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Posts Tagged ‘Flight Delays’

FlightCaster Takes Off With $1.3 Million In Funding And A New API

It seems that flight delays could turn into a big business. FlightCaster, the startup that helps predict flight delays long before the airlines themselves usually do, has just landed a $1.3 million funding round led by Tandem Entrepreneurs and Sherpalo Ventures. FlightCaster previously recieved money as part of the Y Combinator program. Today the company is also launching a new API, which developers can learn about here.

FlightCaster’s goal is simple: it wants to let you know when your flight is delayed as early as possible. Using a variety of data sources and complex algorithms, the service will alert you whenever it thinks one of your flights will be delayed, along with an explantation of the factors that contributed to its prediction. And so far, it seems to be working — co-founder Jason Freedman says that four hours below takeoff, Flightcaster manages to predict ten times as many delays as the airlines do. And they manage to stay 90% accurate (which is on par with the airlines).

Back when I first wrote about the startup, I questioned how helpful knowing about a delay in advance really was. After all, FlightCaster’s notifications state that a flight will probably be delayed. But sometimes they’re not, so it isn’t wise to show up at the airport a few hours late. Freedman says the FlightCaster team had the same concerns, but that there are two discrete sets of users who value the service. The first group of users (which is where most people fall) just like having a heads up that their flight is delayed, mostly so that they can warn friends and co-workers that they might be late.

The second group loves FlightCaster for a different reason: they will change their plans if there’s a possibility of a delay. Freedman says these tend to be frequent fliers (likely business travelers) who don’t want to get caught in delay limbo and are willing to pay to swap flights even if a delay isn’t certain.

It’s this second group that will likely prove most valuable to FlightCaster. The company is currently in talks with a number of major travel sites (and even some airlines) to integrate their predictions. Freedman won’t get into specifics yet, but he says some of these partners are interested in helping frequent fliers rebook their flights as soon as there’s a delay alert.

Along with the parters FlightCaster is already talking with, other developers will be able to tap into the Flightcaster API for a fee.

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AutoPilot should be with you on your next trip

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

USA Today has released AutoPilot for the iPhone and iPod touch, and it looks like a winner. This free app [iTunes link] lets you plan your trip, informs you of flight delays, gives you quick links to hotel, rental car and airline phone numbers, gets you the weather for your destination, and pulls up Flickr photos of where you are going. Whew!

There are lots of other travel apps, but I think AutoPilot has hit all the highlights of useful information that people will want in one place.

The app even reminds you to check in for your flight, and allows you to email your itinerary to others. If you need to quickly call your hotel or your airline, all that information is there. You can tap on a phone number and the call gets made, or you can save the info to contacts. You can also click on a URL and go to a hotel, airline or rental car website

I put in some suggested trips, and everything worked very well except for flights with connections. Each flight had to be entered one at a time. I’d have preferred to be able to enter all the flights at once by typing in flight numbers separated, for example, by a comma.

The app integrates with Tripit, so if you have an account there it can pick up your flight information. Tripit, by the way, has an excellent iPhone app [iTunes link] as well.

Everything else about this app worked very well. There are ads at the bottom of the screen, but I did not find them distracting or obtrusive.

Having the flight tracker is very nice when you are meeting friends at the airport, and the information appeared up to date. The app was developed by Mercury Intermedia, the same firm that did the excellent USA Today [iTunes link] app. It’s very slick and reliable for a version 1.0.

I can’t think of any reason why a traveler wouldn’t want to try this app out. I’m thinking about making a trip I don’t even need to go on, just for the experience.

One other suggestion I’d make. The app shouldn’t be limited to just air travel. If I’m driving somewhere, I’d still like the ability to define a trip, have the hotel and weather information and the destination galleries available for me, and maybe add some points of interest whether I’m driving or flying.

Check out the gallery for screen shots of AutoPilot in action:

TUAWAutoPilot should be with you on your next trip originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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