TLDR; I built an inbox simulator so you can try BonBook in 15s, without sharing your email.
Earlier this year I was flying 2-3 times per month and found booking and changing flights a hassle. So I decided to fix it.
BonBook lets you find, book and change flights with one email. It can also auto-find flights for events you’re attending.
Over the last few days, I built a simulator that lets you interact with BonBook without sharing your email. It responds with real flights and each response includes a link to compare w/ Google.
When an AI can take into account all these subtleties and work reliably then yeh, I'd give it a go. But for now I'm kinda ~ok with the time cost of finding a non-rubbish flight.
I guess this is where 'travel agents' once used to shine.
Also: I want to be _absolutely_ certain the flight was booked -- that nothing was dropped, that no weird API failed to callback, that no letter was dropped from my name, that no silly email parser thought I meant London, Ontario, Canada.
Ps. Cool demo!
Score one for self-service software "improving lives" and "increasing productivity" by allowing everyone to do the job that would previously be done much more efficiently by dedicated specialists :).
Still, reading that:
> Even for my own travel, there are like a dozen things I'm trying to optimize for. Time, money, seat, travel to/from airport (traffic, train cost, taxi pickup/dropoff ease), lounge quality, layover length or complexity vs cost calculus, loyalty program, airport navigation, airport amenities, flight hospitality quality etc. etc.
I envy your dedication. Halfway through reading this list, I already feel like going by a train instead. I can't imagine doing it myself without some specialized software; I'd lose my mind trying to do it with the normal travel/accommodation search and booking websites.
> Also: I want to be _absolutely_ certain the flight was booked -- that nothing was dropped, that no weird API failed to callback, that no letter was dropped from my name, that no silly email parser thought I meant London, Ontario, Canada.
Very much this. It's my main concern here, too. I need live feedback on every input at every step throughout the process, because I don't trust software to not screw this up.
A lot of this can be done automatically with time (eg, already built an auto-seat algo), but there is a reason the beta is focused on frequent fliers solving logistics problems and making repeatable decisions :) That said, think you'll be surprised by how well it optimizes already.
During beta onboarding, you make an account with all travel info (no need to parse this). Travelers also confirm their booking before purchase ("checkout" links to a page with all flight info in a lot more detail instead of 'access' link). And BonBook sends a confirmation email post-booking (required by federal regs).
But if you created "profiles" of how you might search with various weight settings, it seems like it could get reasonably close without having to re-enter all of the details each time.
One piece of feedback:
I asked for a "flight from LAX to..." and it recommended flights from SNA and ONT (two other airports in the Greater Los Angeles area). These airports are easily 1.5 - 2 hours away from LAX at commute times.
I suggest that, if the user requests a specific airport (as indicated by an IATA code), you limit responses to that airport code by default, rather than broadening the search to a region.
If I had asked for a "flight from Los Angeles to..." I would not have been surprised by the current behavior (and probably would have appreciated it.)
To keep the demo light, it doesn't have full functionality but being specific on airports vs cities is part of the live beta.
NYC is another example w/ EWR. Can say "NYC" or specify "JFK or LaGuardia". DC too for people wanting to avoid the drive w/ BWI.
Happy to share access. Feel free to shoot me an email (attila@).
Was on a flight last week that was on the tarmac for two hours due to weather one evening last week; the pilot finally got on the PA system and announced we were headed back to the terminal. I booked myself a new flight for the next morning within 90 seconds. Pure magic.
Google Flights is really the last Google product I routinely use -- happy to have an alternative!
Would you trust that this would book you the "best" flight? Every user has a different definition of "best" – cheapest, shortest, fewest stopovers, shortest stopovers, airline preference, lounge preference, seat preference, time of day preference...
Personally I find Google Flights gives me the right amount of detail and I book flights I'm happy with.
It reminds me of the Carvana ads that called out home delivery for cars. Like, it's definitely neat, and I'd love to skip scummy dealerships, but convenience is wayy down my list of priorities when I'm dropping that much money on something.
Bots can analyze several thousand flight options (which even the sim does) in a few seconds. So odds are it catches a deal someone might otherwise miss.
Also, because BonBook searches direct w/ airlines, it sees inventory not shared with Google (and regularly has better fares).
A system called GDS (Global Distribution System) was built in the 60s as a data transmission standard. Was used by airlines to publish fares (among other things). But it was complicated so aggregators (Sabre, Amadeus, Travelport) were born to ingest all this published data and make it easily searchable.
When travel went online in the late 90s, Online Travel Agents (OTAs) were using this data, and since then most new OTAs have too. (An example; Expedia's first patent minimized GDS searches per customer request, saving them $$).
But, because OTAs take a cut and airline margins are thin, IATA (group of airlines) came up with a new system called NDS (New Distrubution Standard) in mid 2010s. Since its an XML standard that anyone can consume direct, airlines have been trying to push everyone onto NDC by simply not publishing certain tickets via GDS, requiring OTAs to book X% of tickets via NDC and even removing inventory entirely.
Some examples: American trying to go full NDC recently but getting pushback and Turkish Airlines pulling out of Sabre.
-> cheapest?? Frequent fliers are primarily concerned with time efficiency.
-> shortest/fewest-stopovers/shortest-stops?? These are all synonyms for efficiency.
-> airline preference?? Beta curates based on airline loyalty.
-> lounge preference?? Not handled when booking flights..
-> seat preference?? Furthest forward aisle/window, avoid no-recline, some want extra legroom (beta has an algo that handles this).
-> time of day?? Easy, just add it to your request (works in sim too).
When you say that shortest/fewest stopovers/shortest stops are all synonyms for efficiency, this is true, but also misses human factors. Some people prefer a single flight at nearly all costs, some people prefer to have shorter flights with stopovers even if the total time spent is slightly longer. Ask someone if they'd rather have a 45 minute stopover or a 1.5 hour stopover and I bet most would choose the latter, despite taking more time.
> time of day?? Easy, just add it to your request (works in sim too).
This also misses the fact that everything is about tradeoffs. I'd like a flight after 9am, the tool tells me that will be A$500, oh yeah, you know what I don't mind flying at 8:30am for A$200.
I think for a tool like this to work beyond a specific audience of optimisation nerds who only care about their time, it needs to treat everything as negotiable, and then present sensible alternatives outside of spec. Sacrifice time for lower stress, sacrificing seat preference for sooner flight, sacrificing airline preference based on price, sacrificing destination based on availability.
Being close to someone doing this job, and having travelled a fair bit of long haul over the last few years, I know that "efficiency" is very nuanced with personal preferences, that most people don't give even a fraction of the required information to be able to actually do this well and back and forth is necessary.
I wish you all the best of luck, if you can make it work, great!
I'd also use it to quickly book flights on my preferred airlines because I have free changes/cancellations on those, so the value of getting something booked immediate and then refined later (and possibly rebook) is fine.
I save thousands using this feature each year
For now it seems to be always responding with "Hi there, I couldn't find any flights for your request. Please try again.", I could not test it out. Unless this is a demo version, and is working as expected.
BonBook is targeted at travelers solving logistics problems who make lots of repeatable decisions and fly often (eg. need to be in X at Y).
No saying what can be done with time.
There are so many routes that are served exclusively by budget airlines.
BonBook does more than just booking (eg. one-email changes) and many budget airlines make this difficult with their restrictive fare rules.
The real value is in the actual booking aspect: fill in all the forms on the airline's website and checkout for me!
BonBook has its own internal search+recommendation engine. And private beta let's you actually book the flights in two clicks via the checkout link. That's why you can also change/cancel them with an email.
This is also probably why you are seeing LH > KL.. BonBook doesn't yet have access to KLM inventory.
And haven't added non-USD currency support yet.
Is this a frontend to google flights? Sabre integration might get you the info you need to do these queries.
Beta is much more capable.
GFlights is not used, link is there for comparison.
Cross checking with skyscanner there are indeed no flight in the morning I asked, but there are in the afternoon, maybe propose alternatives with nearby airports and/or timeslots when there are no flight meeting requirements?
> Hi there, I couldn't find any flights for your request. Please try again.
> -BonBook
I was trying input like "Find me a flight from BWI to PWM December 27 to January 1".
''' Address not found Your message wasn't delivered to test@bonbook.co because the address couldn't be found, or is unable to receive mail. '''
The inbox simulator provides high-level functionality of the beta without access.
Feature request: Cryptocurrency available as a payment option. The payment part is a major painpoint in flight reservations. Would be happy to help with integrating if of interest.
If you shoot a note to the contact email, will take a look.
Airlines also tend to present different prices for different locations/currencies so I doubt this would be as simple as a UI change (though that would still go a long way!).
Beyond the price differences, airlines also grant scoped 'ticketing authority' in jurisdictions (eg. can only sell these tickets in EU or US+Canada etc).
Frame 6: You guys are buying tickets without a vpn?
I kept trying to do flights from Adelaide (A capital city, but a smaller) to Sydney and back.
It couldn't find anything.
And haven't built out currency support for the beta yet but its on the list.