United Airlines, Inc., commonly referred to as United, is a major U.S. airline headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It is the world's third-largest airline when measured by revenue, after American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
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Update: reddit hug of death, try the Android or iOS apps if website fails <3 . We're also hiring, particularly engineers to make Skiplagged better. Email apply@skiplagged.com if you're interested.
This is a followup to the AMA I did last year, just after the federal lawsuit was filed.
Hey guys, I founded Skiplagged. Skiplagged is like a regular airfare search engine except it also shows you fares other websites don't. Among those is something very controversial known as hidden-city.
Basically, hidden-city is where your destination is a stopover; you'd simply leave the airport when you arrive at your destination. It turns out booking this way can save you hundreds of dollars on over 25% of common routes, especially in the USA. New York to San Francisco example. There are a few caveats, of course: (1) you'd have to book a round-trip as two one-ways (which Skiplagged handles automatically), (2) you can only have carry-ons, and (3) you may be breaking an agreement with the airlines known as contract of carriage, where it might say you can't miss flights on purpose.
While Skiplagged is aimed at being a traveller's best friend and does more than inform about hidden-city opportunities, hidden-city is what it became known for. In fact, many people even refer to missing flights on purpose as "skiplagging". United Airlines didn't like any of this.
Around September of last year, United reached out trying to get me to stop. I refused to comply because of their sheer arrogance and deceitfulness. For example, United tried to use the contract of carriage. They insisted Skiplagged, a site that provides information, was violating the contract. Contract of carriage is an agreement between passengers and airlines...Skiplagged is neither. This was basically the case of a big corporation trying to get what they want, irrelevant of the laws.
Fast-forward two months to Nov 2014, United teamed up with another big corporation and filed a federal lawsuit. I actually found out I was being sued from a Bloomberg reporter, who reached out asking for my thoughts. As a 22 year old being told there's a federal lawsuit against me by multi-billion dollar corporations, my heart immediately sank. But then I remembered, I'm 22. At worst, I'll be bankrupt. In my gut, I believed educating consumers is good for society so I decided this was a fight worth having. They sent over a letter shortly asking me to capitulate. I refused.
Skiplagged was a self-funded side project so I had no idea how I was going to fund a litigation. To start somewhere, I created a GoFundMe page for people to join me in the fight. What was happening in the following weeks was amazing. First there was coverage from small news websites. Then cbs reached out asking me to be on national tv. Then cnn reached out and published an article. Overnight, my story started going viral worldwide like frontpage of reddit and trending on facebook. Then I was asked to go on more national tv, local tv, radio stations, etc. Newspapers all over the world started picking this up. United caused the streisand effect. Tens of millions of people now heard about what they're doing. This was so nerve-wracking! Luckily, people understood what I was doing and there was support from all directions.
Fast-forward a couple of months, United's partner in the lawsuit dropped. Fast-forward a few more months to May 2015, a federal judge dropped the lawsuit completely. Victory? Sort of I guess. While now there's no lawsuit against Skiplagged, this is America so corporations like United can try again.
From running a business as an early twenties guy to being on national tv to getting sued by multi-billion dollar corporations to successfully crowdfunding, I managed to experience quite a bit. Given the support reddit had for me last year, I wanted to do this AMA to share my experience as a way of giving back to the community.
Also, I need your help.
The crowdfunding to fight the lawsuit led to donations of over $80,000. I promised to donate the excess, so in addition to your question feel free to suggest what charity Skiplagged should support with the remaining ~$23,000. Vote here. The top suggestions are:
Corporate Angel Network - "Corporate Angel Network is the only charitable organization in the United States whose sole mission is to help cancer patients access the best possible treatment for their specific type of cancer by arranging free travel to treatment across the country using empty seats on corporate jets." http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/about/index.html
Angel Flight NE - "organization that coordinates free air transportation for patients whose financial resources would not otherwise enable them to receive treatment or diagnosis, or who may live in rural areas without access to commercial airlines." http://www.angelflightne.org/angel-flight-new-england/who-we-are.html
Miracle Flights for Kids - "the nation’s leading nonprofit health and welfare flight organization, providing financial assistance for medical flights so that seriously ill children may receive life-altering, life-saving medical care and second opinions from experts and specialists throughout the United States" http://www.miracleflights.org/
Travelers Aid International - "While each member agency shares the core service of helping stranded travelers, many Travelers Aid agencies provide shelter for the homeless, transitional housing, job training, counseling, local transportation assistance and other programs to help people who encounter crises as they journey through life." http://www.travelersaid.org/mission.html
I'm sure you love numbers, so here are misc stats:
Donations
| Number of Donations | Total Donated | Average | Min | Max | Std Dev | Fees | Net Donated
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---
GoFundMe | 3886 | $80,681 | $20.76 | $5.00 | $1,000.00 | $38.98 | $7,539.60 | $73,141
PayPal | 9 | $395 | $43.89 | $5.00 | $100.00 | $44.14 | $0 | $395
| 3895 | $81,076 | $20.82 | $5.00 | $1,000.00 | $39.00 | $7,539.60 | $73,536
Legal Fees
| Amount Billed | Discount | Amount Paid
---|---|---|---
Primary Counsel | $54,195.46 | $5,280.02 | $48,915.44
Local Counsel | $1,858.50 | $0.00 | $1,858.50
| $56,053.96 | | $50,773.94
Top 10 Dates
Date | Amount Donated
---|---
12/30/14 |$21,322
12/31/14 | $12,616
1/1/15 | $6,813
1/2/15 | $3,584
12/19/14 | $3,053
1/4/15 | $2,569
1/3/15 | $2,066
1/6/15 | $2,033
1/5/15 | $1,820
1/8/15 | $1,545
Top 10 Cities
City | Number of Donators
---|---
New York | 119
San Francisco | 61
Houston | 57
Chicago | 56
Brooklyn | 55
Seattle | 48
Los Angeles | 47
Atlanta | 43
Washington | 31
Austin | 28
Campaign Growth: http://i.imgur.com/PMT3Met.png
Comments: http://pastebin.com/85FKCC43
Donations Remaining: $22,762
Proof: http://skiplagged.com/reddit_11_30_2015.html
Now ask away! :)
tl;dr built site to save consumers money on airfare, got sued by United Airlines, started trending worldwide, crowdfunded legal fight, judge dismissed lawsuit, now trying to donate ~$23,000
Have airline companies changed their pricing algorithms due to Skiplagged's increasing use and prominence?
Not that I've noticed. Airlines still make the additional money from uninformed, so it might be silly to get rid of hidden-city opportunities.
Miracle Flights for Kids - "the nation’s leading nonprofit health and welfare flight organization, providing financial assistance for medical flights so that seriously ill children may receive life-altering, life-saving medical care and second opinions from experts and specialists throughout the United States" http://www.miracleflights.org/
I get a tear in my eye every time "the little guy" is able to take a figurative jab at a major bloodsucking corporation.
If I ever met you in person, would you prefer a fist-bump, a high-five, or a cold beer?
edit: for the naysayers who claim United is losing money, they made a profit of nearly $2 Billion in 2014.
http://ir.united.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=83680&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2009546
A fist-bump, a high-five, AND a cold beer with pizza! Haha
Hey Aktarer -- awesome to have you back and really appreciate what you've built here.
While I love the sentiment around asking the community what to do with the "extra" cash, I would really suggest you hold onto the money for 6 months or so until you're sure that this fight isn't going to come around and pull you back into a courtroom. Those people gave you those donations to ensure that you survive, so let's be sure you do :)
Also, just a word of warning for those using the site to fly internationally -- often it might make sense to book a trip to somewhere like Russia for cheap, and then plan to get off at your stopover city in Europe or wherever. However, if the end destination country (that you never really intended on visiting) requires a visa (that you have no intention of actually getting), the airline could request proof and not let you on the plane. I almost just did this on a flight from JFK to Geneva and thankfully someone pointed it out to me before I pulled the trigger.
Thanks for the input. I've been going back and forth about when to donate the excess like I promised. Only reason I considered now because it's been a year already. I'll be sure to update you guys.
As wonderful a sentiment as that is, that's very rarely how multi-billion dollar companies operate. I don't want to be a negative nancy here, but you shouldn't be surprised if you see the inside of a courtroom again soon.
Or, even more likely, find yourself on the receiving end of their lobbying team.
It would be interesting to see what happens. Those are definitely likely possibilities.
Use this sub-thread to vote for a charity! :)
[deleted]
By suing Skiplagged, United educated millions about hidden-city and made Skiplagged significantly more popular. It might be better for the airlines to leave Skiplagged alone.
Yes. If the airline decides to reroute you due to a plethora of factors this can happen. However it is rare.
Rare indeed. Only 2.5% of trips get rerouted, usually in obvious times of issues like bad weather.
Some carriers have applications that can sniff out passengers using hidden cities and mark their return flights for cancellation. Have any of your passengers had their return flights cancelled for this reason? And if they do, will you compensate them?
Never had a complaint. We tell you to book a round-trip as two one-ways if it involves missing a flight.
Angel Flight NE - "organization that coordinates free air transportation for patients whose financial resources would not otherwise enable them to receive treatment or diagnosis, or who may live in rural areas without access to commercial airlines." http://www.angelflightne.org/angel-flight-new-england/who-we-are.html
Can you explain like I'm 5 what a hidden-city is? I don't understand how/why it saves money.
We made a video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9r6qp8UBQc
>Fast-forward a few more months to May 2015, a federal judge dropped the lawsuit completely.
Why?
We proved it wasn't filed properly. The jurisdiction, Chicago, was not the right place for this lawsuit.
Travelers Aid International - "While each member agency shares the core service of helping stranded travelers, many Travelers Aid agencies provide shelter for the homeless, transitional housing, job training, counseling, local transportation assistance and other programs to help people who encounter crises as they journey through life." http://www.travelersaid.org/mission.html
Corporate Angel Network - "Corporate Angel Network is the only charitable organization in the United States whose sole mission is to help cancer patients access the best possible treatment for their specific type of cancer by arranging free travel to treatment across the country using empty seats on corporate jets." http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/about/index.html
What were the biggest obstacles to overcome in getting the website off the ground?
-
Also, how does the website and app make money?
It turns out services that provide airfare data make it really difficult to facilitate what Skiplagged does, i.e. search by stopovers. I had to figure out an efficient and scalable solution to this huge obstacle, given that airfare is lots of data that changes every few minutes.
The website and app don't make money right now, but there are lots of ways Skiplagged as a travel service can in the future (e.g. hotel commissions).
How does it feel to personally be telling that 'One weird trick Airliners don't want you to know about'?
You reminded me of how difficult it was to educate consumers. It feels weird, but fortunately the trick is real here.
Can you get on a flight from the middle to end instead? Say flight does to New York, Miami, lax. Can I start from Miami to end in lax?
No, airline's usually cancel.
If I'm getting a results unavailable page is this a result from the Reddit hug of death and/or no results that save money for my potential trip?
Hug of death
Is it true that the best (Cheapest) time to purchase a plane ticket is about 3 weeks in advance? Do airlines seem to change the prices on certain days of the week?
It varies by the route and availability. I don't know how much statistical evidence is behind the 3 weeks, but I would guess not much.
In terms of voting, what about making a comment for each charity and our upvote can help decide?
Love it!
What do you plan on doing next?
For flight search, we plan on adding other types of cheaper fares and offering misc features such as more real-time alerts on fare change. We're also trying to do more than flight search so people view Skiplagged as a fun way to discover the world. We expect mobile app to be the primary focus.
Which airlines have "contract of carriage"? What could they do to you for missing a flight?
All the airlines have some sort of agreement. If you missed a flight, you missed a flight. They can't really prove you missed on purpose and therefore violated the contract.
Oh hey! We graduated from RPI the same year. I mostly wanted to say that it's super cool to see an RPI grad being successful and don't really have any great questions to ask about Skiplagged, so I guess I'll just ask what your favorite and least favorite parts of RPI were so we can bond.
So, what was your favorite and least favorite part / experience at RPI?
Hey fellow RPI grad! Thanks for the nice comment. My favorite part was that the computer science curriculum prepared me well for the working world. Least favorite was the boring city. You?