[notafraudster]

It probably bodes a little poorly (either for the product, or for the product's applicability to this website) that almost every comment seems to be confused about what the product is or why anyone would ever use it. I've read the original post several times and I still don't understand myself. I read the main page and I can't tell if I'm meant to be in the target market or not. I clicked on Pricing and I don't understand what the free plan is (it doesn't give us access to "Links", which I thought was the product?)

The "Why do you charge for excess searches?" link in the pricing page opens the Forex question, not the excess searches question.

Pricing page provides pricing in GBP, EUR, USD, and AUD but does not use any kind of location data to localize the currency.

I used the "Resources" menu and I don't understand what "Spend management: Unlock incremental revenue" means

[stevedomin]

Thank you for the feedback. The point on not knowing whether you're in the target market or not is absolutely valid and something we should make a lot clearer on that page.

Re: pricing: our main product is our Flights API (https://duffel.com/flights). Links is a new product we're launching today that lets you sell flights without having to write an integration with our API. You can access our API on our free plan but Links is only available on a paid plan.

> The "Why do you charge for excess searches?" link in the pricing page opens the Forex question, not the excess searches question. We'll fix this, thanks for letting us know.

> Pricing page provides pricing in GBP, EUR, USD, and AUD but does not use any kind of location data to localize the currency. It used to, might be a bug introduced with the new page.

> I used the "Resources" menu and I don't understand what "Spend management: Unlock incremental revenue" means It's a page dedicated to spend management platforms that are looking to unlock extra revenue with travel

[ethanbond]

I think the confusion here is much more basic: what does it mean to “sell flights” and why would I do it? How do I know if I’m someone who can sell flights? I in fact don’t own an airline, so what does that mean!

I suspect there’s a bit of “curse of knowledge” at play here. You’ve spent a bunch of time in this space and we haven’t. If your target audience is all people who know this stuff then this might not be a problem, but just thought I’d try to clarify.

[stevedomin]

Thanks for clarify, it might very well be the case ("curse of knowledge")

We're definitely trying to appeal to someone that know they want/need to sell flights but doesn't necessarily know how.

[SamBam]

> "Spend management: Unlock incremental revenue" means It's a page dedicated to spend management platforms that are looking to unlock extra revenue with travel

I'm going to assume this is another case of being so immersed in the jargon that you don't realize that this is meaningless to most people.

My initial understanding is "how do I spend management? It it like a currency?"

The I realized that "spend management" is jargon for "managing your company's spending," I'm guessing. So... companies that sell spend-management platforms to other companies also want to sell them flights? Forget it, I'm still confused. Clearly I'm not the target audience, though, so it's ok.

[itake]

Just taking a stab at "who the customer is":

My friend runs a theatre in SF and would offer crazy packages for their VIP seating, think Uber Black taking you to the event, with a private entrance and red carpet.

I could see high end event sellers offering to include a flight to the event with the purchase of the ticket.

[xyzelement]

This was my vibe as well. Maybe it's one of these "if you have to ask, it's not for you" cases, but I agree with your words: it doesn't bode well that on the post (as deep as I went) it doesn't mention who the customer is.

[stevedomin]

> Maybe it's one of these "if you have to ask, it's not for you" cases

Kinda agree but also think we should do a better job making it explicit who the target is. Thanks for the feedback

[jaequery]

Why not try clarify it for us here ?

[stevedomin]

Offered a few answers in comments below. Hope that helps clarify a bit.

https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=34819960

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34819449

[brudgers]

Who is the target?

I am intellectually, curious.

Thanks.

[crazygringo]

Yeah it gives zero indication who this is for.

Reading from comments here it seems like travel agents and tour operators? But then I don't really understand that, they already buy flights on behalf of customers so how is this an improvement?

I still have no idea who this is actually for or what the value proposition is. What, precisely, is this trying to replace, and for who?

Give me the top three business case examples and then maybe I'll understand it.

[usehackernews]

What immediately came to my mind for me are ticket/event websites and travel blogs. Allow your customers to book travel to the event or to the location you mentioned directly through your site.