Launch HN: Roame (YC S23) – flight search engine for your credit card points

Congrats on the launch! Been using your free product for a little while. As a fellow traffic hacker, some random comments:

  - I've been in the points game for a long time so I may not be your target customer.  Take feedback with a grain of salt, I guess.

  - Commissions & Trust: You should disclose (more clearly?) that you're getting commissions from the CC signups and, ideally, that those may not be the best offers available.  (ex as of this comment, referrals are paying 90K to sign up whereas your link is at 60K-an almost $300 difference).  I understand this is a huge revenue driver, but that's not an excuse for shilling affiliate links where the user loses out on real, actual money.

  - Last Refresh: Would be nice to know when the last refresh was.  I've clicked a few times for available seats and found that the airline did not actually have the flights available.  As a user, this erodes trust in your results.

  - Slider: Points min/max slider interface isn't great but honestly I can't think of an alternative.  1 AA point is not the same as 1 Asiana point.

  - Program coverage: Your tool coverage seems similar to the other cached searching tools (Seats.aero, award logic, etc) but, honestly, needs improvement.  Most airlines are quickly moving towards releasing more inventory to their own members, so coverage is much more important now than it was two years ago. As an example, Singapore Air very rarely releases ex-US business class awards to partners but releases them much more reliably to their own members.

  - Alerts: I understand this is part of "SkyView" but you should make it more prominent and clearly marketed.  Alerts are *super duper useful* and give your product direct, permissioned access to a user's email and/or SMS that they actually want!  This is what differentiates you from Point.me and the airline searches and also what gave ExpertFlyer its edge for so long.  My guess is making it more prominent will drive more subscribers.

This seems like a cool idea! Some random feedback from using the website:

* I'm not really sure I understood what SkyView is? It seems like you need to enable that to book round-trip flights, and you have to pay for it? But then there's also SkyView Lite?? And that's free but needs an account? Is there no way to book round-trip without paying?

* Maybe ask people what cards they have on the homepage? I found it confusing that it suggested flights with points programs I didn't have, and didn't realize you could filter it at first.

* I don't think I fully understood the difference between this and just using my credit card's travel portal to book flights. Is it that you can compare multiple rewards programs at once? Or the idea that you can earn more value per point by transferring them? Maybe it would be good to clarify that on the homepage, because right now it just feels like a generic "book with points" search engine?

* Is there a way to allow discovering deals in any destination? (So rather than choosing a fixed destination, let it be open to any destination, and then plan a trip somewhere where you can get a good deal on a flight, if that makes sense?)

* On mobile, the filter popup is blocked by the "Log In/Sign Up" buttons on the bottom of the screen. Also on the homepage, the "Create an account" notification appears on top of the expanded hamburger.

Congrats on the launch! Curious how you fit into the landscape of award travel tolls like point.me and seats.aero. What are you doing differently & who’s your target user?

I’m a pro subscriber already. Very nice product.

However, do you have a strategy to at least mollify the airlines?

As the reason I am a Roame subscriber is that:

1: Air Canada brought the hammer down on one of your predecessors.

2. Air Canada implemented a bunch of anti scraping tech, breaking my custom version of this tool and it’s been easier to pay for yours.

The last few attempts at this caused enormous problems for Air Canada and eliminated a lot of desirable Aeroplan space, so I can easily see AC being upset again.

You lost me at requiring registering an account to see flight availability. You need to give some value before asking for my contact info. Too many free alternatives exist that don't gate their search results.

If your premium features are worth it - I'll register. If you want my info - maybe capture it with an offer for an alert after I do my initial query.

------------ In terms of feedback on the broader platform and idea - I think you may be confusing two different audiences. Travel hackers and average reward consumers are different consumers - Your messaging "free flights using points" and attempt to monetize with credit card offers are targeting average consumers - but your search engine and the headache/problem you are trying to solve is really a travel hacker problem - and honestly - its not really a problem - I kinda Enjoy The Hunt!

Products like this only support more wasteful air travel. Not a fan of min-maxing “credit card points” either.

These points programs are funded largely due to various fees imposed on the merchants that are often forced to accept the credit cards.

Note: the airline and “signature” cards often impose “premium” card fees in addition to the bevy of other fees (bank, network, transaction, …) associated with accepting debit/credit cards.

Could you make an onboarding guide for points?

My impression is if you fly for work, you get a lot of employer sponsored points, so it's interesting.

But if I fly 5-10 trips a year personally, why would I try points when I can get 3-5% cash back on my various cards?

A list of common competitors:

1. https://www.point.me/

2. https://seats.aero/

3. https://www.awardtool.com/

4. https://www.pointsyeah.com/

I’d love to know what the real competitive differentiator is between Roame and PointsYeah/AwardTool.

I’ve used every single one of the tools listed above (and others) at various times, including Roame, but I can’t figure out why, in particular, I’d use Roame over the others.

That’s not a dig; it’s a genuine question. I like the UX. :)

[edit] I just want to be really clear: this isn’t a problem only Roame has. I don’t know the difference between PointsYeah and AwardTool either. They both have a similar Google Flights-style UX, return similar results, etc. Neither explains their differentiators well.

Perhaps if Roame did, that might be a differentiator in and of itself! :p

This is not shade because I like this space, but how did you decide YC/venture path was right for Roame? I see many bootstrapped builders in travel (or have a lower margin business around content/affiliate revenue) and would love to know why you chose to raise venture capital or if you could share your thoughts around this topic.

> While most people redeem their credit card points through the Chase or American Express travel portals at about 1-1.5 cents per point, transferring to an airline partner can yield 3-8 cents per point for business class or 12-20 cents per point for first class.

Are there any indicators on your website of how many cents per point a particular booking would be for?

I once had a VC tell me they would never fund travel startups, because the only good founder of a travel company is someone who travels regularly, and that would imply they are too distracted to be working on their own company.

Hope this doesn't match what you've experienced?

I am happy simply because this isnt AI this-that. Congrats on the launch, will definitely use as I am someone who frequently forgets that points exist. For me, Qatar or any of the mid-east carriers have been the worst since their websites are awful.

I’ve been looking for something like this.

I don’t see many options for Brex points. Are those harder to transfer and take advantage of? Is Brex too new?

Small feedback: Skyview is a very confusing subscription term. Why not Roame Lite/Pro/Enterprise/etc

I'm trying to actually find a bookable first class flight that isn't twice as long or more than two stops. (Say ZRH->ATL). All of the flights I have tried mysteriously disappear when I go to United.

How many people have actually booked long haul flights that aren't absolutely terrible (stops/duration) for less than 100k? I am trying to find a single one that actually lets me book it for any date in September. If I have to spend hours manually searching because United makes these magically disappear there is 0 value in this search engine.

When I book on Amex Travel, they give me 25% of my points back, but I only use it for economy, is the primary value the bonus in excess of this? If so for business/premium or all flights?

If credit card rewards affiliate programs sunset, what is your business model?

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_credit-ca...

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/183...

So is all this data scraped by creating fake frequent flyer accounts and then making new ones as each one gets banned by the airline? Doesn't seem sustainable in the long term. As soon as it starts to meaningfully impact their ability to do whatever value maximization they have in mind, they are going to clamp down on this activity, right? They could require you to have some actual mileage activity before you can do searches, for example.

I'm excited about this. However, when I attempt to find some of the best-seeming deals, I cannot find them on the airline site. You list a flight from SEA to TYO on 10/16/24, booked via AA that appears to use Alaksa to SFO, then JAL to TYO for 80k points one way. That's great! However, following the links on your site, the lowest point option is 275k points. This is just one example of several I found.

are you working directly with airlines? what are you going to do to avoid situations like this: https://awardwallet.com/blog/air-canada-sues-seats-aero/

Love the idea!

If a user has entered what points they have, can you limit the results and prices to just that card?

I won't be traveling for a while due to having a young family, but definitely bookmarked.

This backstory seems strange. You definitely would have used seats.aero or point.me if you really know P&M.

Feedback: if I select business/first as my search, please start by listing business/first flights.

As it stood, it started by listing off flights that were like: 85% economy / 15% business.

That's not what I was looking for.

I've been subscribed for a while, this is truly a fantastic service.

Cool idea!

Is this product of interest to Europeans?

It is unclear from the signup page.

Does the website take into account the seasonality of certain flight routes?

You seem to show Amex MR -> AA as an option, which I think is wrong

love the release, ive tried roame a couple of tiems, its hard as a non US card holder sometimes to see all those sweet deals roll by. Keep up the good work team!

Seats.aero is better

Love this! Design is stellar. Very well done!

can i use this with canadian tax residency

I love the landing page. Great job!

Google auth didn’t work for me

Wow I love this!!!!

Super great idea!

lol

Free alternative: https://www.awardhacker.com/