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Travel start-ups: Another one bites the dust

July 20, 2016

FlightCar is shutting down its 12 airport locations. (Image: FlightCar)

There’s been no shortage of start-up companies in the travel arena in recent years. Some of them have made it big, like Uber and Lyft. But others start out with a lot of flash and promise, and then flare out and disappear.

The latest company to join the latter camp is FlightCar, a San Francisco-based venture founded in 2013. Its business model was pretty simple : When you drive to the airport, drop off your car at a FlightCar lot and you get free parking and a car wash. You also agree to let the company rent out your vehicle to someone else while you’re away. And if they do, they’ll give you a share of the revenue.

Things seemed to be going well for a while, but then business started to falter. Stung by poor reviews about its customer service, FlightCar earlier this year went through a major overhaul, replacing a number of key executives and making other operational reforms.

But that apparently wasn’t enough. The company said in a blog post that over the next couple of weeks, it will be shutting down at all 12 airports where it had been operating. It noted that it has sold its technology platform to Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc. the automaker’s “innovation lab for new mobility services” located in Silicon Valley.

It’s the second San Francisco-based ride-sharing innovator to close up shop in recent months. Last December, the same thing happened to Sidecar, originator of a ride-sharing app in 2012. Sidecar got into the market ahead of Uber and Lyft, but it never expanded beyond nine U.S. cities, and was soon overwhelmed by its larger and better-financed competitors.

Beacon’s all-you-can-fly business model didn’t fly in the northeast. (Image: Beacon)

And it’s not just ride-sharing companies that can fail. The California-based all-you-can-fly membership airline Surf Air seems to be doing well, but last year three of its four founders moved east and started a company called Beacon, based on the same all-you-can-fly model for trips between Boston Logan and New York’s Westchester County Airport. They did not replicate their west coast success, however; Beacon shut down in April of this year.

Readers: Did you ever use FlightCar? What was your experience like? What’s the next travel startup to bite the dust?

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: How to get the BEST summer fare deals | One airline fee fading fast | Trip Report: Aer Lingus Economy Class | 5 top jobs for frequent travelers | First class phase out coming soon

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San Francisco-based ride-sharing app firm shuts down

December 31, 2015

Ride-sharing app Sidecar has stopped operating. (Image: Sidecar)

Unable to compete with its better-financed rivals, the ride-sharing app company Sidecar, based in San Francisco, stopped operations this week.

Founded in 2012, Sidecar was the first smartphone-based ride-sharing app to win approval for passenger pick-ups at San Francisco International Airport in the fall of 2014, even before Lyft and UberX broke into that market. Sidecar operated in just a handful of cities, also including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle, San Diego, Boston, Chicago, Charlotte and Washington D.C.

Earlier this year, as it struggled to survive in the passenger ride-sharing market, Sidecar tried branching out with another strategy, offering to make deliveries of groceries, restaurant meals and packages. But even that was not enough to sustain the operation.

“Nearly four years ago we invented what is now known as ‘ridesharing’ with an app that connected riders with everyday drivers in their personal vehicle,” Sidecar co-founders Sunil Paul and Jahan Khanna said in an online farewell post. “People loved it. It was safe, convenient and affordable, and it quickly caught on.”

But Sidecar was not as successful as Uber and Lyft in attracting venture capital, nor as quick to expand to new markets.

“This is the end of the road for the Sidecar ride and delivery service, but it’s by no means the end of the journey for the company,” the co-founders said, although they gave no hint of what their next venture might be.

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Delta free upgrades disappearing + Shipping vs. checking a bag +_San Francisco’s new long-haul routes + Is Newark our worst airport? + Delta, United forge new international partnerships

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Ebola-mania + First class transcon fares soar? + Southwest: we’re sorry + Sidecar worth a look

October 18, 2014

Some good common sense advice about Ebola from the World Health Organization

This is Part 1 of our weekend TravelSkills News Roundup… did you read Part 2?

All ebola, all the time. The relentless saturation news coverage of ebola may not bother veteran road warriors, but it is having an impact on the general public. In a new Reuters-Ipsos survey, almost half of the 1,577 respondents said they plan to avoid international air travel. Meanwhile, Frontier Airlines keeps re-cleaning that plane — now out of service — that an ebola victim flew on a week ago, and tracking down some 800 passengers who were on that flight or subsequent ones on that aircraft. The Centers for Disease Control issued guidelines to airlines about dealing with sick passengers and cleaning planes. And other parties are taking their own steps, from the Air Canada flight attendants who said they will start wearing plastic gloves in-flight to individual travelers who are donning everything from face masks to homemade hazmat suits. This in spite of the fact that experts say catching ebola on an aircraft is extremely unlikely.

ATL-California first class fares to soar? Southwest told TravelSkills that the final two-class AirTran flight departs SFO as a redeye to Atlanta on Nov 1, 2014. After that it’s all Southwest-all-the-time with its one class of service for the four-hour flight. With only United and Delta offering first class seats on the route, you can bet those front-of-the-plane fares are going to swell. We’ll keep an eye on it. Right now, you can buy a first class, round trip seat on AirTran, Delta or on SFO-ATL or LAX-ATL for about $1,000-$1,200 round trip. Let’s see how long that lasts post-AirTran. Peering into January, Delta’s first class fares on ATL-SFO are already at about $1,500.

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A Southwest B737 outfitted in a State of California flag livery. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

AirTran/Southwest loyalty merger due soon. You don’t hear much about AirTran any more since Southwest has been relentlessly absorbing the routes of its subsidiary into its own system, but a significant date in the merge is coming up soon. On November 2, the two airlines’ frequent flyer programs — Rapid Rewards and A+ Rewards — will be fully combined. Here’s a handy guide to the things members should know about protecting all their program assets. A Southwest spokesperson told TravelSkills that the AirTran brand will be completely gone by December 28th– by that date all operations will be under the Southwest name and not a single AirTran liveried plane will remain in service.

Southwest says ‘We’re sorry.’ In an unusually frank letter to its best customers, Southwest Airlines has admitted it hasn’t been doing so well with on-time performance lately, and pledged to take steps that will improve the situation — from making sure its first flights of the day leave on schedule to lengthening turnaround times. TravelSkills reader DL received the note and sent us this comment via email: Today I got a letter from Southwest’s “Senior Vice President, Customers.” It was a form letter that described Southwest’s recent troubles with on-time performance, which have stung me for much of 2014 and caused me to consider using other airlines when booking important flights. (I would say that half of my Southwest flights in 2014 were delayed by more than 30 minutes, sometimes by as much as 3 hours.) The letter explained that Southwest was spacing out the time between flights to boost its on-time performance. One wonders whether these new airfare deals [posted earlier this week] are designed to lure back customers who had drifted away. Regardless, I still like the airline and fly them a lot.”

Stay tuned…More important airline news coming TOMORROW in our second installment of Catching up on Travel News with TravelSkills!

CARS

The Sidecar app

Ride-finding service wins SFO approval. While larger competitors Uber and Lyft still await an official nod to start operating at San Francisco International Airport, a smaller firm called Sidecar already has one, and will start airport rides within 30 days. Sidecar will pick up and drop off passengers in the departures area, and its drivers will use the cell phone lot to wait for requests. The firm agreed to pay the airport a per-ride fee similar to the ones regular taxis pay. Interesting: Sidecar drivers set their own prices for each ride and will inform you of the total price BEFORE the ride. Currently, Sidecar operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Charlotte NC, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Have you used Sidecar? Would you use it if it were cheaper than Uber? Please leave your comments below.

Flightcar in Seattle. Meanwhile, Flightcar (see our recent post: How to park free at the airport) — which lets business travelers rent out their cars to others while they’re away — has started operating at Seattle-Tacoma International; it already does business at SFO, ATL and BOS.

This is Part 1 of our weekend TravelSkills News Roundup… did you read Part 2?

In Case You Missed It…

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>Frequent travelers are getting some new perks and facilities at SFO.

>AT&T has a new plan for international calling.

>See Virgin America’s new facilities at Dallas Love Field.

>>Take a peek at what you may have missed on TravelSkills.com this week! <<

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