit/comment. Bad experience is much more frequent than good ones. And a neutral experience is closer to a bad experience which might result in the user not going through crowdsourcing again. Good luck with the new direction
Very interesting read! Especially when we are almost ready (as in next week) to launch our own crowdsourced travel advice platform on <a href="http://www.voyando.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.voyando.com</a>.<p>Let me share what we found during our test period.<p>We have no 'application process' for experts (flightfox has) which makes the 'crowd' somewhat smaller. In our experience this removal of the process increases the competition and the chances of a better outcome. Take stackoverflow for example: limiting it only to top-programmers would harm the concept. (i see SO as a crowdsourced programming advice platform :-))<p>Our platform supports more than just flights. We have hotels and complete trips as well. The philosophy of our platform is more on the convenient side of things instead of the 'hacker' mentality that FF has (no pun intended, FF is great for HN crowd I think). Our service could be used by your mom and dad.<p>Given the fact that we have no selection procedure of experts, a broader range of travel types and aiming to be a convenience service, we are convinced, also looking at our test phase, that crowdsourcing IS the right way to go for us. But hey, only time will tell and maybe you'll see a blogpost about our pivot in 18 months as well!<p>Congrats to FF for this pivot and the really great and open blogpost.
Very interesting learnings, and well-presented too!<p>I have to say, I don't see this as abandoning crowdsourcing -- the "crowd" of experts is continuing to work together. To me it looks more like investigating various approaches to getting good results from the crowd, and discovering a better alternative for the particular problem. Terminology aside, it's very interesting to think about what other situations this pattern could work in.
Great write up. It left me wondering - do you think you could have started here? Or did the competitive format bring you the talented experts & public attention you needed to make consultation work?<p>Congrats on the re-launch.
So I am traveling to 2 continents in the next month (Including the US). Most likely a minimum of 3 cities.<p>I have always wanted to use FlightFox but what is holding me back is the uncertainty of what I will get AFTER I have committed to pay.<p>What happens if I want to change my flight? Cancel? With the existing travel agent model, I am certain stuff like this will be taken care of.<p>When is the relationship over after the purchase or after the journey.<p>PS: Like Brett said, your pricing is really confusing. Is<p>London ---> New York international or Multi city?<p>How about,<p>London---> New York ----> San Francisco ----> Accra International or Multi City or both?<p>Do i pay different prices?<p>I plan to book my flight over the next few days. I am really tempted to prove I am an early adopter :)
I tried flightfox when I was planning a vacation last year. I had thought it was more like taskrabbit where people would compete for the lowest price and was confused/disappointed when it told me I had to pick someone. Unfortunately none of the results seemed particularly promising.<p>In the end, either I should be working for flightfox or the service isn't as good as it should be, because the "expert" results were worse than what I found on my own... and I had the impression that the lack of competition was part of it.
I don't understand the pricing.<p>Is it say 29 dollars to consult for me, then another unknown dollars for the fare, or is that 29 dollars all inclusive or per leg?
I just wanted to say how slick their service is, I just used it earlier today and was paired with a very competent agent. I'm now waiting for the day Flightfox can take care of the whole thing, including booking a flight. There is a definite opportunity there!