Jack's Flight Club is a company co-founded by Jack Sheldon and Phil Wintermantle.[1][2] It is an email newsletter and mobile app focusing on helping subscribers find cheap flights, using flight deal alerts. There are over 1,000,000 members in the United Kingdom, Europe and United States.[3]
 | |
| Industry | Internet |
|---|---|
| Founders |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
Number of employees | 15 |
| Website | jacksflightclub |
History
editJack's Flight Club was established in September 2016 by namesake Jack Sheldon in London.[4] Before establishing Jack's Flight Club, Jack worked for a large data company.[5] He had originally just searched for low airfare rates for the benefit of him, his friends, and his family, and later decided to turn it into a business.[6] He also attributed his interest in searching for flight deals to seeing mistake fares.[7] Jack spent £30 to set up the newsletter.[4] Jack would later move headquarters to Kyiv.[7] Jack currently works with partner Philip Wintermantle out of Barcelona.[8] When determining how to monetize Jack's Flight Club, they briefly considered a total paywall, but felt that this was too aggressive. Affiliate links were also considered, as they found them "antithetical" to what the newsletter stood for.[4][6]
App
editJack's Flight Club is available as an app on Android and iOS devices following demand from users.[6] The app proved an easier means by which to send notifications to users due to an issue where the number of emails Jack was sending were creating delivery delays on time sensitive flight alerts.[6] Jack also states that the inclusion of an app version means that users, if they see a notification during a conversation, may be more likely to share it with whoever they are next to at the time.[6] The app was created using React Native due to the ease by which it would be compatible for both iOS and Android platforms.[6]
Concept
editJack's Flight Club offers members cheap flight deals from the United Kingdom, Ireland & Continental Europe. They monitor price fluctuations and highlight cheap fares, whether a result of price drops or a mistake fare.[3] Jack's Flight Club use a computer program to search “every fare on every route by every airline”, monitoring them for error fares or flash deals.[7] People can either sign up for a free membership and receive one to two emails per week or pay £35 a year for four times the number of deals.[3] Paid users also receive deals sooner than free users, ranging from hours to a days in advance. The newsletters also contain instructions to assist users in booking on the respective airline's site or a comparison site. In certain circumstances, Jack and his team have helped users on an individual basis if, for example, their flight is cancelled or they are trying to get home to a sick relative.[7] Jack Flight Club's newsletter suggests that people should go for the cheapest deals that they can find as opposed to accumulating air miles with a single airline. Jack claims that this is because in the UK, airline mileage programs such as Amex do not provide much value in terms of sign up bonuses as opposed to the United States.[3]
Reception
editJack's Flight Club has been recommended for its services by publications including refinery29, The Sun, and iNews.[9][10]
Three months after being established, the subscription service attracted 3,000 users. After doing an "Ask Me Anything" post on Reddit's /r/AmA page that made the front page of Reddit, Jack's Flight Club gained 42,000 more subscribers.[4][6] Before implementing the freemium payment model, Jack's Flight Club had 65,000 members.[4] Jack's Flight Club had 500,000 subscribers as of May 2018.[3] As of March 2019, Jack's Flight Club has 1.2 million subscribers.[8]
Jack Sheldon has written advice articles about cheap flights on websites such as The Guardian, iNews, and The Telegraph.[11][12][13]
References
edit- ^ "Trademarkers".
- ^ "Our Team". Jack's Flight Club.
- ^ a b c d e Millington, Alison (May 24, 2018). "Here's why booking cheap flights is better than collecting air miles, according to a deals expert". Business Insider Espana. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e "How Jack's Flight Club became a money-making newsletter". Courier. July 5, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ Millington, Alison (June 12, 2018). "A flight comparison expert says 3 unusual travel hacks could help you beat expensive last-minute and summer flights". Insider. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g Christian, Bonnie. "How to build your business app – lessons from Jack's Flight Club". The Guardian. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Morris, Hugh (October 12, 2017). "The secret to finding cheap flights – and the truth about mistake fares". The Telegraph.
- ^ a b Margolis, Jonathan (March 14, 2019). "'Flight hackers' tap into the holiday market". Financial Times. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ Harrison, Olivia (December 13, 2018). "The Best Time To Buy Plane Tickets For Christmas Travel". Refinery29. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ Levesley, David (April 19, 2017). "How to grab the cheapest flight to any destination". iNews. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ Sheldon, Jack (March 8, 2018). "How to find cheap flight deals: 5 expert tips". The Guardian. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ Sheldon, Jack (October 20, 2017). "Cheap flights for Christmas: How to get the best festive deals, according to an expert". The Independent. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
- ^ Sheldon, Jack (October 16, 2017). "How to book last-minute flights: The secret you need to know". iNews. Retrieved March 21, 2019.