Flights With Friends Launches To Take The Pain Out Of Group Travel Planning
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
> However, there is a flip side. Although startups (and some incumbents) are working hard to bring the whole travel decision funnel online, most group travel still happens through travel agents — much of it offline.
contradict the very next sentence?
> A recent survey conducted by Travel Weekly and TravelAge West found that nearly 80 percent of travel agents booked 10 or fewer groups in 2010. So, all in all, groups account for a relatively small portion of bookings.
I'm not sure what exactly the "pain" is in group trip planning because half the fun is convincing people to join, throwing around ideas, & getting excited for the trip. Really my only pain point has been the cash shuffle, which is ameliorated by having honest friends.
So yea, with simpler itinerary they probably have less wiggle room to find some loophole or deal, but my hunch (haven't tried it yet) is that if I said "I want to go to LA sometime in June" that the time flexibility would be enough to give them room to find a great deal. I'm sure one of them could comment more on this.
As far as finder fee I just used the default one since I never used the site and our trip was fairly simple, but would likely adjust based on how complex I felt the trip planning would be...
The biggest annoyance of FF is you have to carefully follow directions to book but the potential savings is worth it.
Our initial marketing campaign is targeted at people getting married and their friends. We figure we can make payroll just with bachelor(ette) parties in Vegas.
(If you ever want to market to a small travel community of 18-35s, let me know...)