Nice! Is the kiwi API documented somewhere or did you just reverse-engineer it from the mobile app?
They have a B2B product called Tequila: https://tequila.kiwi.com/portal/login
Readit Newsstevedomin commented on Show HN: Cheap Flights finder bot with Python replit.com/@Muhammad-Sham... · Posted by u/aizaddx
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
I'm interested in using "Links" as a redemption flow for a points program. Is there a way to limit the maximum redemption price for a given link we generate, and is there a way to cancel outstanding links via api?
edit: reading about it further, it looks like "Links" collects payment from the user, and hence won't work here.
Can you email me at steve [at] duffel.com? Would love to explore how we could support your use case as this is right in our alley.
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
I think the confusion here is much more basic: what does it mean to “sell flights” and why would I do it? How do I know if I’m someone who can sell flights? I in fact don’t own an airline, so what does that mean!
I suspect there’s a bit of “curse of knowledge” at play here. You’ve spent a bunch of time in this space and we haven’t. If your target audience is all people who know this stuff then this might not be a problem, but just thought I’d try to clarify.
Thanks for clarify, it might very well be the case ("curse of knowledge")
We're definitely trying to appeal to someone that know they want/need to sell flights but doesn't necessarily know how.
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
Awesome - lots of potential here.
Lots of folks are asking "who is this for?". I think that's because the people that should use this don't know that they should yet. And it's probably missing the hotel/car angle too.
This would let people like planners (e.g. destination wedding), events (e.g. festivals), and the like simplify and make money through the entire customer experience/journey.
Good luck!
Spot on. Thank you!
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
> The airline systems don't always let you do everything programmatically so at that point whoever is selling the flight who be in charge of the customer.
OK, so this is my sticking point.
There are horror stories of Expedia somehow accidentally not booking the flights they've sold. You get to the airport, there's no ticket and no seat. Airline says "nothing we can do, call Expedia".
They can't call Duffel. I can't fix it programmatically. Customer's sitting angry at an airport, honeymoon ruined. What happens?
> You get to the airport, there's no ticket and no seat
We issue instantly issue tickets / pay for the booking so and for a lot of the major airlines we're plugged directly into their reservation system so this should be an extremely rare occurrence, if an occurrence at all. Nobody should ever miss a honeymoon because of that imo.
Customers won't be able to call Duffel but can get in touch with the merchant that sold them the flight.
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
Why not try clarify it for us here ?
Offered a few answers in comments below. Hope that helps clarify a bit.
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
Who is the market for this? (This is way outside of industries I've worked in, genuinely curious!)
Banks, spend management platforms, hotels, concierge services, events & experiences marketplaces, employee reward providers, or any brand that has some kind of loyalty programs.
There are a few reasons why such companies might want to offer flights (and other travel services) through their own product. A non-exhaustive list:
- Retention: a credit card company or bank might offer points and wants customers to redeem these points for travel. An hotel might want to offer flights so that their customers can stay within their ecosystem rather than going to an OTA (which will offer million of other hotel products)
- Monetisation: capture extra margin points from selling these products
- UX: tighter integration between their own software and the travel booking piece, i.e a spend management platform layering approval flows, policies, on top of a booking engine
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
Travel agencies and the like would be using it. It's a lot better and cheaper than trying to get access to a GDS (which can be expensive, negotiating with a host agency, etc).
I wanted to poke around at it myself but it seems like I'd need a $99/mo package package to use it? (I legitimately actually want pseudo-GDS access for my personal cohort so we can coordinate flights and conventions together as the logistics leader of the group. I know I'm not the enterprise customer you're looking for, buuuuuut...)
Yes, that's correct, only available on a paid plan today. API still available on a PAYG basis though!
stevedomin commented on Show HN: Duffel (YC S18) – A faster way to sell flights duffel.com/links... · Posted by u/stevedomin
This was my vibe as well. Maybe it's one of these "if you have to ask, it's not for you" cases, but I agree with your words: it doesn't bode well that on the post (as deep as I went) it doesn't mention who the customer is.
> Maybe it's one of these "if you have to ask, it's not for you" cases
Kinda agree but also think we should do a better job making it explicit who the target is. Thanks for the feedback