We tried your suggested method, but there were too many complications in practice. Many people quoted fake prices and, of course, prices and availability change regularly.
Most of all, we'd rather not create a competitive relationship with the customer. The idea of the concept is to relieve you of all the time and stress related to flight search (especially on more complex itineraries). So asking you to first search yourself and post a price is somewhat contrary to our vision.
We may revert to this method in future, because we're constantly testing, but at this stage we think we have a reasonable balance between customer and expert.
I agree....I think there is more than enough incompetence and inefficiency in this industry that you will have plenty of customers who won't think twice about the fee, as long as you can ensure that they are getting a competent person planning their flight, and the result will be the best that can be done.
We tried your suggested method, but there were too many complications in practice. Many people quoted fake prices and, of course, prices and availability change regularly.
Most of all, we'd rather not create a competitive relationship with the customer. The idea of the concept is to relieve you of all the time and stress related to flight search (especially on more complex itineraries). So asking you to first search yourself and post a price is somewhat contrary to our vision.
We may revert to this method in future, because we're constantly testing, but at this stage we think we have a reasonable balance between customer and expert.