[todsul]

hi fibbery, we made this change exactly for this reason: so customers would get great results more of the time. With the new format, not only do you get one of the best experts, but that expert can spend more time just on you. That last part is key.

This idea that "one person digging deeper" is better than "more people competing" first came to us at an in-office hackathon (flight hacking, not software hacking). We noticed with more "iterations", experts could hack even the most mundane trips. In this particular example, they got NYC<->Berlin (round-trip) for about $400 with rigid dates. The rigid dates part is key because it simulates the real world (we've seen < $300 with flex).

Once we worked closer with some of our experts, we realized the top ones are miles more analytical. They either write their own software or compile huge spreadsheets of their findings.

So this change of format was to put you in touch with one of them, not with someone who does this on the side. We wish we could have created a new income stream for the average person, but to ensure customer value, we had to go this way.