Show HN: Monthly subscription flights between SF and LA for $105/flight | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Monthly subscription flights between SF and LA for $105/flight

flyteleport.com

22 pointsRjevski20 comments

Hey everyone! One of the co-founders of Teleport here. Would love to hear what you think about it and happy to answer your questions!

Saying "subscription" and also telling us a per-flight price is confusing to me. Reading the page didn't clear it up particularly quickly either.

What exactly is the price and what exactly does it buy me?

It's a monthly subscription. The price depends on how many flights you want. Each one-way flight is $105. E.g. So if you want four one-way flights per month it would be $420/month.

So basically just $105/single direction flight

Yes, but it sounds like you pre-pay, and I would guess the unused flights do not roll over.

That's right, it's a monthly subscription (you're billed monthly). Unused flights don't rollover. But if you know you're not going to use some flights in a given month, you can send them to family or friends for free.

Can I buy access to the Teleport security line without taking a flight?

Hey, no unfortunately our lines are exclusive to Teleport members.

Schedule?

We're still working on the schedule and obtaining feedback re when people want to fly. But for now, flights depart about every hour and a half between 4pm-10pm on Friday and Sunday nights and same on Monday mornings between 5am-9am.

Not really a question, but I'd like to point out a misspelling on your pricing page. "Full use of exclusive security lanes so you can arrives 30 minutes before departure" -- I believe this should be "arrive", not "arrives".

Thanks for reporting that, deploying a fix now.

Are you in any way related to Uber? This image looks like very similar to the Uber app: https://static.staging.flyteleport.com/8ae11ce9af919542b4055....

Not related in any way, although our service aims to be closer to their offering rather than conventional airlines’.

That is just an early mock-up and doesn’t reflect our app as it is now. I’ll see what I can do to get this updated!

Are there any guarantees for seats, or is it just whatever is available? Are there compensations for delays?

Considering that one-way flights at its cheapest are $49 + a negligible price for TSA-pre, is the value proposition the convenience of a subscription model + prices that aren't affected by seasonal trends (being able to book whenever with a consistent price)? Are there any hidden ones that I'm missing?

Right, that's correct. Most of the time, those $49 one-way flights aren't refundable and you're going to be charged extra fees for bags and changing your flight if you need to. So the value prop for Teleport is having the convenience of a subscription model and being able to book at the last minute and still get a fairly decent price. There's no guaranteed seat or compensation for delays, but those are good ideas which we're now going to look into :)

but I lose so much flexibility with your limited times.

Plus the prices arent that much better. This friday sfo-lax is 140, next friday 105 and the one after is $75. Thats without commitment.

what if I want something last minute and its not available? How is that handled?

If im flying the route that consistently, im definitely booking more than 30days out, which it seems like I cannot do with teleport

Most of the flights with those prices you can't change your ticket, or flights are non-refundable, or if you want to change your flight at the last minute you're going to be charged the difference between the cheap fare you payed and whatever fares are available (mostly business select if you change at last minute). You can't book more than 30 days out with Teleport, but that's kind of the point. You don't have to spend hours each month scheduling, comparing prices, and booking your trip a month in advance.

Plus you can share flights that you're not going to use in a certain month with family/friends for free.

  > You still go through TSA screening
  > like you would normally do

Uh, no thanks! Even SurfAir learned that that is one of the worst parts of flying

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