FlightCaster (YC S09): Mother Nature Wins Today | Hacker News Reader

FlightCaster (YC S09): Mother Nature Wins Today

blog.flightcaster.com

35 pointsjaf12duke6 comments

Obviously you can't predict these sorts of things. The question I have is how do these events affect FC's business? Did they notice a significant drop in app sales for the day?

As a somewhat related aside, I recently had the displeasure of taking a U.S Airways flight to Indy which stopped at Charlotte. The weather in Charlotte was foggy, which meant that our plane was put in a holding pattern until planes were cleared to land. Unfortunately during our 20-30 minute holding pattern, the pilot said the plane was running out of fuel and had to divert to Myrtle Beach. By the time we refueled and flew back to Charlotte I of course missed my connection and all others were sold out. So I had to sleep overnight in the airport because USAir doesn't put people up in hotels and wait for a flight out in the morning.

There are many unpredictable events in flying that you can't forecast. These events don't fit the models. But you can give context. A good example was a road trip I took to New Orleans. As I was driving down I-10 I checked my Google Maps app on my Iphone, and it showed red lines indicating lots of traffic was fast approaching. I quickly recalculated another route using side-roads and completely by-passed the congestion.

If FC can devise something similar (I don't know what that would look like) I would pay big big money for that.

"So I had to sleep overnight in the airport because USAir doesn't put people up in hotels..."

For all airlines, it's generally not policy to put people in hotels unless the delay was mechanical or due to some negligence by the airline. Weather obviously does not count for this.

You know, I had thought of that too, but I also thought the plane running out of fuel was the responsibility of the airline. I fly almost every other week, sometimes in quite terrible conditions that have warranted holding patterns and I have never heard that excuse to divert.

I know it's just one anecdote, but United offered me a hotel once when I missed the flight and it was my own fault.

At least Europe has high-speed trains, so if you are traveling within Europe there is the possibility of making progress towards reaching your destination.

I didn't know Flightcaster offers data on flights outside the US? Was this something recently added?

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