Hello Indie Hackers, long-time lurker here!π
After way to much time building this, I can finally show you my first coded-on-my-own project!
Say hello to Halfway Flights! βοΈ
This is a still simple MVP with probably a few bugs. I'm no developer, I took up some Web Dev courses online(shout out to Udemy) to create Halfway Flights because I used to have this problem with my friends and wanted to solve it.
Now, I need help validating the idea. Your feedback is very much appreciated!
βοΈ So what is Halfway Flights?
A website where you can easily search flights from multiple airports to a common destination. It's like a Skyscanner for friends/families/couples who live in different cities π
βοΈ Solving my own problem
Why did I make this? My friends and I live in different countries and usually organize weekend trips to see each other. Finding combinations of flights from multiple origins to a single destination was always a pain, time and price-wise.
Webs like Skyscanner didn't seem to want to make this feature. So... I took up web development and created it myself (Yes, I totally underestimated the time it would take me π)
βοΈ How does it work?
Just fill in with your airport origins, destination and dates. Halfway Flights will show you:
This way, you have your combination of flights and accommodation within a click.
βοΈ Sorting and filtering results
By default, results are ordered by 'Best Combination'. This is a balance between a great price and compatible schedules. However, you can also sort by:
Given the crazy amount of combinations that are calculated, using filters is highly encouraged as well. You can filter each flight individually by:
βοΈ What next?
I have more features in mind to add in the future. I feel like the most important ones at the moment are:
ππΌ I need your feedback!
Roast Halfway Flights! I want to know your opinion on it (idea, design, functionality-wise, anything!)
If you're an in a long-distance relationship, are an expat or, in short, have loved-ones who live away, do you find it useful? What would you add/change?
Thank you Indie Hackers!
Hey Carmen, This is actually quite cool! Wanted to know what Udemy Courses you took?
Sure! I bought the 'Web Development Bootcamp' by Colt Steele - that was a couple years ago, maybe some parts are outdated (I have no idea, it's just a maybe).
I see he's also released a 2020 modern Javascript course recently :
I signed up for www.freecodecamp.com too, which is great resource too. I used to combined both sources to learn. Also, I really liked 'The Coding train' youtube chanel. The guy is really fu and explains stuff really well.
How confident are you now with your coding skills? Do you run into problems anymore you don't know how to solve? Do you have anyone to bounce issues off of typically?
I constantly run into problems and have to google a lot. I'm not an agile coder, every problem feels like this wall I have to hit several times before solving it. Thankfully, I have a couple of friends who I can ask for help if needed :)
Feel free to reach out to me also any time you have any code issues Iβd be willing to help
I love Udemy! Was up from 5-8am going through a course this morning on there before my son got up for the day. Kids smh
I have no personal use case but I just wanted to say, as a software engineer, I am utterly amazed at what you created without any engineering background. It's probably a tough time to monetize this right now, but I am sure it will take off (quite literally π) sooner or later.
Thank you, really appreciate your comment Matthias π
It's actually not a really complex project, but, coming from zero web dev knowledge it has certainly been tough at moments.
Timing is π©, started this pre-covid times. But I guess this is the worse it can get right? It can only get better from here (I hope!)
Great project. You really started it without knowing how to program? Wow, I'm a programmer and I'm impressed. Very good work.
This can be very useful. I share it with friends I have in other countries, who will surely find it very useful as well.
I have only seen a minor bug, you can access it from https://www.halfwayflights.com and https://halfwayflights.com
No redirect, that's duplicate content of all your urls. It's bad for SEO.
What worries me about your project are two things:
You also want you can leave the destination field empty and give you suggestions ... It reminds me a bit of https://waynabox.com and travelling without knowing where you are going xD. It could be another future feature. Make a https://waynabox.com but for friends from different countries.
Thanks for your words Robert!
I started learning web development with Udemy and FreeCodeCamp and then I started creating Halfway Flights. I'd say half of the code is mine and the other half from Stack Overflow :)
Thanks for the heads up on the redirection issue! I'll definetely need to change that, I guess I can solve that in the htacess file, right?
Regarding the API, I think I'd be able to get access to the Skyscanner API if Kiwi fails. I think there are other APIs available, like Amadeus, too.
I completely share the worry regarding a big company cloning this idea. I've been questioning myself all this time why Skycanner, Kayak or Google Flights have not implementing it already and what could I do if that happened.
Creating something like a forum could be an option, thanks for the suggestion!
I was thinking I could add the feature of emailing periodically trips (flights + accomodation+activities) to people who signed up to Halfway Flights.
That is a feature I'd find useful for my friends and I, we'd like to delegate the trip organization so we stop procrastinaning our meetings. We'd go anywhere as long as the price is alright and the flights fit into our schedules, so if someone emailed us these trips we'd be super happy.
Yes, the redirection can be done from the htaccess if your server uses Apache.
Subscribing to a newsletter can be a viable business too.
And another thing I've fallen into now, you have to think about having a legal text and a cookie policy with a banner. At least if you want to be legal from Europe by the GDPR law.
And by the way, as a recommendation for performance and more control ... I recommend using cloudflare.com, it's a CDN that has a free plan that allows:
In your case right now you probably don't need a CDN, because it adds a little complexity and you will have to empty caches every time you modify html/js/css code in the server, but I'm telling you this to keep it in mind for the future ;)
Thank you for the recommendation. Actually, other @kdme suggested cloudflare too!
To be honest, I'm using Webempresa for hosting this site cause I already had some wordpress sites in it. However, it's not at all the best hosting for a web app. I think I wouldn't even be able to add node to it if I needed it in the future.
This is great. What APIs are you using to get flight info?
Thanks! I'm using Kiwi.com API for flights
This is really cool Carmen - congrats! One use case that jumps out to me is for planning bachelor/bachelorette parties. I've planned a few of these and trying to get everyone to fly in to the same place can be a logistical nightmare. If you're looking to 'niche down' you might focus on this customer segment. The wedding industry offers no shortage of ways to engage and get in front of an audience that would find a lot of value in this product... blogs, theknot.com, etc..
I'm working on a project that helps makers share and gather feedback on their projects. I think it might be a good fit for you based on the kinds of questions you are asking in this post... 'Do you it useful?" , "Would you change X or Y", etc... I'd love to talk you through it and get your thoughts. Shoot me an email if you are up for a chat: info@rapidfirefeedback.com
You won't believe this. I've had the multiorigin search problem for years now, started the project and abandoned it after a while. Last year, I had my first bachelorette party and it was a nightmare. That made me retake the project!
I was considering expats, digital nomads and internatinal students my niche, but this is totally my niche too and I wasn't even considering it, thanks!
Also, when I apply some of the feedback I had already will probably email you for more feedback gathering with rapidfirefeedback.com :)
Oh I forgot to two other questions but what are your plans for making money? This is an awesome service and I would definitely try to profit off it, but was curious what your plans are.
Second question is, I see a screenshot on the homepage of your site running on a mobile app. Is this from a web browser on a mobile phone or did you actually build an actual native app that is downloadable from the app store for this?
Right now, Halfway Flights it is monetized with affiliate marketing. If the users buy flights or book accomodation using the map I get a commission.
However, the end goal for me would be to charge a subscription fee (yearly probably) and offer something similar to what Scott Cheap Flights does but for group of travellers/couples who live in different cities. What do you think?
Regarding the mobile screenshot, I don't have an app but the web works in mobile too (and it was a nightmare to design haha).
Don't know if making an app is in the roadmap, I hate having apps for no reason in my phone, but I guess if I find real users for this, they'll let me know if the need one :)
I'm not sure about making money, I haven't thought about it yet based on your business product. I could think about it more and come up with some options possibly though if you need some.
As far as the app goes, I agree I uninstall apps I don't use often, but there are also some apps that I install, use and uninstall a couple weeks later then months go by and I install it again.
WIth my particular app I'm working on now, I did another post about this but basically I made a web app that works in mobile and basically got told by everyone using it that they would never use this more than once unless it's a native app. The problem with web apps on mobile is you'd have to bookmark a site, then try to locate that bookmark or remember the website URL and retype it later, etc. Someone will end up saying forget this and just give up before they even get there again, nobody is going to remember your website unless they use it constantly or its some huge name with millions in marketing like Travelocity being pushed in their face constantly.
I don't know if it's one of those apps people would prefer using on a computer or mobile device, I guess I'd have to try it on both to decide. You might be ok sticking to what you have already. For me, mine only made sense as a native app because everyone would only be using my app while on the go driving around and nobody has time to search bookmarks in a web browser from their phone while they are sitting in their car trying to focus on more important things. They want to click one button to open it and do what they need to do, but it seems like yours might get used more on a computer.
Fair points. I'm the same, install/uninstall/install apps when needed :)
It is true that making a native app is a way for people not to have to remember your name, you're just there, hadn't thought of that. I guess having one could make sense in the future, when the user has more features (log in, saved trips...), for now I'll stick with this and trying to validate.
My initial feedback since I don't have time to go through everything is it was difficult for me to find airports in the search. I wasn't able to put the state I'm in or even the city and have them populate. I had to know the airport abbreviation to find the specific airports I knew existed. Now if I'm not super familiar with airports in a certain area I would have had to google those first. If I was a regular user, that would annoy me. This is a cool idea though so I might put up with the annoyance anyways, but if I found a similar product without that problem, it would definitely make me switch.
Really appreciate the honest feedback, I really want people to tell when it doesn't work or when they think it sucks π
I don't know why the input thing doesn't work everywhere (Well, I guess it's because I'm a shitty coder).
It should work both when you search for the city name or the city code, it's weird it didn't work for you but helpful to detect a bug!
Would you mind telling me if you used it on mobile or desktop?
And what browser are you using? Maybe that can lead me to detecting the issue.
I can assure you the airports input has been given me nightmares this whole time, and I want to solve it asap. As a user this also annoys the f out of me, I'd switch to other alternative too if it consistently didn't work well.
I think I was too impatient when I was typing because I went back and typed my city and it did in fact come up. I think the issue for me then was just a user error. One way I could say you could improve this in the future is it appears that you wait X amount of time after a user types and then do the search for the airports in case they are still typing. Another way to do and this is kind of an enhancement I've been using lately is to make the request immediately, but then cancel the request if the request hasn't finished yet and the user types another character. This will respond back quicker in the long run, but in my professional opinion for launching a new product this isn't something I would do or focus on unless it was super quick to do. There are plenty of other critical bugs I'm sure you have on your list or features that you feel are critical that probably you want to get done. Again, it was my fault. One suggestion I would make though is to somehow figure out if you can list all airports in a certain state. Reason I bring that up is because say I am looking for flights for my family that lives in several different states, I don't even know which airport they'd use since that depends a lot of times on price and I don't remember the cities they are in even since it spans multiple states, so maybe if there was a way for me to just look up New Hampshire and get a list of airports there. Again this is another feature though I wouldn't waste your time on right now. So right now on the search page I don't have any immediate recommendations just those 2 things I mentioned for sometime in the future. When it comes to launching you don't need perfection and I feel what you have is way more than adequate.
Really great looking site and good work learning how to program and building this, that is quite an accomplishment I'm very impressed!
I was on Mac Desktop and Chrome.
Good luck in the future!
Hola, me parece impresionante que hayas podido crear esto como proyecto inicial! (y el dominio libre? no hubiera creΓdo nunca)
Con respecto a la validaciΓ³n de las ideas hay muchisima info dando vueltas, te dejo un par de links:
Me gustaria saber que estas usando en el back para todo esto.
Aprovecho para comentarte que si necesitas ayuda tΓ©cnica o de producto podes utilizar la comunidad que estoy creando https://getadvice.github.io/ donde podes tener sesiones de consultoria gratuita one-to-one con otros devs y emprendedores.
Muchas gracias Adriano!
I'll reply in English in case some non-spanish speakr is interested in knowing :)
Will have a look at those links. For validation I was also thinking of posting in forums where my target audience are, or ar least who I consider to be my target audience at the moment.
Maybe their feedback is the most valuable one, since they're the most likely to organize multiorigin trips.
As per the domain, yeah I got lucky! I looked for many 'self-explanatory' domains (Multiairport, Group, Halfway...), and somehow, this was available!
Regarding back-end, there's no back-end haha - I am completely aware that this is not optimal at all and that for the next steps, backend will be needed. I plan to be able to suggest destinations given multiple origins, and lots of combinations will need to be calculated, I guess I need back-end for that, right?
I might need to use your project, GetAdvive.github.io, so a professional developer can advice me on how to do that :)
Hey Carmen (switching to English too), I would invest A LOT of time validating before writing a single line of code for the backend.
Also, don't be afraid to fail, pivot or kill the project if you have to. The most important here is to gain experience while validating and be good at listening and try to understand the problem that you're trying to solve.
Please use, and abuse, GetAdvice if you need to, that's the whole idea behind it :)
Best of lucks!
I definetely should do that. Spent way too much time already to reach this point!
Hey @Carmen,
I produced a detailed feedback (incl. video and breakdown) for your website. You can see it here:
http://sideproject-help.com/result/halfwayflights-com
I hope this helps. Please take a minute or two to answer the survey on the bottom π
PS: You have a good product. If you need help with making it great, let me know.
Sascha, I don't mean to hijack Carmens thread, but this incredible! Thank you for taking some time to support other indie hackers while dogfeeding your own tool. I would love to make use of it some time later, but I'm not quite there yet.
While browsing through your own landing page, I noticed one sentence "With Linear, you get the kind of experience youβd expect from a professional tool.". My guess is "Linear" is what you built as a whitelabel toolkit and Sideproject Help is just one franchise? This may need some additional explanation, a link, or should be replaced.
What he did is amaaaaazing!
Thanks a lot for the kind words @digitalbreed.
I'm happy to help. Feel free to ping me once you are ready to get feedback.
PS: thank you for catching the strange copy. This was actually just a placeholder that I still need to change π
Wow! I'm a trully amazed about you taking the time and effort to create this, thank you SO MUCH, for real!
I agree it could be more clear. I really struggle with writing good copy (especially not in Spanish) and had the feeling all this time that it was not clear/catchy enough. I'll try to change that. Same with actually saying WHY people should use it instead of other options.
Agreed on the search box (shadow, inputs...) might need to redesign that a bit!
Overall, your feedback is of great help. Thanks!
Also, are you planning on releasing sideproject-help as a feedback tool?
If I got it right, at the moment, it's a way for you to share feedback in a very structured and thoughtful manner, but maybe, this could turn into a tool for other people to give /ask for feedback?
Hey @Carmen,
I'm glad you liked it and find it helpful.
Creating great copy is super hard but so important.
This is actually a kinda old article, but still very valid. Maybe you find some inspiration here: https://unbounce.com/landing-page-copywriting/8-simple-landing-page-copywriting-tips/
PS: Yes, at some point I'll probably release the tool to the public so people can ask more structured feedback from others. For now, I'll test the hell out of it and make it good :-)
Thanks for the feedback. And the Twitter shoutout :-)
This is a great idea, and the app looks neat!
However, I think some small things could be improved.
Here is a screenshot of what I tried: Seattle/NYC <--> Paris https://imgur.com/a/4jD7KNc
But these are just some details that can be easily fixed.
An improvement I would rather like to see is a clearer view on the routes taken. At first, seeing both planes arriving at the same time in Paris, I imagined that they were arriving in two different airports CDG/ORY (ok, maybe this is a stupid assumption as ORY airport is not even used for international flights AFAIK). I had to click on the prices to actually see that NYC->Paris is the same flight.
So, having a little bit more details, like the departure/arrival airports, the flight number, etc would help.
Maybe some sort of table view where you can see each person flights and stops, so you can easily understand when they join each others: https://imgur.com/cVPB7Ns
Anyway, congrats for the launch, you are definitely on to something :)
You're totally right, there are not just some 'small things' that could be improved, there are a LOT!
The summary tags can easily be changed, and you comments make total sense.
Also, some other people also suggested the information was a bit lacking, which resonates with your comment on the Paris code airport. Will definetely look into that!
I found that creating the mobile version has constrained the design a lot. I omited some information for it to fit the mobile screen, but when enlarged in desktop it feels a bit empty and without information. I definetely need to rethink how the combinations are presented.
Thank you so much for your feedback Guillaumeπ
Que pasada Carmen.
Vaya trabajazo. Buena suerte con tu proyecto!
Muchas gracias Michael!
De nada Carmen!
This looks great @Carmen. Cool that you are solving your own problem too. The website functions very well. Great job on everything built so far. I guess your unique value proposition is that people can book as a group coming from multiple locations. I honestly can't pick out too many flaws with it, other than, is this a big enough value proposition to make people want to use Half Way Flights vs Skyscanner or Kayak... What is the next biggest challenge you are facing?
Thanks for your kind words Gordon :)
My next challenge would be reaching potential users and get them to sign up for my email list.
My plan is to eventually be able to send trips to signed up users based on their origin airports. I'd like to send them combinations of flights+accomodation+activities to their email periodically, so they don't need to organize them themselves and can book the whole trip for them and their friends with a few clicks.
Personally, that is what I'd like as a user with friends overseas. We often procrastinate our trips because finding the perfect combo of flights + accomodation + agreeing with each other takes time (I know, first world problem). If had these trips delivered to our email and their price+schedules are good, we'd book straight away.
So I guess, the next step is finding other users like me and getting their email, Then, if enough users show interest, I'd actually develop the 'finding trips machine'.
Getting this users and making them sign up is gonna be hard tho. I'll start targeting webs and forums with expats, international students and long distance couples.
Suggestions are appreciated!
That is great @Carmen. Sounds like you have a solid plan. Like you said, yiou want to make it as easy as possible for people to book trips together with friends. I think you can double down on this as your unique selling point a bit more with your website copy. If you use the copy to appeal to the emotional aspect of making it as easy as possible for friends to get together from different locations, I think that would be a good marketing play.
Again this is just a suggestion, but it seems to be the real selling point you are going for... eg "Cut the excuses, let Halfway Flights organize your next city get together with your closest friends".... or something along these lines.
Best of luck with all the growth.
Completely agree, thanks for your feedback!
Definetely need to change my copy to explain users WHY they should use Halfway Flights and what I'm doing for them. May use something along those lines you wrote :P
Nice website. I used to travel a lot but not in 2020. I am a bit confused by how this is different from Google Flights, which already allows multiple possible origins. I also tested your website with SFO,SJC,SEA -> BJS but got no results. The same pairs would get a few results on Google Flights.
Thanks qokka, I guess there's not much travelling in 2020 for any of us π
Shitty time to release a product in the travel space haha
You're question is completely fair. I tried to use Google Flights for this purpose since they allow multiorigin search but was not happy with the approach (Maybe I don't know how to use it properly?)
If I'm not getting it wrong, Google Flights allows multiorigin so you can compare the price of flying somewhere from different airports. Therefore, it provides you with a list of flights from either of those origins to the destination.
Halfway Flights is about group travel. It aims to find the best combinations of flights for friends or families who live in different cities and want to meet somewhere.
It provides you with a list of combinations (not individual flights sorted by price/time like Google Flights), from all of the origins to the destination with some group features like average price and time difference between flights at both arrival and return.
It also provides filters (departure times, return times and price) than can be applied individually per origin. You can also sort the combinations by lowest average price or by 'most similar schedule'.
Here's a comparison between the same search in Google FLights vs Halfway Flights: https://imgur.com/a/JwB2KZb
In short, Google Flights is for individuals finding the best airport to fly from. Halfway Flights is about finding combinations of flights to meet your friends.
About the SFO,SJC,SEA -> BJS search, maybe it didn't find any combinations because by default it searches for flights with up to 1 stop, and that combination likely has more stops? Or maybe other dates?
I tried that search selecting 2+ Stops and got results. See here: https://imgur.com/a/T86Zxmm
If you still don't get any results maybe there's a bug. What browser are you using? Are you doing mobile or desktop? Thanks!
Thanks. I get it now. Here is my screenshot. I guess I misunderstood the concept of "traveling dates". I thought the site is going to search for all flights which depart / return within this range. Turns out the site might be searching flights exactly departing on the first date, and returning on the second date.
I checked it out, for some reason it doesn't find any combination from SJC to BJS (I removed that origin and it got results from Seattle and San Francisco). Maybe adding an alert stating the airport that doesn't offer flights would be helpful (in this case, SJC).
Travelling dates are the exat depart and return dates, you're right.
Oh my god, that reply was SO long, sorry!
Pretty cool project Carmen!
The feature you built to search flights from multiple airports is nice, but it's something SkyScanner can build under a week if they want to. You have to find a Unique-Selling-Point that will attract users to use your service. For example, ask yourself - why should a user use my website compared with the competition?
Thanks nscode!
You're totally right, and it's something I've been thinking about all this time.
What if Skycanner decides to make it? They literally would run over me.
This is an MVP with a simple feature - the multiple origin search feature - but what I'd really like to provide are organized trips (combination of flights + accomodation + actitivies) to groups of people flying from multiple origins. People like my friends and I.
We usually procrastinate these trips cause finding the combinations of flights is a pain. It'd be great to have them delivered to our email periodically or search on the web and leave the destination blank to be suggested where to go.
That is the proposition I'd really like to make and the need I'd like to validate here. Now I need to think how...
Should I 'fake' that I can email them the combinations of flights+accomodation? (I kind of do already, have a sign up banner haha, but have no clue how I'd do it)
Should I go ahead and create the 'blank' destination? - That would take me again to the building phase, and don't think it's the smart thing to do.
As I mentioned in other comment, I'd be great to have a Scott Cheap Flights business model where people sign-up and pay a yearly fee to have the trips found and delivered to their email. So I guess I have to focus on getting people to sign up and then think how can I really find the trips for them.
What would you do?
Hi Carmen!
--I'm getting a Server not Found error. Hope you manage to put your website back online soon!-- nevermind, it worked.
Really liked your project! It is a very clean interface and it delivers exactly what it promises!
Hope you find a good product-market fit!
Ooooops! Don't know why that Server not Found error, but glad it eventually worked π
Thank you for the kind words, I hope to find that product-market fit too!
Honestly, the website looks great, great UI, UX, experience overall.
Really impressive for someone that just learned coding on Udemy. Congrats on the launch!
Thanks Giancarllo! Hopefully, people will find it useful :)
Hi Carmen,
The site is very well done: I like the structure, that it is fast and easy to understand.
The idea is worth pursuing. It might be a bit tougher to reach a lot of people atm. During corona times they travel less. But it will be over in a year or so and then people want to fly again and this tool can help them a lot.
This site could be also used to plan how remotely working people can meet for a yearly offsite. Or friends living in different locations go to concert. i like it :)
Of course there are a few broken links, but this is an MVP, so it is enough that the main functionality works smoothly :)
I assume you earn money by affiliate links, right?
Andras
Thank you so much for your kind words Andras :)
You're right, at the moment the site is monetized with affiliation to Kiwi and Booking. However, I think it'd eventually be interesting to have a business model similar to Scott Cheap Flights: having people sign up with their travel groups (family, couple, friends..) and pay a yearly fee to receive the best trips to their email. What do you think?
Some people have suggested the remote teams offsite idea too, it's starting to be a recurring comment so I definetely need to pay attention to that!
yes, that could work. But maybe you should implement it at a later stage.
I suggest after fixing the broken links (FAQ, signup, terms, about, email, etc) and getting some feedback from others you should post your site to HackerNews to the show section. See how people react to it.
And find travel blogs or other pages where you can mention that you have a service like this.
And be prepared that it takes quite some time till people will use it :)
I think you're right.
I'll fix those issues and post in HN, will try to be featured in blogs and wait, wait a lot :)
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Thank you for taking the time to provide me with your feedback! π
Really liked your comments on the landing page design, I completely them.
I guess I broke the validate-then build thing haha. My approach was build MVP- validate- keep on building more features, plus, it was good practice for learning web dev.
But I thought it would be really difficult to validate something in the travel space with nothing, given the amount of great-quality options out there. That's why I wanted to provide at least the feature of searching.
The feature that I find the most interesting would be suggesting the optimal destination to fly to. At the moment, people need to search for an specific destination, which is great when you know where you want to meet, but most times, you just go wherever the flights are cheap and have the right schedule times. That's what I'd really like to provide.
I think that will require a lot more tech knowledge from my part... Back-end stuff? RIght now I'm only doing front-end with bootstrap and jquery,as you stated.
What would you suggest me using next? Was thinking of node.js for back end since it javascript.
What would be the optimal option for calculating LOTS of combinations at the same time?
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Node it is then! I think it's what makes the most sense for ''my stack''
I'm using a hosting that I have for my Wordpress sites, because right now I only have html, css and js files, however it won't work when I add backend with Node in the equation.
Will check our Firebase! Thanks for all the other recommendations :)
As per Git, no, I know it existes but don't use it. This is probably a dev crime but I just have copies of folders with dates in my computer haha
Haven't tried React out either!