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Comment by jpalomaki | Hacker News Reader

Pretty exciting! Some time ago I was checking the available APIs for searching flight information. I was quite surprised to find out there wasn’t anything suitable for starting small.

API with a reasonable pay-as-you-go plan would enable innovation on this space.

Despite all the effort from different companies the searching/booking experience still does not feel ”enjoyable”.

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I'm not sure I'd be comfortable making a big bet in air travel. I've been seeing more and more discussion about how bad air travel is from a carbon point of view and it feels like something might happen with that in a few years.

I read an article yesterday where the author was arguing that air miles programs need to end and in fact it should be flipped so that the more you fly, the more you pay (considering that you have to fly with your ID it should be easy to assess). If that gains traction, it could mean a significant reduction in flying and that might be a good thing.

Agreed. I had a side project I wanted to work on a few months back, and had to icebox the idea because the current flight related APIs are not great, and access is geared towards larger, established companies.

I emailed some travel related API providers for a side project a while ago and they happily offered me a cheaper price than the listed one once I explained what it's for.

Never hurts to give it a try.

I did in fact try, and was rejected either immediately or after a few weeks of reviewing my request.

IIRC one provider did let me in, but it didn't have the functionality I needed.

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