Chicago Startup: FlyWhim Wants You To Imagine If You Bid On Airfare Like Hotwire

Are you familiar with Hotwire? Most people who travel all the time have either used Hotwire, checked Hotwire or know about Hotwire. They were the first on the hotel booking scene with blind box bidding on hotel rooms. The way it was originally designed to work is hotels would load up their unused inventory, you would see a price and general location but not the hotel name and you could get between 40%-70% off your hotel stay. They would tell you the name of the hotel and the address after you booked.

Hotwire doesn’t quite work like that anymore. Sure they still do blind box bidding but you get the same deals as you’d get with just about any hotel site. For last-minute booking the only app really doing it right is Hotel Tonight, but that’s another story for another day.

More after the break



So what’s FlyWhim and what in the world does it have to do with Hotwire?  Well FlyWhim is built on the principal that some people like to travel just for the spirit and adventure of traveling. Sometimes you just want to get away for the sake of getting away and you don’t necessarily have a destination in mind.

FlyWhim is hoping to help airlines fill empty seats and keep the prices really low but not letting the traveler know where they are going until after they pay. Of course you would have to wait to build up the rest of your travel itinerary like your hotel, until after you’ve booked and paid for your FlyWhim flight.

The project was born out of the Chicago booth launch competition and won second place honors. Now it’s up to the FlyWhim team to see if they can get the airlines to participate. It actually might not be that hard based on the number of open seats on flights.

FlyWhim would definitely be for the adventuresome out there because it’s a gamble to put even $100 on an airline ticket if you don’t know where you’re going. But like their website says, if you’ve ever spun the globe to decide on a vacation, this might just be up your alley. If the prices get low enough it may be just the thing for a cool romantic getaway.

If you think you have the spirit in you to give it a try, head over to their website and sign up for updates as to when the FlyWhim service will actually go live.

Source: Builtinchicago

 

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