It's so obvious, how come.......

It's so obvious, how come you don't get it?

I mean, you don't need an oracle to tell you that I want to click on a flight selection, & go straight to making a booking, instead of having to re-enter my travel details when I arrive on the airline website? Isn't it how this is done on Kayak, Travelocity, etc?

Yup! You're right!

I would also expect such a functionality & many more including a date picker - "why would I want to type in dates when I can simply click & pick a date?"

We had to make a decison - hold back the product till all functionalities have been created versus release the core functionality of the product, get & incorporate user feedback, and build out the rest of the functionalities in stages.

Option 1 looks like it could take literally - forever. There are a lot of functionalities that one would love to put in, plus we're still learning to do some of these things - hey, nothing bad in admitting we're still learning.

While we're building these functionalities, you the user don't get to enjoy any aspects of the product at all. You'd still be hopping from site to site checking ticket fares, or worst case not having the time to do that and possibly spending N2,000 more on each ticket.

So we figured option 2 is the way to go. The core of the product is to allow users compare ticket fares and flight times before making a purchase. We have tried to build out these 2 aspects and put them out in the very first release. You, the user immediately get to start saving money and improving your travel planning. While you're doing that, we're building out the remaining functionalities and working out the bugs in the already released functionalities.

Again, we welcome your feedback. You'd be surprised at some of the details that being so close to the product [ourselves], we can overlook. Recently, a tweak was made to the code, we tested it (on firefox only!) & uploaded.

Guess what? A user opens the site in Internet Explorer. And bam!, there was a bug.

Oh my gosh! How could we have forgotten to test in IE?

Well, THANKS to the user who drew our attention. Problem has been fixed.

So, please keep the feedback coming - the good & the bad

Why 1spotSearch...?

There are two reasons

1. Provide a service
2. Make some money (ok, truth be told - a lot! if that is possible. Come on, everybody wants to make money, abi?)

How did it all start?

Once, I had to fly to Owerri. I called an Aero agent and paid 14,000 Naira for a ticket.

I got to the airport and while checking in, found out another airline to Owerri had tickets for 12,000 Naira. I was curious and asked the lady at the counter where I was checking in.

"How come you guys are charging 14,000 while the other airline is charging 12,000"

"We charge 12,000 for an economy ticket and 14,000 for a premium economy ticket", was her reply. "Right now, we only have premium economy and business class tickets available"

"You have premium economy on local flights? What is that?"

She took the time to explain to me.

Summary - I paid N2,000 more for a ticket, all because I didn't check Virgin Nigeria before paying for my ticket.

Fast Forward to almost a year later - I'm flying from Abuja to Lagos

I get to the Aero terminal at Abuja airport. All flights before noon are full. I ask for the next available flight and am told the ticket will cost me N17,500 and the flights departs by 5.PM.

I lug my luggage (on foot) all the way to the international terminal. Virgin Nigeria says their flights are full too and a ticket on the next flight by 5.30 PM will cost me N20,000.
I try Arik airlines and again flight is full, a ticket on the next flight will cost me N18,000

Again, different airlines flying to the same destination within the same departure window but the cost of tickets are different.
Apart from the cost of the ticket, I had spent time already trapezing around the airport.

So I got thinking, isn't there a better way to do this? Isn't there a place where I can compare ticket prices for all the airlines before making a purchase? Isn't there someplace where I can find out if a flight is full or not (instead of having to walk around the airport)? Isn't there a place where I can see the departure times for all the airlines (that I fly) and based on that plan my travel?

This led to 1spotSearch

This is very much a work in progress, so bear with me for all the bugs and features not available on the site (I'm apologizing before hand oh..so nobody will rain abuse on my head about any issues on the site).

Use the site and please provide feedback (report bugs, features you would like to see, things that can be changed, suggestions, general comments) using the feedback link on the site or via email from this blog - click on "my profile" and then click on the email link.

I may not be able to respond personally to all comments but I appreciate them.

Again, it may take some time for your comments and suggestions to be reflected on the site (hey, I'm just one person remember, at least for now) but I will read all feedback and with time will incorporate the ones that align with the ideals for the website.

And don't forget - TELL OTHERS ABOUT THIS SITE