[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) - Flight search engine for...
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Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) - Flight search engine for your credit
card points
Hi HN! We're Tim and Zi from Roame (https://roame.travel). Roame is
a flight search engine that lets you find and redeem business class
flights using points and miles, rather than exorbitant amounts of
cash. Here's a demo video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fixXuyhofgo We have been flying
around the world in first and business class using points for years
--Tim for more than a decade and Zi more recently. A little over a
year ago, we were trying to find cheap round-trip tickets in first
or business class to Asia and back using points. We had tons of
points across Chase, American Express, and Citi, but finding a good
redemption is always a pain. We had flexibility with points
currency, destinations, and dates. Our only requirement was
securing two round-trip flight redemptions in first or business
class on the same flight. This flexibility came at a cost: we spent
over 30 hours across two weeks manually searching dates and routes
on the websites of 10-20 airline transfer partners. Ultimately, we
did find two Japan Airlines first class tickets from Los Angeles to
Tokyo for 70,000 points each, returning to New York for 80,000
points each. These flights typically cost between $20,000 to
$30,000 roundtrip in cash, but using points, we effectively paid
only ~$2,000. The first class experience was unforgettable, but we
didn't want to repeat the tedious search process. So, we decided to
build a tool to save time in the future. I know all this about
points might sound a bit like magic, but booking cheap business
class flights using points is achievable for the average person.
Here's how it works: Credit card sign-up offers range from 50,000
to 150,000 points. These points are either tied to credit card
currencies (Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership
Rewards) or specific airlines (Delta Skymiles, United MileagePlus).
The most valuable and versatile points are tied to credit card
currencies because they can be transferred to various travel
partners. This flexibility allows you to choose the best value
before transferring points. If you only have points with one
airline program, you're limited to their redemptions. While most
people redeem their credit card points through the Chase or
American Express travel portals at about 1-1.5 cents per point,
transferring to an airline partner can yield 3-8 cents per point
for business class or 12-20 cents per point for first class. The
best value for points often comes from non-US airlines like Air
Canada, Air France/KLM, Avianca, and British Airways. For example,
you can redeem 50,000 points for an Air France business class
flight from San Francisco to Paris, which would otherwise cost
around $4,000. That's an 8 cents per point value, significantly
higher than using the credit card travel portal. However, the
challenges are: 1) most people don't know their credit card points
can transfer to airline partners, 2) they don't consider non-US
airlines, and 3) manually searching each airline website is time-
consuming. Our tool simplifies this process: Enter your origin
airport, destination airport, date, fare class, and number of
travelers. After you click search, our tool searches up to 16
different airline loyalty programs in real time and displays the
results, including flight information, points cost, and redemption
instructions. The real-time search is free and offers access to 60
days of SkyView, a cached database of the top 6,500 most popular
routes categorized by regions (state, country, continent) across
two months. The paid version extends access to the full 365
calendar and allows searches up to two months at a time, with email
alerts. SkyView is perfect for showing you what is currently
available or was previously possible for all your award redemption
needs. We're continuously adding more features and would love to
hear your ideas, experiences, and feedback! Thank you in advance!
Author : zman0225
Score : 138 points
Date : 2024-07-29 12:56 UTC (10 hours ago)
| J7jKW2AAsgXhWm wrote:
| Free alternative: https://www.awardhacker.com/
| maxverse wrote:
| This doesn't seem to work for me.
| rmacqueen wrote:
| Yea this was more accurate for me too, at least for the one
| route I checked (NYC-LON)
| timqin wrote:
| Glad you brought up one of the classics!
|
| So the difference between Roame and Awardhacker is that
| AwardHacker shows you all the theoretical possible redemptions
| and routes. So even if a route is "theoretically" possible,
| they may never exist for you to book.
|
| Roame shows the redemptions that are live and bookable now.
| sdfsdf12 wrote:
| Eh this looks kind of sketchy to me lol
| 2arrs2ells wrote:
| Congrats on the launch! Curious how you fit into the landscape of
| award travel tolls like point.me and seats.aero. What are you
| doing differently & who's your target user?
| timqin wrote:
| Thanks! In our view, the more tools, the better to help educate
| and bring more people into the points world.
|
| We're focused on the beginner points user and helping them
| through the learning curve of points. Want people to use our
| engine to book their first ever business class flight.
|
| In terms of product, we provide 365 days of free real-time
| search across all the loyalty programs we cover and any fare
| class.
| timr wrote:
| How are you going to deal with the fact that airlines don't
| _want_ more people in the points world? (Or at least, they
| don 't want people finding inexpensive redemptions, which
| cost them money.)
|
| The fundamental reason that it's hard to find cheap
| redemptions is that the economic incentives are aligned
| against cheap redemptions existing in the first place.
| Airlines want the revenue stream from points to be as high as
| possible, and the redemption rate to be as low as possible.
| timqin wrote:
| So this is an interesting question because there isn't a
| clear cut answer. The airline industry is fragmented
| globally, there are tons of national carriers. And each
| airline team has different incentives.
|
| Airlines, especially US airlines are making billions of
| dollars a year by selling points to credit card companies.
| So in theory, they actually want as many people in the
| world of points as possible because they a consistent high
| margin revenue from credit card companies.
|
| I believe the real difference between airlines is how they
| balance loyalty redemptions vs. revenue sales. Airlines
| full control the pricing of the points redemptions, but
| they have to balance pricing with capacity and fixed costs.
| If the flight is only 50% full, then that points redemption
| is going to help amortize the large fixed costs of
| operating that half empty flight. So having a bargain
| points redemption rate, would look attractive.
|
| Now, if that flight is 90% full, then the airline may not
| offer seats to redeem with points or raise the price to
| something extremely high like 200,000 points.
| timr wrote:
| > Airlines, especially US airlines are making billions of
| dollars a year by selling points to credit card
| companies. So in theory, they actually want as many
| people in the world of points as possible because they a
| consistent high margin revenue from credit card
| companies.
|
| They want to sell as many points as possible, for as much
| as they can, and redeem them for as little as they can.
| (And in the middle, they want you to keep them as long as
| possible while they collect interest on the float while
| depreciating their value.)
|
| > If the flight is only 50% full, then that points
| redemption is going to help amortize the large fixed
| costs of operating that half empty flight. So having a
| bargain points redemption rate, would look attractive.
| Now, if that flight is 90% full, then the airline may not
| offer seats to redeem with points or raise the price to
| something extremely high like 200,000 points.
|
| I suspect the market for flight redemptions reflects
| this. The airlines would _prefer_ that you can 't redeem
| your points until the flight is absolutely unbookable by
| any more valuable means -- and for the airlines,
| essentially every form of cash booking is more valuable
| than points, since a "point" in your wallet means cash on
| their balance sheet. It's not in their interest to make
| cheap redemptions easy to find.
|
| If I had to guess, the airlines that do early releases of
| award seats treat it as marketing expense. All things
| equal, they'd prefer that you have to hunt for them like
| truffles.
| borski wrote:
| The long term answer to this is easy: the airlines (really
| just Air Canada, and that will set a precedent) will lose
| this battle.
|
| They will devalue points, change award charts, play the
| stupid cat and mouse game of trying to prevent scraping,
| but they will lose.
|
| Even Southwest is giving up; they're switching to assigned
| seats after many decades, because no amount of trying to
| prevent bots from checking you in has worked, long term,
| and checking in exactly at the minute and getting a C group
| number is infuriating. This isn't a Taylor Swift concert;
| it's a goddamn flight to JFK, lol.
| timr wrote:
| The airlines make up the fake currency, control its
| value, distribution, and ultimately, the entire consumer
| market for the currency. I don't know how you can
| conclude that they'll lose, when they run the entire
| game.
| borski wrote:
| Totally fair. I only meant they'd lose the battle against
| third-party searches, not that they'd lose money on the
| programs overall.
| sanj wrote:
| Love the idea!
|
| If a user has entered what points they have, can you limit the
| results and prices to just that card?
| throw03172019 wrote:
| It was unclear to me at first but you can filter down by which
| cards you have.
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you for help out
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you! After you search, you can filter by card program.
| davemel37 wrote:
| You lost me at requiring registering an account to see flight
| availability. You need to give some value before asking for my
| contact info. Too many free alternatives exist that don't gate
| their search results.
|
| If your premium features are worth it - I'll register. If you
| want my info - maybe capture it with an offer for an alert after
| I do my initial query.
|
| ------------ In terms of feedback on the broader platform and
| idea - I think you may be confusing two different audiences.
| Travel hackers and average reward consumers are different
| consumers - Your messaging "free flights using points" and
| attempt to monetize with credit card offers are targeting average
| consumers - but your search engine and the headache/problem you
| are trying to solve is really a travel hacker problem - and
| honestly - its not really a problem - I kinda Enjoy The Hunt!
| timqin wrote:
| Totally understand. I believe you should be able to access the
| full real-time results without an account. You can search any
| date, route, and fare class. Please let me know if the live
| search is not working for you.
|
| For SkyView Lite, SkyView and Discover, those are the pro
| features and require an account.
|
| Love the feedback! So yes, there is an inherent tension between
| travel hackers and the average consumer with points. We are
| hoping to bridge that gap and flatten the learning curve for
| the average consumer.
| gaadd33 wrote:
| Just curious, what alternatives are there that don't gate
| search results? I know point.me gates them as well.
| ninjastar99 wrote:
| Love this! Design is stellar. Very well done!
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you! If you have any questions, please let me know
| alex_studer wrote:
| This seems like a cool idea! Some random feedback from using the
| website:
|
| * I'm not really sure I understood what SkyView is? It seems like
| you need to enable that to book round-trip flights, and you have
| to pay for it? But then there's also SkyView Lite?? And that's
| free but needs an account? Is there no way to book round-trip
| without paying?
|
| * Maybe ask people what cards they have on the homepage? I found
| it confusing that it suggested flights with points programs I
| didn't have, and didn't realize you could filter it at first.
|
| * I don't think I fully understood the difference between this
| and just using my credit card's travel portal to book flights. Is
| it that you can compare multiple rewards programs at once? Or the
| idea that you can earn more value per point by transferring them?
| Maybe it would be good to clarify that on the homepage, because
| right now it just feels like a generic "book with points" search
| engine?
|
| * Is there a way to allow discovering deals in any destination?
| (So rather than choosing a fixed destination, let it be open to
| any destination, and then plan a trip somewhere where you can get
| a good deal on a flight, if that makes sense?)
|
| * On mobile, the filter popup is blocked by the "Log In/Sign Up"
| buttons on the bottom of the screen. Also on the homepage, the
| "Create an account" notification appears on top of the expanded
| hamburger.
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you! Always open to feedback.
|
| 1) You're right. We have been working on how to best present
| SkyView to users. Skyview is our cached search product, which
| lets users search up to 60 days at a time, search from region-
| to-region, and set alerts.
|
| SkyView Lite is free "intro" version of SkyView, where free
| users with an account can search the upcoming 60 days of
| departing flights and search 7 days at a time. Wanted to let
| free users try it out before upgrading.
|
| We currently do not support roundtrip because often times the
| lowest-priced points deals are found on different airline
| programs. With points redemptions 2 one-way flights are the
| same price as 1 roundtrip. (There are some exceptions like
| booking on ANA directly, which requires you to search
| roundtrip). You can open up a second tab to search the
| different directions though.
|
| 2) Totally understand. It was one of the debates we had. We
| were trying to balance showing users all the live points
| results out there so they can make their own decisions on
| whether to get new cards. We find that a lot of users may have
| one set of points that are not as useful or easy to redeem.
| They realize that perhaps they should consider another credit
| card for better access to deals.
|
| We are planning to roll out a saved card programs feature, so
| you can just turn on to automatically filter.
|
| 3) So when you redeem on the Chase or Amex portal, your points
| are only worth at a set value of 1-1.5 cents per point (cpp)
| depending on your credit car program and they're all pegged to
| directly to the cash fare.
|
| Let's use this example:
|
| New York to Paris on Air France business class would cost
| around $4,000 in cash.
|
| If you were to redeem on the Amex portal, that flight would
| costs 400,000 Amex points ($4,000 * 100 cents per dollar / 1
| cent per point).
|
| However, if you were to use Air France Flying Blue miles and
| redeem on the Air France website, the flight could be as low as
| 50,000 points. At 50,000 points you points would be worth 8
| cents per point ($4,000 * 100 cents per dollar / 50,000
| points). *Amex points can transfer to Air France Flying Blue at
| a 1:1 ratio.
|
| So you're getting 1 cpp on the Amex portal, but 8 cpp on the
| Air France website directly. That's a big value increase.
|
| Roame shows all the live availability if you were to redeem
| your points on the airline directly using their miles. So we
| would show the flight in the example above with the 50,000
| points price.
|
| 4) Yes! We have a Discover feature where you can select your
| city and dates. You will see the cached flight deals from your
| origin city. We're still rolling this out, so the origin cities
| are limited right now.
|
| 5) Mhmm. Let me take a look at that. Thanks for letting me know
| howon92 wrote:
| I love the landing page. Great job!
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you!
| asdev wrote:
| are you working directly with airlines? what are you going to do
| to avoid situations like this: https://awardwallet.com/blog/air-
| canada-sues-seats-aero/
| timqin wrote:
| So we are focused on consumers and helping points beginners. We
| actually provide tons of value especially to non-US airlines
| who would like to gain access to the US consumer. Normally, a
| US consumer would never create an Air Canada loyalty account,
| but we show them the value.
|
| We are open working with any airline that approaches us on
| better serving their customers and acquiring new loyalty
| members.
|
| With regards to the Air Canada lawsuit as someone on the
| outside, I don't know the reason why Air Canada pursued it.
| pimlottc wrote:
| You're "open [to] working" with airlines... sounds like all
| the current data is being scraped without direct agreements,
| then.
| smashah wrote:
| It's imperative for an open internet that Air Canada lose this
| case.
| nsgoetz wrote:
| Does the website take into account the seasonality of certain
| flight routes?
| timqin wrote:
| So Roame only shows your flights that are ready to book for the
| date you search for. We are pulling live points data from the
| airlines, so if the flight does not exist during a particular
| period of time, then Roame would not be able to pull it.
|
| Roame does not hardcode any of the points prices.
| lanstein wrote:
| This backstory seems strange. You definitely would have used
| seats.aero or point.me if you really know P&M.
| borski wrote:
| Roame has been around for a little while; I've used it in
| conjunction with point.me and pointsyeah.com.
|
| This "launch HN" is really a launch just for HN, it seems; it's
| been around a lot longer than today.
| teaearlgraycold wrote:
| Google auth didn't work for me
| timqin wrote:
| May I ask what browser / device you are using? I can take a
| look.
| misterbwong wrote:
| Congrats on the launch! Been using your free product for a little
| while. As a fellow traffic hacker, some random comments:
| - I've been in the points game for a long time so I may not be
| your target customer. Take feedback with a grain of salt, I
| guess. - Commissions & Trust: You should disclose
| (more clearly?) that you're getting commissions from the CC
| signups and, ideally, that those may not be the best offers
| available. (ex as of this comment, referrals are paying 90K to
| sign up whereas your link is at 60K-an almost $300 difference).
| I understand this is a huge revenue driver, but that's not an
| excuse for shilling affiliate links where the user loses out on
| real, actual money. - Last Refresh: Would be nice to
| know when the last refresh was. I've clicked a few times for
| available seats and found that the airline did not actually have
| the flights available. As a user, this erodes trust in your
| results. - Slider: Points min/max slider interface
| isn't great but honestly I can't think of an alternative. 1 AA
| point is not the same as 1 Asiana point. - Program
| coverage: Your tool coverage seems similar to the other cached
| searching tools (Seats.aero, award logic, etc) but, honestly,
| needs improvement. Most airlines are quickly moving towards
| releasing more inventory to their own members, so coverage is
| much more important now than it was two years ago. As an example,
| Singapore Air very rarely releases ex-US business class awards to
| partners but releases them much more reliably to their own
| members. - Alerts: I understand this is part of
| "SkyView" but you should make it more prominent and clearly
| marketed. Alerts are *super duper useful* and give your product
| direct, permissioned access to a user's email and/or SMS that
| they actually want! This is what differentiates you from
| Point.me and the airline searches and also what gave ExpertFlyer
| its edge for so long. My guess is making it more prominent will
| drive more subscribers.
| nharada wrote:
| I tried this product recently and "Last Refresh" was a big pain
| point. I'm sure there's technical reasons why it's hard to keep
| things fresh (many airlines don't even appear to update their
| own listings until you try and book) but it was frustrating to
| find what looked like good deals and then spend the effort to
| book only to be told it wasn't an existing offer.
| timqin wrote:
| We need to do a better job distinguishing the two.
|
| May I ask, are using the live search or SkyView cached
| search?
|
| If you are using the live search (SkyView toggled off), all
| results are in real-time as you search.
|
| If you are using SkyView cached search (SkyView toggled on),
| results are saved up to 4 days, but you can search 60 days at
| a time from 1 airport to all of Europe's airports.
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you! Love more feedback, especially from travel hackers.
|
| 1) You're right. We have Advertiser Disclosures on all other
| pages, but will make the disclosures more prominent. Going to
| push out a change today/tomorrow. Affiliate commissions are not
| a big revenue driver right now.
|
| 2) We're working on a new design so the last refresh is more
| prominent. Currently, you'll be able to see the "Update ## ago"
| when you either expand the flight details or click into the
| full flight details page.
|
| If are using the Roame live search, then it should be the
| instant you search. Please let me know if you are running into
| issues with live search results not showing up on the airline
| website.
|
| If you are using SkyView or Discover cached search, we pull
| results and save them up to 4 days or so. This is to help users
| plan and search broadly across regions and dates.
|
| 3) Agreed. We try to simplify the UI for points beginners.
| Thought it would be too confusing to try to estimate AA vs.
| Asiana vs. United, etc. The value of the points would also
| depend on which fare class and route you want to take. If you
| someone only wanted to fly US to Japan in JAL, then AA miles
| would be gold. But if someone wanted to fly US to Paris, then
| Air France/Flying Blue miles would be gold even though they are
| easy to earn because all the CC points transfer to Air France.
|
| 4) We're working on adding more loyalty program coverage. Our
| free tool is in real-time though, so slightly different than
| the cached tools. We do have a cached tool called SkyView.
|
| 5) This is good feedback. Will to work on promoting the ability
| to set alerts more.
|
| Thank you for the detailed feedback! Please let me know if you
| see anything else you think would be helpful
| moneywoes wrote:
| what have you learnt overtime
| timqin wrote:
| The biggest lesson is that design and UX is everything for a
| consumer product in a new category. There is already a lot of
| education needed with points redemptions, so any small
| changes to the design including just the color or placement
| of text, can have a big impact on the user experience.
|
| We get a ton of support tickets when we move something around
| or make small tweaks to functionality
| misterbwong wrote:
| Edit: not sure if your comment was meant for me or timqin.
| Leaving it up just for general awareness
|
| General tips: - Never carry a balance, ever.
| If you do, forget about playing this game because it'll cost
| you more than you gain. Pay off your CC debt first. -
| There are many blogs/sites that push "their" link over ones
| that pay more to the user because they get paid a hefty
| affiliate fee. Be wary. - Have a goal in mind before
| you accrue points so you can be more strategic about
| accruing. I recommend starting with a list of all the trips
| you'd like to take in the next two years and using that to
| frame what points you will need to accrue. Don't forget
| hotels as the cost of hotels can easily outweigh the cost of
| flights. - Figure out how much work you want to put in.
| There are levels to the game-the deeper you go, the more work
| it will be. It will also get that much more rewarding
| - Prioritize transferable currencies (UR, MR, Cap1, TYP, etc)
| because devaluations happen often and transferrable
| currencies help insulate a bit. - Try to get your
| partner on board if at all possible, having a second (third,
| fourth, etc...) player (P2-P100+) is a scaling super power
| - Keep in mind the "burning" side of the equation and use
| them often. Points and miles are worthless bits of made up
| paper dressed up as currency and subject to the whims of
| corporations that don't have your best interests in mind.
| Treat them as such.
|
| My general strategy for a (US based) newbie is:
| 1. Read above, create a strategy and an ordered list of cards
| 2. Sign up for the credit cards and put all your organic
| spend on those credit cards to meet spend. 3. Repeat 1
| & 2 after meeting spend and gaining sign up bonus 4. If
| you have another player available, switch between players
| every time you meet the spend and get the bonus to lower your
| velocity and appear "safer" 5. You might also want to
| get a (minimum) 2% everywhere card for everything you can't
| put on the new cards.
|
| It can get a bit difficult as the minimum spend requirements
| can be high. There are many strategies out on the web that
| can help with this.
|
| For a couple using this strategy, you'll be averaging ~2 new
| CC's per person per year (which is _very_ safe) and earning
| ~7-10ish percent back on most spend. After a year or so of
| doing this, you should have enough for a vacation or two.
| Beijinger wrote:
| Thanks, great info.
|
| I never accrued points wiht my CC. Is it really worth it
| compared to 1-2% cash back? I just collected by flying. You
| have to ask yourself: What do I want to achieve?
|
| 1. Fly free with points
|
| 2. Have gold status and access to the lounge, more luggage,
| faster check-in
|
| 1 is hard. It basically makes only sense if you really fly
| a lot and your company pays for it. 2 is easier, IF you
| chose the right airlines to collect points. This is a
| science but take this as a start:
| https://www.wheretocredit.com/
|
| At one time I had all three alliances gold elite status (or
| equivalent). But I flew very little for free or discounted
| with points.
|
| It always depends on your situation. But I had Turkish
| (Star Alliance) gold. And if I flew via Asia to Europe with
| Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa (with nice stay overs),
| TK shitted me with points.
| sdfsdf12 wrote:
| Wow I love this!!!!
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you! If you have any questions or feedback, please let me
| know
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| If credit card rewards affiliate programs sunset, what is your
| business model?
|
| https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_credit-ca...
|
| https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/183...
| timqin wrote:
| Right now card affiliate programs are a really small portion of
| our business and we make the vast majority of revenue via
| subscription access to advanced toolset.
|
| Our focus is to help the average consumer book their first
| business/first class flight. There are a lot of points sitting
| in everyone's accounts, but most people do not know how to
| redeem them for the best value.
|
| Some data on the Americans with points: - Seven in ten (71%)
| people say they have a rewards, points or cashback credit card
| of some sort (Ipsos May 2024) - In 2018, the McKinsey
| consulting group estimated the number of unredeemed airline
| miles sitting in accounts at 30 trillion
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Great plan, thanks for sharing, wishing y'all success.
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you!
| ec109685 wrote:
| That legislation isn't about referral fees but instead about
| lowering the commissions on credit card transactions, which
| would decimate the reward points industry.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| I'm a pro subscriber already. Very nice product.
|
| However, do you have a strategy to at least mollify the airlines?
|
| As the reason I am a Roame subscriber is that:
|
| 1: Air Canada brought the hammer down on one of your
| predecessors.
|
| 2. Air Canada implemented a bunch of anti scraping tech, breaking
| my custom version of this tool and it's been easier to pay for
| yours.
|
| The last few attempts at this caused enormous problems for Air
| Canada and eliminated a lot of desirable Aeroplan space, so I can
| easily see AC being upset again.
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you!
|
| We believe that we are ultimately beneficial to the airlines
| because we increase the value of points and bring airlines,
| especially non-US airlines more US customers.
|
| When more people find good redemptions for their points, they
| value their points more, and in turn will be more likely spend
| money using points earning cards.
|
| Airlines benefit by selling billions of dollars worth of points
| a year to credit card companies.
| thecleaner wrote:
| I am happy simply because this isnt AI this-that. Congrats on the
| launch, will definitely use as I am someone who frequently
| forgets that points exist. For me, Qatar or any of the mid-east
| carriers have been the worst since their websites are awful.
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you!
|
| May I ask, where do you typically store your points / where
| would like you to go? Not sure if you're an expert or more
| intermediate, but I can offer some general thoughts / tips if
| you would like.
| heyrikin wrote:
| Super great idea!
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you! Let me know if you have any questions or feedback
| arjvik wrote:
| I once had a VC tell me they would never fund travel startups,
| because the only good founder of a travel company is someone who
| travels regularly, and that would imply they are too distracted
| to be working on their own company.
|
| Hope this doesn't match what you've experienced?
| fakedang wrote:
| I once saw a YC video stating that they hate discovery type
| startups, calling them tarpit ideas. Yet here we are...
|
| VCs are shiftier turncoats than Benedict Arnold and Judas.
| timqin wrote:
| haha, sounds like the chicken and egg dilemma!
| borski wrote:
| VCs will say a lot of things when they are _not_ investing. 99%
| of what they say is nonsense when not investing, because the
| real factor is "will it make lots of money?" and /or "can it
| scale to hundreds of millions of people?"
|
| Almost anything else doesn't matter. Travel a lot? I guarantee
| you that if your company is running well and printing cash, VCs
| will not give a second thought to how much you travel.
|
| But if you're _not_ making money or sales... that's a different
| story.
| throw03172019 wrote:
| I've been looking for something like this.
|
| I don't see many options for Brex points. Are those harder to
| transfer and take advantage of? Is Brex too new?
|
| Small feedback: Skyview is a very confusing subscription term.
| Why not Roame Lite/Pro/Enterprise/etc
| timqin wrote:
| Hope our tool serves your needs!
|
| So Brex only has 7 airline transfer partners right now, so
| results where Brex points can transfer to will be limited
| depending on the routes you are searching for.
|
| Brex's current transfer partners:
|
| 1. Air France/KLM Flying Blue - Really good for Europe
|
| 2. Aeromexico Club Premier
|
| 3. Avianca LifeMiles
|
| 4. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - US to Hong Kong flights are
| still significantly below 2019 levels.
|
| 5. Emirates Skywards
|
| 6. Qantas Frequent Flyer
|
| 7. Singapore Airlines
| borski wrote:
| A list of common competitors:
|
| 1. https://www.point.me/
|
| 2. https://seats.aero/
|
| 3. https://www.awardtool.com/
|
| 4. https://www.pointsyeah.com/
|
| I'd love to know what the real competitive differentiator is
| between Roame and PointsYeah/AwardTool.
|
| I've used every single one of the tools listed above (and others)
| at various times, including Roame, but I can't figure out why, in
| particular, I'd use Roame over the others.
|
| That's not a dig; it's a genuine question. I like the UX. :)
|
| [edit] I just want to be really clear: this isn't a problem only
| Roame has. I don't know the difference between PointsYeah and
| AwardTool either. They both have a similar Google Flights-style
| UX, return similar results, etc. Neither explains their
| differentiators well.
|
| Perhaps if Roame did, that might be a differentiator in and of
| itself! :p
| pradn wrote:
| Quite helpful, thanks!
| debbiedowner wrote:
| Could you make an onboarding guide for points?
|
| My impression is if you fly for work, you get a lot of employer
| sponsored points, so it's interesting.
|
| But if I fly 5-10 trips a year personally, why would I try points
| when I can get 3-5% cash back on my various cards?
| timqin wrote:
| Great question. So the corporate travelers actually do not get
| the most value/benefit from points travel because corporate
| travelers already fly on business. Flying on business class is
| just a given. Corporate travelers also do not have as much
| flexibility with their travel schedule or destinations.
|
| It's really the average consumer who has never flown business
| class that gets the most value and just 1 credit card bonus
| offer of 60,000 points can get them that flight. Some sign up
| offers are 150,000 points or more. To the average consumer,
| flying on business class is a dream experience.
|
| In terms of math:
|
| When flying on points, you can redeem business class flights at
| 4-8 cents per point. So if you're earning your points 1.5 cents
| per dollar (eg. Chase Freedom Unlimited), each dollar you spend
| can earn you 6%-12% back (1.5 points earned * 4-8 cents per
| point). You can redeem first class for even more at 12-20 cents
| per point.
|
| This is just the low end. You also have category multipliers
| like 3X points earned on travel or 5X points on flights with
| some cards.
|
| The problem is that these saver fare business and first class
| flights using points are hard to find and can take a lot of
| time. So Roame is stepping in to make it easier.
|
| We have a guide on valuing points:
| https://roame.travel/guides/cents-per-point-calculations
|
| We also have a Points 101 guide for the basics:
| https://roame.travel/guides/points-101
| fwip wrote:
| > To the average consumer, flying on business class is a
| dream experience.
|
| Is this true? I feel like the "average" person cares a lot
| more about their destination than the experience of the
| flight.
|
| Going to Disney World or the Carribean might be a dream
| experience, but having a bit more legroom and drinks on your
| flight is way, way down the list.
| timqin wrote:
| I don't have readily available hard data, but flying first
| or business class is glamorous and an aspirational luxury
| product. I believe the reason why the average consumer
| wants to buy luxury goods like Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, etc.,
| is the same reason they would want to experience first and
| business class.
| borski wrote:
| For you, maybe.
|
| For my diabetic mother who has really bad legs, or for me
| who has had back issues his whole life, or for someone who
| is treated like they _deserve_ to be there in first class
| instead of being cattle called into a tiny seat with a bag
| of pretzels for fourteen hours...
|
| Different priorities.
|
| Flying business or first class is not something I do often
| (I've flown a single digit number of times on either, and
| all but once on points) but when I do the amount of stress
| that is relieved is actually very significant. It's hard to
| understand until you've done it.
|
| And it may not matter to you! And that's also okay.
| sireat wrote:
| Cool idea!
|
| Is this product of interest to Europeans?
|
| It is unclear from the signup page.
| timqin wrote:
| Thank you! On the European side, we do support Flying Blue (Air
| France & KLM), SAS, and Virgin Atlantic loyalty programs.
| xyst wrote:
| Products like this only support more wasteful air travel. Not a
| fan of min-maxing "credit card points" either.
|
| These points programs are funded largely due to various fees
| imposed on the merchants that are often forced to accept the
| credit cards.
|
| Note: the airline and "signature" cards often impose "premium"
| card fees in addition to the bevy of other fees (bank, network,
| transaction, ...) associated with accepting debit/credit cards.
| timqin wrote:
| I get it where you're coming from, but points travel could
| actually make air travel more efficient by helping fill
| capacity on planes.
|
| Airlines would otherwise be flying planes with more empty seats
| without points redemptions. And airlines don't like cutting
| routes because they will lost out to new competitors (JetBlue
| is a great example of a new entrant) or will lose their airport
| slots.
| cheeze wrote:
| Counterpoint: I do like min-maxing credit card points, and I
| love products like this because I know I want to go on a
| vacation but don't really care where. So I use something like
| this and see where I can fly international first class.
|
| Haven't used this tool but I've used point.me a handful of
| times and have had success doing so. Nothing but positives from
| my end.
| moneywoes wrote:
| can i use this with canadian tax residency
| timqin wrote:
| I'm not sure about the tax implications of Canadian tax
| residency, but we do cover Air Canada Aeroplan, so as a
| Canadian, you would be able to use us for Air Canada.
| mauz wrote:
| > While most people redeem their credit card points through the
| Chase or American Express travel portals at about 1-1.5 cents per
| point, transferring to an airline partner can yield 3-8 cents per
| point for business class or 12-20 cents per point for first
| class.
|
| Are there any indicators on your website of how many cents per
| point a particular booking would be for?
| timqin wrote:
| We have that on our list to add! Would require also pulling in
| the matched cash fares
| ijustwanttovote wrote:
| I won't be traveling for a while due to having a young family,
| but definitely bookmarked.
| physhster wrote:
| I've been subscribed for a while, this is truly a fantastic
| service.
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