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Comment by tjmc | Hacker News Reader

For values of "brilliant" that originate in North America only...

Exactly, I wanted to try and see what it said about a flight I had planned, and I only got "Sorry, flights from Belgium are not currently supported. Sorry, flights from Germany are not currently supported.".

Strangely, it did support Greece (or so it said), but it doesn't seem to handle transfers very well, giving me no way to fly from Athens to the Newark.

I'm going to rate this tool a solid 1/10.

It's the US only for now. I don't think that should warrant a 1/10...

Well, maybe a 2/10.

It's 2012. A US-only service when there are TONS of international alternatives?

I don't think that "this is bad software because I am not yet the target audience" is a good metric for measuring the worth of a product.

Well, it's an excellent metric of measuring the worth of a product for the only "market segment" that matters to us. That is, us.

Second, intentional coverage just goes with the domain for a flights application. Are Americans supposed to just switch back and forth to some competitor for non domestic flights?

By that logic, all of the startups that begin only serving their local market (many start in SF and expand beyond once it's viable; true in many other locations as well) would be 1/10 or 2/10.

I use Skyscanner here in Europe for regional and international flights, however really the prices are only useful as an indication. For example, one flight I found the cheapest option was Ryanair, but when I actually booked it the price was €10 cheaper than listed on Skyscanner.

I used to find that Ryanair had a tendency to lowball the aggregators, and then whack on ridiculous extra charges at the end of a tedious and lengthy purchase process. Have they stopped doing that now?

I haven't noticed that recently. I'd guess because in July they changed the prices advertised to include the extra fees:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18718556

Also last month they were forced to remove the 'you have to pay €12 to pay with a Visa card' policy, so now the fee is 2% for all cards. However, they now make the admin fee mandatory however you pay :)

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2240292/...

That's not just an aggregator thing. Ryanair (and similar airlines like easyJet) have long been guilty of advertising low headline prices, then tagging on all manner of fees.

Add on the baggage fees, landing fees, priority boarding fees, tax, credit card fees, etc. and the price isn't so impressive.

This is Ryanair SOP - you don't the the owner got to be the "most hated man in Ireland" for nothing do you.

Yeah I really hate Ryanair also. Horrible forced experiences.

I also like http://www.checkfelix.com/

Yeah, not international yet.

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