6 ms·

Fly to 6 Continents in Style

240 points by laumac 14y ago

rjsamson 14y ago
So this is pretty cool and everything, but the frustrating thing for me is I would love to see the itineraries that won, but I keep getting greeted with a "only the contest owner can view flight details." I'd love to see this opened up - I think it would build a lot more trust in their platform.
- todsul 14y ago
  Hi rj, Here are the details for the economy itinerary, which was $1730 for 6 Continents. We're working with the expert of the business class itinerary to see what details he's happy for us to post. JFK 18-Oct-2012 GEO 18-Oct-2012 Delta (New York, US to Georgetown, Guyana) GEO 25-Oct-2012 JFK 25-Oct-2012 Delta (Georgetown, Guyana to New York, US) JFK 14-Nov-2012 TXL 15-Nov-2012 Air Berlin (New York, US to Berlin, Germany) SXF 29-Jan-2013 AGA 29-Jan-2013 EasyJet (Berlin, Germany to Agadir, Morocco) AGA 05-Feb-2013 LGW 05-Feb-2013 EasyJet (Agadir, Morocco to London, UK) LTN 26-Feb-2013 SAW 26-Feb-2013 EasyJet (London, UK to Istanbul, Turkey) SAW 18-Mar-2013 IKA 19-Mar-2013 Pegasus (Istanbul, Turkey to Tehran, Iran) IKA 29-Mar-2013 KUL 30-Mar-2013 AirAsia (Tehran, Iran to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) KUL 02-Apr-2013 PER 02-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Perth, Australia - YAY!) PER 07-Apr-2013 KUL 07-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Perth, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) KUL 09-Apr-2013 BKK 09-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand) BKK 18-Apr-2013 KBP 18-Apr-2013 Aerosvit (Bangkok, Thailand to Kiev, Ukraine) KBP 18-Apr-2013 JFK 18-Apr-2013 Aerosvit (Kiev, Ukraine to New York, US)
  - corin_ 14y ago
    Would it not make sense to enable public viewing for it on the site - at least in instances like above where you are happy to let people know? I feel the rough cost should be promoted up front, I remember the last time you did one of these promo contests (or at least the last time one was on HN) I found it interesting, then was put off by the fact that you didn't allow viewing of the winning itinerary, and the fact that information on the service didn't seem to be as accessible as it could have been... I then completely forgot about you. This time I clicked around, entered some information and saw the prices - and signed up to pay for a search. If the results are good, or even suggest promise for the future, I'll be sure to remember you. But I'm not sure I would have done any of this if a.) I wasn't sat here watching a football (soccer) match that's boring the hell out of me and b.) Next week I need to go on a trip to two cities in hopefully a single day, i.e. good timing Edit: More feedback, would be nice to have more flexibility in requesting flight details. For example my trip next week, I don't care what day it's on (any of Mon-Fri would be fine), but I don't want to put +/- 3 days because I don't want one flight Monday and the next on Friday. Additionally I want to go to two cities, I don't care in which order. Maybe you could take a look at my notes on http://flightfox.com/contest/23238 http://flightfox.com/contest/23238 and tell me a.) If it's OK that I specified them there and b.) If it might be possible to be able to specify them somewhere more efficient rather than just writing prose
    - rjsamson 14y ago
      I agree - if you could put this on the site, at least for your FlightFox sponsored contests, I think that would be pretty powerful marketing material.
    - todsul 14y ago
      Hi corin_5, coincidentally we're working on improved date flexibility right now. You'll be able to specify before/after and many more day period options. We're doing the same for passenger type. Not just adults, but students, infants, etc. We can't enable public viewing because the experts don't want to divulge their most prized tips and tricks to the wider public. This is their livelihood, and we are mostly holding these contests to test their skills and proving something more interesting that the typical simple return trips. Glad you're giving us a go. Please let us know if you have any issues or questions.
      - corin_ 14y ago
        Another piece of flexibility feedback - wildcard destinations, for finding a decent priced holiday (obviously with some guidance on rough location). I guess this is possible from the competition you just ran, but I must have missed the option. As to the reasons for not enabling public viewing... as you've publicly shared here on HN, could you not at least share that much on the site? Alternatively could you not offer an option for people to "buy it now", to use an ebay phrase? Or would the necessary price tag be too high for most people to be interested? p.s. The 5 was attached to the number of minutes, not my name! ;D
        todsul 14y ago
        Great point re destinations. You can actually do wildcard destinations right now, but it's just not obvious. We have an autocomplete function on the airport box, but you can enter anything you want. As you'll see on the RTW contests, we just entered "Round the World" for 'from' city and "6 Continents" for the 'to' city. That said, we need to make this more obvious and probably tease out more adventurous use of this feature. Thanks for the feedback.
      - 14y ago
  - rjsamson 14y ago
    Thanks! In my personal opinion I think that seeing that actual itinerary really boosts the 'WOW' factor.
  - brk 14y ago
    So, this requires essentially being gone for 4 continuous months in order to get these prices? I'm not sure how amazing that is really. That's also 4 months of living on the road, hotels, meals, etc. If you wanted to visit all 6 continents, it seems like you could do it for a cheaper overall rate by just book 6 individual flights over time taking advantage of various promotions.
    - todsul 14y ago
      4 months traveling the world, having to eat "meals"... sounds terrible! :)
      - brk 14y ago
        Well, it is for almost anyone with a halfway decent/steady job. What I'm saying is that it's kind of impractical for a lot people. I would expect a "contest" like this to have a winning result that was a little more practical from a total travel time perspective, or at the very least have 2 winning options, one for "Total trip time of 2 weeks or less" (granted this might have to be 3 or even 4 weeks if you're going to be spending at least 12 days away anyway) and one for "Lowest cost overall regardless of duration".
        qq66 14y ago
        The contest had a specific set of rules and a 4-month itinerary was permissible within these rules. The point wasn't to create an itinerary that would be advisable for a particular individual, it was to demonstrate that FlightFox is a good tool for finding rock bottom prices, so any set of fair rules would work. If you were actually making an itinerary for someone, you'd probably have even more pressing questions than trip duration, such as "Where would you like to go?" Do you even want to go 6 continents? :)
        jlarocco 14y ago
        Yeah, I was interested until I found that part. I think for most people, if they could afford 4 months off work then they wouldn't be too concerned about finding the cheapest possible flights. It's still interesting in a theoretical way, but far less useful than the headline makes it sound.
  - rm999 14y ago
    Very cool, but I'm not clear who your site targets. That price is amazing but the itinerary involves a lot of flying around on terrible airlines. I usually have a lot of restrictions: I want to fly on these dates, with the fewest travel hours possible, on good, dependable airlines. How much leeway is in there to save money?
    - todsul 14y ago
      Less leeway, but flightfox is about saving you time and money. Even if you build a 6-continent itinerary with a lot of restrictions, it will take many hours. The tips and tricks the experts provide, even for getting on better airlines or other perks, really comes in handy. There are of course sometimes we just can't help. That's normally with simple itineraries and inflexible flyers.
  - paulgb 14y ago
    I was curious to see how the prices broke down and made a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArqFVqywuf39dEZMX0ttdEpTNUpiWmlEcDlTQU91QVE&output=html https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArqFVqywuf39dEZ... My total was $2617. I know flight prices change over time, but I'm guessing that whoever found this took advantage of some promotions or booking methods other than buying directly from the airline?
    - robryan 14y ago
      The rules for economy were that to be freely bookable online. The contest was a while ago now though so the same deals they took advantage of probably ended.
- todsul 14y ago
  And here are some of the details of the business class itinerary for $3,630. Keep in mind that a similar itinerary from the same expert came in at $2569. That itinerary didn't win because we couldn't verify it online. The expert suggested it required a quick phone call. Los Angeles LAX to Sydney SYD Sydney SYD to Bangkok BKK Bangkok BKK to XXX XXX to XXX XXX to Cairo CAI Cairo CAI to London LHR London LHR to XXX XXX to Bogota BOG Bogota BOG to XXX XXX to Los Angeles LAX Apologies for the missing details, but these details are the experts' secret sauce. If you actually want to take a trip like this, let us know and we can hold a content for you and make sure the best experts know about it.
  - corin_ 14y ago
    Not personally interested in that deal, but wondering: what would it take to get that trip. Could create a contest, but would it need paying more than the minimum fee to get that same deal? Do some experts not get out of bed for less than $x?
    - todsul 14y ago
      To get the business class itinerary, it would take a significant finder's fee. If you are seriously interested in an itinerary like this, please email us, team at flightfox.com and we'll work directly with you. Like we mentioned in the post, this would be an unforgettable trip without a doubt.
      - rdl 14y ago
        What is "significant"? $100? $500?
  - brk 14y ago
    So who are these "experts"? Travel agents? What is the motivation to them to keep certain details secret?
    - _delirium 14y ago
      Not sure if it applies to this particular one, but there are a lot of pricing quirks in international, multi-airline itineraries that one can exploit: airline fare rules are fairly complex lists of requirements/exclusion/combination/stopover rules etc., and the combinatorial complexity and ancient IT infrastructure it's all coded in sometimes produces results the airlines might not have intended had they realized it. Particularly lucrative combinations tend to get shut down once airlines notice them, so there's sort of an ethos of not talking about them openly in public. One exploit that was going around for a while, for example, was that certain combinations of cities/airlines would result in the fuel surcharge not showing up on a fare like you'd expect it to ("fuel dumping"); you could sometimes purposely add weird legs to make that situation come about, but weren't supposed to publicly post such a leg if you found one, lest it go away.
patdennis 14y ago
Six continents for what I spend per month on rent? Pretty amazing. Even at three grand it would be a great deal... This seems like a useful service. I wonder how often it produces results this good.
- greyboy 14y ago
  Well, unless you are living, eating and travelling on each continent for free over the 6 months, it's going to cost much more than the stated price.
- grecy 14y ago
  I drove from Alaska to Argentina in 22 months, and my expenses on the road were identical to what they had been for the previous two years going to work every day. It's very common to go traveling the world for basically the same amount of money you spend just going to work. http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure
  - drgath 14y ago
    Damn, that really has me thinking about doing something similar. One advantage of being in Web development is I (and many others here) can work from anywhere as long as there is an an occasional Internet connection. Certainly nothing full-time (defeats the purpose of traveling), but a few hundred dollars here and there probably goes a long ways.
    - grecy 14y ago
      Absolutely, go for it. I'm a software engineer, so I work online too, irrelevant of the country I happen to be in. If you seriously think about driving (you should!), you'll find http://wikioverland.org http://wikioverland.org very helpful.
    - jayunit 14y ago
      Do it! I commented elsewhere in the thread, but for my wife & I together we spend 3500USD/mo and are quite comfortable. Travel's a blast. I found I really prefer contiguous blocks of work (several-week chunks) so work and travel don't each distract me from the other. Travel slowly, immerse yourself in the daily in-and-outs. Rent apartments, do housesitting. Stay at least a month in a big city, use it as a "home base," and make shorter excursions out from there. At the same time, there's adventure to be had coding and traveling at the same time... had to mute myself in a Google Hangout daily standup once because the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohri drums from the Delhi streets below were drowning me out. Brushed death on a Bangkok mototaxi in rush hour traffic en route to a give a meetup talk. Most exciting of all: found novel timezone bug in an app once by working in a zone (India Standard Time) with a 30-minute offset.
tayl0r 14y ago
I really want to submit my upcoming trip to FlightFox but I'm not sure of the best time to do it and there also isn't a date range that is wide enough for what I want. I want to travel anytime in late October or November (5 week window vs the 6 day window the site allows). I have 2 adults and 1 lap infant. I am going one-way from Berlin, Germany to Orlando, Florida. When would be the best time to submit this trip? Is it even worth it given the best price I can find online is about 1200 EUR total?
- todsul 14y ago
  Hi tayl0r, yes, you can mention your extra flexibility in the description section of your contest. We're working on better handling flexibility, such as in your case around dates/times. The best time to submit is sooner rather than later since, for the most part, fares go up, not down. 1200E is a fairly good price. However, if you want absolute rock bottom prices, make sure you say that in your contest and our experts will really go to work. As you can imagine, not everyone wants the lowest price, especially traveling with an infant. But I highly recommend you give Flightfox a go and see how our experts can help you. The great thing is it's often just $20 or $30, which is not a lot compared to the price of your trip. At worst, we can refund your fee, but more likely, you'll see how the experts work and may save a couple of hundred dollars.
  - tayl0r 14y ago
    Awesome, just submitted the contest.
  - tayl0r 14y ago
    I just booked it from Flightfox. Only 1080 USD and the flight is shorter with less stopovers than the one I found for 1200 EUR. I'm pretty impressed and will definitely be using Flightfox again. I really like how you can talk back and forth with the experts via the comment system.
brk 14y ago
OK, I don't get it (granted I didn't spend a ton of time reading through all the details). What I was hoping for is some way I could book the "winning" itinerary through some means. I was ready to buy 2 of the business-class trips instantly, but it seems this is more of a "bragging" site (in a good way), showing how cheaply you've managed to book a given itinerary?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- todsul 14y ago
  Hi brk, This was an in-house contest to test the skills of our experts. You can absolutely put up a similar contest to receive similar results. Love the idea about being able to book other flyers' itineraries. We're in a heavy product dev phase, so I'll share it with the team. Yes, in one sense we are bragging what real travel experts can do. The premise of Flightfox is, especially for high-value trips, you should leverage the skills and local knowledge of experts. Best.
  - brk 14y ago
    OK, thanks for the explanation. So, how exactly would I use the site for my benefit (honest question from someone who books about 50-70K flight miles per year)?
    - todsul 14y ago
      If you visit the homepage, there's a "Get Started" button. The next page is a form asking for your trip details. Once you complete the form and pay the finder's fee, experts start competing to build you the best itinerary. You can communicate with the experts during the process to specify preferences. Clearly it works best with higher-value itineraries. A more high level explanation is that Flightfox is a marketplace for freelance travel agents (and flight experts). We're bringing human travel experts online with a new crowdsourced model. Because customers pay a fixed fee upfront, we hope to remove the dependence on commissions. With diminishing commissions on flights, it's difficult to find agents who'll take the time to find you the best flights. That's what we're aiming to fix. For frequent flyers like yourself, we're currently building out features to also earn/spend miles. I'm not sure if you do mileage runs or book award flights, but this is where we could become much more interesting for you.
yefim323 14y ago
Why not use http://www.orbitz.com/ http://www.orbitz.com/ ?
- nachteilig 14y ago
  This site supposedly lets one do complicated trips for less than one might spend on orbitz and the like. It's essentially 21st century travel agent mixed with a competition.
ashbrahma 14y ago
If I am interested in the business class itinerary - do I have to recreate the entire contest or is there a chance I can jump on this deal by paying the same finders fee?
- todsul 14y ago
  Hi ashbrahma, please email us at team at flightfox.com if you're interested in this specific itinerary and we can help you get booked. Alternatively, if you're after something similar, but equally adventurous, also get in contact and we can work with you to post a new contest.
volandovengo 14y ago
Great stuff Todd! Is there any way to ensure that the best experts bid on the flights submitted. Seems like a few people really are crafty with their details!
- todsul 14y ago
  Hi there, really it comes down to the size of the finder's fee. For a trip that will cost a lot regardless, it's worth submitting a large fee to attract the best experts. We have almost 1000 experts, and the ones who win these RTW contests aren't necessarily the ones that can help you. Some people know certains countries or airlines better that others.
samstave 14y ago
In October of 2000 I took a 5 month sebattical trip to backpack through SE Asia. The ticket was called a pan pacific ticket, it allowed for up to (I think 7) stops. You just called and scheduled the flight you wanted when you wanted it. It had no set itinerary, and the ticket cost $2,300. I went from SFO to HK, and then hopped all around Tom Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and was planned to go to Sydney for the last stop, but had to come back early. I spent five months total, most of the trip was in hostels and beach bungalows, I stayed in a hotel in hong long and spent nearly $3,000 there over two weeks. I spent over a month on Koh Phangan in Thailand, at Haad Yao beach - all my meals, drinks and bungalow for that month, as well as all the meals and drinks for a girlfriend from germany who stayed with me a week: $250. I'd love to do this again, but now I have kids and it will be until they are in their teens before I can take them on a similar trip.
- todsul 14y ago
  Hi Sam, we met a few couples traveling the world with young children. One of our friends even gave birth in Thailand and after a short break, just kept traveling. When you speak to their children, even though they're young, you sense a real difference. Anyway, just wanted to say that people do still do this. Here's a blog of the aforementioned friend: http://almostfearless.com/ http://almostfearless.com/ (update: she's expecting a second and is currently in Lebanon).
b_emery 14y ago
But what about that elusive 7th continent? Here's one possible way to check that off your list. Find a research lab that is doing Antarctic Research and apply to join them as a volunteer. There are often positions for volunteers. As you can imagine, these are quite popular so it may be a difficult route, but it seems like there is always a need for people with electronics and computer skills. There are also job openings, eg http://www.usap.gov/jobsAndOpportunities/ http://www.usap.gov/jobsAndOpportunities/. It may cost you your time, but possibly not much else. I went to Palmer Station as a volunteer on an oceanographic research cruise and was able to use my travel stipend to stay in Chile for a few weeks afterward. For all my hard work I also received the Antarctic Service Medal [1]. (Not exactly sure why since I was not affiliated with the Military!). Definitely one of the best deals of my life. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_Service_Medal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_Service_Medal
- zheng 14y ago
  Would love to read a bit more about your experiences, that sounds like a ton of fun! Consider this a request for a blog post.
  - peterhajas 14y ago
    Seconded, this sounds like a fascinating read.
  - iamdave 14y ago
    Agreed, I would absolutely love to read this and share it with my mother. She's a huge nerd for expeditionary travel and research.
- rdl 14y ago
  I was looking at the winterover Raytheon satellite engineer job for a while, too, at McMurdo. Unfortunately I can't justify taking a year off of my life now, but it would be really fun to do someday. (winterover would be more attractive than being part of a huge manned outpost in the austral summer, to me).
- DavidAdams 14y ago
rdl 14y ago
Wow, this makes me want to book a flight in the near future just to get flightfox to find me an awesome routing. What I'd really like is if they could take into account FF status, and also hotel pricing (at the particular chain I like, Starwood). Book me a 3-8 week trip visiting as many places as possible from a set of N cities (plus transits anywhere) staying at Starwood properties (as nice as possible), using CX preferentially, with at least 20k miles on Star Alliance carriers, and avoiding UAE transit or stops, and willing to pay certain multiples for business class flights or upgraded hotels (St. Regis vs. Aloft). Combining hotel and airfare bookings would make the whole thing a lot more valuable for multi-stop itineraries. E.g. spending $500 more for a BKK transit (and 3-5 day stop) vs. a SIN transit, since BKK has 5 star hotels for $120/night vs. $300/night.
- 3JPLW 14y ago
  FlightFox allows you to specify frequent flyer miles and apparently some experts do take that into account.
- accountoftheday 14y ago
  i am curious about what you find wrong with UAE transit or stops. was fun to me.
  - rdl 14y ago
    Several people I know have gotten arrested on BS charges (related to being journalists/grad students and investigating the slave-labor-of-subcontinentals thing).
    - corin_ 14y ago
      There's some other reasons too - as much as I'm sure I could avoid any public displays giving myself away, I'm not a fan of the idea of going to a country where the fact that I'm gay is enough to get me arrested. I've turned down work in Dubai for this reason in the past (twice) and would do it again.
rdl 14y ago
The deal with official RTW fares, at least in 2000-2008 when I was checking them, was to buy them ex-interesting country vs. ex-USA. They have a price set in local currency, so when a currency drops vs. the USD, it takes them 6-12 months to adjust prices. ex-CAI, ex-BKK, ex-KUL were all excellent places to buy for a long time. A guy on flyertalk would maintain a list of ex-various *A RTW prices. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuTBktAWbGhwdHdCWFpLUjVVLUxVeVJHNUxsVEdsOFE&authkey=CMST4bsD&hl=en&authkey=CMST4bsD#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuTBktAWbGhwdHd...
- saryant 14y ago
  sbm13 (Another Flyertalker) maintains a version on that mashed up on Google Maps: http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/ http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/
  - rdl 14y ago
    Wow, I remember when FRTWSTAR3 were <$7k, now they're about $20k. (post-9/11)
Irishsteve 14y ago
Is the price of the business trip in anyway linked to certain political 'disagreements' in Cairo which happens to be one of the locations.
Geekette 14y ago
This post confused me in terms of itinerary options available. If you decide to setup a trip "contest", is there any way to specify whether you want economy or business class? Also, in terms of experts guarding their tips, what's to stop users sharing/comparing/aggregating their contest and tips/tricks behind them elsewhere? Eg if someone asks on quora and several customers answer with details of their bookings...
michael991 14y ago
Here's a 25% affiliate discount: http://flightfox.com/referral/16686 http://flightfox.com/referral/16686
natekapi 14y ago
Did the trip span the entire month of October? This seems like a pretty awesome itinerary. I wish you could post the dates too, so people could see how many days they got in each city.

240 points by laumac 14y ago

So this is pretty cool and everything, but the frustrating thing for me is I would love to see the itineraries that won, but I keep getting greeted with a "only the contest owner can view flight details." I'd love to see this opened up - I think it would build a lot more trust in their platform.

todsul 14y ago
Hi rj, Here are the details for the economy itinerary, which was $1730 for 6 Continents. We're working with the expert of the business class itinerary to see what details he's happy for us to post. JFK 18-Oct-2012 GEO 18-Oct-2012 Delta (New York, US to Georgetown, Guyana) GEO 25-Oct-2012 JFK 25-Oct-2012 Delta (Georgetown, Guyana to New York, US) JFK 14-Nov-2012 TXL 15-Nov-2012 Air Berlin (New York, US to Berlin, Germany) SXF 29-Jan-2013 AGA 29-Jan-2013 EasyJet (Berlin, Germany to Agadir, Morocco) AGA 05-Feb-2013 LGW 05-Feb-2013 EasyJet (Agadir, Morocco to London, UK) LTN 26-Feb-2013 SAW 26-Feb-2013 EasyJet (London, UK to Istanbul, Turkey) SAW 18-Mar-2013 IKA 19-Mar-2013 Pegasus (Istanbul, Turkey to Tehran, Iran) IKA 29-Mar-2013 KUL 30-Mar-2013 AirAsia (Tehran, Iran to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) KUL 02-Apr-2013 PER 02-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Perth, Australia - YAY!) PER 07-Apr-2013 KUL 07-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Perth, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) KUL 09-Apr-2013 BKK 09-Apr-2013 AirAsia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand) BKK 18-Apr-2013 KBP 18-Apr-2013 Aerosvit (Bangkok, Thailand to Kiev, Ukraine) KBP 18-Apr-2013 JFK 18-Apr-2013 Aerosvit (Kiev, Ukraine to New York, US)
- corin_ 14y ago
  Would it not make sense to enable public viewing for it on the site - at least in instances like above where you are happy to let people know? I feel the rough cost should be promoted up front, I remember the last time you did one of these promo contests (or at least the last time one was on HN) I found it interesting, then was put off by the fact that you didn't allow viewing of the winning itinerary, and the fact that information on the service didn't seem to be as accessible as it could have been... I then completely forgot about you. This time I clicked around, entered some information and saw the prices - and signed up to pay for a search. If the results are good, or even suggest promise for the future, I'll be sure to remember you. But I'm not sure I would have done any of this if a.) I wasn't sat here watching a football (soccer) match that's boring the hell out of me and b.) Next week I need to go on a trip to two cities in hopefully a single day, i.e. good timing Edit: More feedback, would be nice to have more flexibility in requesting flight details. For example my trip next week, I don't care what day it's on (any of Mon-Fri would be fine), but I don't want to put +/- 3 days because I don't want one flight Monday and the next on Friday. Additionally I want to go to two cities, I don't care in which order. Maybe you could take a look at my notes on http://flightfox.com/contest/23238 http://flightfox.com/contest/23238 and tell me a.) If it's OK that I specified them there and b.) If it might be possible to be able to specify them somewhere more efficient rather than just writing prose
  - rjsamson 14y ago
    I agree - if you could put this on the site, at least for your FlightFox sponsored contests, I think that would be pretty powerful marketing material.
  - todsul 14y ago
    Hi corin_5, coincidentally we're working on improved date flexibility right now. You'll be able to specify before/after and many more day period options. We're doing the same for passenger type. Not just adults, but students, infants, etc. We can't enable public viewing because the experts don't want to divulge their most prized tips and tricks to the wider public. This is their livelihood, and we are mostly holding these contests to test their skills and proving something more interesting that the typical simple return trips. Glad you're giving us a go. Please let us know if you have any issues or questions.
    - corin_ 14y ago
      Another piece of flexibility feedback - wildcard destinations, for finding a decent priced holiday (obviously with some guidance on rough location). I guess this is possible from the competition you just ran, but I must have missed the option. As to the reasons for not enabling public viewing... as you've publicly shared here on HN, could you not at least share that much on the site? Alternatively could you not offer an option for people to "buy it now", to use an ebay phrase? Or would the necessary price tag be too high for most people to be interested? p.s. The 5 was attached to the number of minutes, not my name! ;D
      - todsul 14y ago
        Great point re destinations. You can actually do wildcard destinations right now, but it's just not obvious. We have an autocomplete function on the airport box, but you can enter anything you want. As you'll see on the RTW contests, we just entered "Round the World" for 'from' city and "6 Continents" for the 'to' city. That said, we need to make this more obvious and probably tease out more adventurous use of this feature. Thanks for the feedback.
    - 14y ago
- rjsamson 14y ago
  Thanks! In my personal opinion I think that seeing that actual itinerary really boosts the 'WOW' factor.
- brk 14y ago
  So, this requires essentially being gone for 4 continuous months in order to get these prices? I'm not sure how amazing that is really. That's also 4 months of living on the road, hotels, meals, etc. If you wanted to visit all 6 continents, it seems like you could do it for a cheaper overall rate by just book 6 individual flights over time taking advantage of various promotions.
  - todsul 14y ago
    4 months traveling the world, having to eat "meals"... sounds terrible! :)
    - brk 14y ago
      Well, it is for almost anyone with a halfway decent/steady job. What I'm saying is that it's kind of impractical for a lot people. I would expect a "contest" like this to have a winning result that was a little more practical from a total travel time perspective, or at the very least have 2 winning options, one for "Total trip time of 2 weeks or less" (granted this might have to be 3 or even 4 weeks if you're going to be spending at least 12 days away anyway) and one for "Lowest cost overall regardless of duration".
      - qq66 14y ago
        The contest had a specific set of rules and a 4-month itinerary was permissible within these rules. The point wasn't to create an itinerary that would be advisable for a particular individual, it was to demonstrate that FlightFox is a good tool for finding rock bottom prices, so any set of fair rules would work. If you were actually making an itinerary for someone, you'd probably have even more pressing questions than trip duration, such as "Where would you like to go?" Do you even want to go 6 continents? :)
      - jlarocco 14y ago
        Yeah, I was interested until I found that part. I think for most people, if they could afford 4 months off work then they wouldn't be too concerned about finding the cheapest possible flights. It's still interesting in a theoretical way, but far less useful than the headline makes it sound.
- rm999 14y ago
  Very cool, but I'm not clear who your site targets. That price is amazing but the itinerary involves a lot of flying around on terrible airlines. I usually have a lot of restrictions: I want to fly on these dates, with the fewest travel hours possible, on good, dependable airlines. How much leeway is in there to save money?
  - todsul 14y ago
    Less leeway, but flightfox is about saving you time and money. Even if you build a 6-continent itinerary with a lot of restrictions, it will take many hours. The tips and tricks the experts provide, even for getting on better airlines or other perks, really comes in handy. There are of course sometimes we just can't help. That's normally with simple itineraries and inflexible flyers.
- paulgb 14y ago
  I was curious to see how the prices broke down and made a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArqFVqywuf39dEZMX0ttdEpTNUpiWmlEcDlTQU91QVE&output=html https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArqFVqywuf39dEZ... My total was $2617. I know flight prices change over time, but I'm guessing that whoever found this took advantage of some promotions or booking methods other than buying directly from the airline?
  - robryan 14y ago
    The rules for economy were that to be freely bookable online. The contest was a while ago now though so the same deals they took advantage of probably ended.
todsul 14y ago
And here are some of the details of the business class itinerary for $3,630. Keep in mind that a similar itinerary from the same expert came in at $2569. That itinerary didn't win because we couldn't verify it online. The expert suggested it required a quick phone call. Los Angeles LAX to Sydney SYD Sydney SYD to Bangkok BKK Bangkok BKK to XXX XXX to XXX XXX to Cairo CAI Cairo CAI to London LHR London LHR to XXX XXX to Bogota BOG Bogota BOG to XXX XXX to Los Angeles LAX Apologies for the missing details, but these details are the experts' secret sauce. If you actually want to take a trip like this, let us know and we can hold a content for you and make sure the best experts know about it.
- corin_ 14y ago
  Not personally interested in that deal, but wondering: what would it take to get that trip. Could create a contest, but would it need paying more than the minimum fee to get that same deal? Do some experts not get out of bed for less than $x?
  - todsul 14y ago
    To get the business class itinerary, it would take a significant finder's fee. If you are seriously interested in an itinerary like this, please email us, team at flightfox.com and we'll work directly with you. Like we mentioned in the post, this would be an unforgettable trip without a doubt.
    - rdl 14y ago
      What is "significant"? $100? $500?
- brk 14y ago
  So who are these "experts"? Travel agents? What is the motivation to them to keep certain details secret?
  - _delirium 14y ago
    Not sure if it applies to this particular one, but there are a lot of pricing quirks in international, multi-airline itineraries that one can exploit: airline fare rules are fairly complex lists of requirements/exclusion/combination/stopover rules etc., and the combinatorial complexity and ancient IT infrastructure it's all coded in sometimes produces results the airlines might not have intended had they realized it. Particularly lucrative combinations tend to get shut down once airlines notice them, so there's sort of an ethos of not talking about them openly in public. One exploit that was going around for a while, for example, was that certain combinations of cities/airlines would result in the fuel surcharge not showing up on a fare like you'd expect it to ("fuel dumping"); you could sometimes purposely add weird legs to make that situation come about, but weren't supposed to publicly post such a leg if you found one, lest it go away.

patdennis 14y ago

Six continents for what I spend per month on rent? Pretty amazing. Even at three grand it would be a great deal... This seems like a useful service. I wonder how often it produces results this good.

greyboy 14y ago
Well, unless you are living, eating and travelling on each continent for free over the 6 months, it's going to cost much more than the stated price.
grecy 14y ago
I drove from Alaska to Argentina in 22 months, and my expenses on the road were identical to what they had been for the previous two years going to work every day. It's very common to go traveling the world for basically the same amount of money you spend just going to work. http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure
- drgath 14y ago
  Damn, that really has me thinking about doing something similar. One advantage of being in Web development is I (and many others here) can work from anywhere as long as there is an an occasional Internet connection. Certainly nothing full-time (defeats the purpose of traveling), but a few hundred dollars here and there probably goes a long ways.
  - grecy 14y ago
    Absolutely, go for it. I'm a software engineer, so I work online too, irrelevant of the country I happen to be in. If you seriously think about driving (you should!), you'll find http://wikioverland.org http://wikioverland.org very helpful.
  - jayunit 14y ago
    Do it! I commented elsewhere in the thread, but for my wife & I together we spend 3500USD/mo and are quite comfortable. Travel's a blast. I found I really prefer contiguous blocks of work (several-week chunks) so work and travel don't each distract me from the other. Travel slowly, immerse yourself in the daily in-and-outs. Rent apartments, do housesitting. Stay at least a month in a big city, use it as a "home base," and make shorter excursions out from there. At the same time, there's adventure to be had coding and traveling at the same time... had to mute myself in a Google Hangout daily standup once because the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohri drums from the Delhi streets below were drowning me out. Brushed death on a Bangkok mototaxi in rush hour traffic en route to a give a meetup talk. Most exciting of all: found novel timezone bug in an app once by working in a zone (India Standard Time) with a 30-minute offset.

tayl0r 14y ago

I really want to submit my upcoming trip to FlightFox but I'm not sure of the best time to do it and there also isn't a date range that is wide enough for what I want. I want to travel anytime in late October or November (5 week window vs the 6 day window the site allows). I have 2 adults and 1 lap infant. I am going one-way from Berlin, Germany to Orlando, Florida. When would be the best time to submit this trip? Is it even worth it given the best price I can find online is about 1200 EUR total?

todsul 14y ago
Hi tayl0r, yes, you can mention your extra flexibility in the description section of your contest. We're working on better handling flexibility, such as in your case around dates/times. The best time to submit is sooner rather than later since, for the most part, fares go up, not down. 1200E is a fairly good price. However, if you want absolute rock bottom prices, make sure you say that in your contest and our experts will really go to work. As you can imagine, not everyone wants the lowest price, especially traveling with an infant. But I highly recommend you give Flightfox a go and see how our experts can help you. The great thing is it's often just $20 or $30, which is not a lot compared to the price of your trip. At worst, we can refund your fee, but more likely, you'll see how the experts work and may save a couple of hundred dollars.
- tayl0r 14y ago
  Awesome, just submitted the contest.
- tayl0r 14y ago
  I just booked it from Flightfox. Only 1080 USD and the flight is shorter with less stopovers than the one I found for 1200 EUR. I'm pretty impressed and will definitely be using Flightfox again. I really like how you can talk back and forth with the experts via the comment system.

brk 14y ago

OK, I don't get it (granted I didn't spend a ton of time reading through all the details). What I was hoping for is some way I could book the "winning" itinerary through some means. I was ready to buy 2 of the business-class trips instantly, but it seems this is more of a "bragging" site (in a good way), showing how cheaply you've managed to book a given itinerary?

deleted 14y ago
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todsul 14y ago
Hi brk, This was an in-house contest to test the skills of our experts. You can absolutely put up a similar contest to receive similar results. Love the idea about being able to book other flyers' itineraries. We're in a heavy product dev phase, so I'll share it with the team. Yes, in one sense we are bragging what real travel experts can do. The premise of Flightfox is, especially for high-value trips, you should leverage the skills and local knowledge of experts. Best.
- brk 14y ago
  OK, thanks for the explanation. So, how exactly would I use the site for my benefit (honest question from someone who books about 50-70K flight miles per year)?
  - todsul 14y ago
    If you visit the homepage, there's a "Get Started" button. The next page is a form asking for your trip details. Once you complete the form and pay the finder's fee, experts start competing to build you the best itinerary. You can communicate with the experts during the process to specify preferences. Clearly it works best with higher-value itineraries. A more high level explanation is that Flightfox is a marketplace for freelance travel agents (and flight experts). We're bringing human travel experts online with a new crowdsourced model. Because customers pay a fixed fee upfront, we hope to remove the dependence on commissions. With diminishing commissions on flights, it's difficult to find agents who'll take the time to find you the best flights. That's what we're aiming to fix. For frequent flyers like yourself, we're currently building out features to also earn/spend miles. I'm not sure if you do mileage runs or book award flights, but this is where we could become much more interesting for you.

yefim323 14y ago

Why not use http://www.orbitz.com/ http://www.orbitz.com/ ?

nachteilig 14y ago
This site supposedly lets one do complicated trips for less than one might spend on orbitz and the like. It's essentially 21st century travel agent mixed with a competition.

ashbrahma 14y ago

If I am interested in the business class itinerary - do I have to recreate the entire contest or is there a chance I can jump on this deal by paying the same finders fee?

todsul 14y ago
Hi ashbrahma, please email us at team at flightfox.com if you're interested in this specific itinerary and we can help you get booked. Alternatively, if you're after something similar, but equally adventurous, also get in contact and we can work with you to post a new contest.

volandovengo 14y ago

Great stuff Todd! Is there any way to ensure that the best experts bid on the flights submitted. Seems like a few people really are crafty with their details!

todsul 14y ago
Hi there, really it comes down to the size of the finder's fee. For a trip that will cost a lot regardless, it's worth submitting a large fee to attract the best experts. We have almost 1000 experts, and the ones who win these RTW contests aren't necessarily the ones that can help you. Some people know certains countries or airlines better that others.

samstave 14y ago

In October of 2000 I took a 5 month sebattical trip to backpack through SE Asia. The ticket was called a pan pacific ticket, it allowed for up to (I think 7) stops. You just called and scheduled the flight you wanted when you wanted it. It had no set itinerary, and the ticket cost $2,300. I went from SFO to HK, and then hopped all around Tom Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and was planned to go to Sydney for the last stop, but had to come back early. I spent five months total, most of the trip was in hostels and beach bungalows, I stayed in a hotel in hong long and spent nearly $3,000 there over two weeks. I spent over a month on Koh Phangan in Thailand, at Haad Yao beach - all my meals, drinks and bungalow for that month, as well as all the meals and drinks for a girlfriend from germany who stayed with me a week: $250. I'd love to do this again, but now I have kids and it will be until they are in their teens before I can take them on a similar trip.

todsul 14y ago
Hi Sam, we met a few couples traveling the world with young children. One of our friends even gave birth in Thailand and after a short break, just kept traveling. When you speak to their children, even though they're young, you sense a real difference. Anyway, just wanted to say that people do still do this. Here's a blog of the aforementioned friend: http://almostfearless.com/ http://almostfearless.com/ (update: she's expecting a second and is currently in Lebanon).

b_emery 14y ago

But what about that elusive 7th continent? Here's one possible way to check that off your list. Find a research lab that is doing Antarctic Research and apply to join them as a volunteer. There are often positions for volunteers. As you can imagine, these are quite popular so it may be a difficult route, but it seems like there is always a need for people with electronics and computer skills. There are also job openings, eg http://www.usap.gov/jobsAndOpportunities/ http://www.usap.gov/jobsAndOpportunities/. It may cost you your time, but possibly not much else. I went to Palmer Station as a volunteer on an oceanographic research cruise and was able to use my travel stipend to stay in Chile for a few weeks afterward. For all my hard work I also received the Antarctic Service Medal [1]. (Not exactly sure why since I was not affiliated with the Military!). Definitely one of the best deals of my life. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_Service_Medal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica_Service_Medal

zheng 14y ago
Would love to read a bit more about your experiences, that sounds like a ton of fun! Consider this a request for a blog post.
- peterhajas 14y ago
  Seconded, this sounds like a fascinating read.
- iamdave 14y ago
  Agreed, I would absolutely love to read this and share it with my mother. She's a huge nerd for expeditionary travel and research.
rdl 14y ago
I was looking at the winterover Raytheon satellite engineer job for a while, too, at McMurdo. Unfortunately I can't justify taking a year off of my life now, but it would be really fun to do someday. (winterover would be more attractive than being part of a huge manned outpost in the austral summer, to me).
DavidAdams 14y ago

rdl 14y ago

Wow, this makes me want to book a flight in the near future just to get flightfox to find me an awesome routing. What I'd really like is if they could take into account FF status, and also hotel pricing (at the particular chain I like, Starwood). Book me a 3-8 week trip visiting as many places as possible from a set of N cities (plus transits anywhere) staying at Starwood properties (as nice as possible), using CX preferentially, with at least 20k miles on Star Alliance carriers, and avoiding UAE transit or stops, and willing to pay certain multiples for business class flights or upgraded hotels (St. Regis vs. Aloft). Combining hotel and airfare bookings would make the whole thing a lot more valuable for multi-stop itineraries. E.g. spending $500 more for a BKK transit (and 3-5 day stop) vs. a SIN transit, since BKK has 5 star hotels for $120/night vs. $300/night.

3JPLW 14y ago
FlightFox allows you to specify frequent flyer miles and apparently some experts do take that into account.
accountoftheday 14y ago
i am curious about what you find wrong with UAE transit or stops. was fun to me.
- rdl 14y ago
  Several people I know have gotten arrested on BS charges (related to being journalists/grad students and investigating the slave-labor-of-subcontinentals thing).
  - corin_ 14y ago
    There's some other reasons too - as much as I'm sure I could avoid any public displays giving myself away, I'm not a fan of the idea of going to a country where the fact that I'm gay is enough to get me arrested. I've turned down work in Dubai for this reason in the past (twice) and would do it again.

rdl 14y ago

The deal with official RTW fares, at least in 2000-2008 when I was checking them, was to buy them ex-interesting country vs. ex-USA. They have a price set in local currency, so when a currency drops vs. the USD, it takes them 6-12 months to adjust prices. ex-CAI, ex-BKK, ex-KUL were all excellent places to buy for a long time. A guy on flyertalk would maintain a list of ex-various *A RTW prices. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuTBktAWbGhwdHdCWFpLUjVVLUxVeVJHNUxsVEdsOFE&authkey=CMST4bsD&hl=en&authkey=CMST4bsD#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuTBktAWbGhwdHd...

saryant 14y ago
sbm13 (Another Flyertalker) maintains a version on that mashed up on Google Maps: http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/ http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/
- rdl 14y ago
  Wow, I remember when FRTWSTAR3 were <$7k, now they're about $20k. (post-9/11)

Irishsteve 14y ago

Is the price of the business trip in anyway linked to certain political 'disagreements' in Cairo which happens to be one of the locations.

Geekette 14y ago

This post confused me in terms of itinerary options available. If you decide to setup a trip "contest", is there any way to specify whether you want economy or business class? Also, in terms of experts guarding their tips, what's to stop users sharing/comparing/aggregating their contest and tips/tricks behind them elsewhere? Eg if someone asks on quora and several customers answer with details of their bookings...

michael991 14y ago

Here's a 25% affiliate discount: http://flightfox.com/referral/16686 http://flightfox.com/referral/16686

natekapi 14y ago

Did the trip span the entire month of October? This seems like a pretty awesome itinerary. I wish you could post the dates too, so people could see how many days they got in each city.