Travel Tools - [GateGuru] Premium Day-of Travel Experience - Would You Buy It?

Hi FTers -
Our company, GateGuru (http://www.gateguruapp.com), has a popular mobile app that helps travelers throughout their day of travel (flight status, push notifications, security wait times, Yelp for the airport). We are looking into a new offering where we could potentially partner with various constituents and offer travelers a "Premium Day-of Travel". So instead of the typical travel experience, you would have valet parking at the airport (or an executive sedan service), express security (really express, not airline priority which is often as backed up as the regular security line), lounge access and a deal or two at a top restaurant / shop within the airport - all of this delivered to you at the touch of a button. Basically turning the "dehumanizing" element of the airport into a 1st class experience.

Given that our target market would be FTers, I wanted to throw it out there as a concept. Is this something that you would be interested in and would be willing to pay for? Is there anything outside of the above features that you feel would be really important for you as part of this "1st class experience"?

Thanks for all the feedback - we greatly appreciate it and we look forward to redefining your day-of travel experience!
Thanks
Dan

Nope wouldn't pay or use it. The current gate guru app has very little info on it and not many user reviews.
I will continue to book services I need with providers I trust, not reciprocal agreements through an app

Not sure it would be of interest to me but I don't travel as frequently as others here. Can you actually offer a "true express" security line? If so, how would it work, and what would prevent TSA from allowing others into the line if other lines get too crowded?

As far as lounge access goes, would these be new lounges, or are you going to partner with other airline lounges? If you read lounge related threads on this site you will find that a lot of members would be quite unhappy if airlines allowed this as it has a tendency to reduce the experience they are paying upwards of $450 a year for.

I can't think of many "top" restaurants at airports; BOS has a Legal Seafood and I think Todd English has one too but other than that I can't think of many that I would consider to be "top". I also likely wouldn't find value in both the lounge access and restaurant discount; I do tend to arrive early but I don't arrive early enough to have time for both experiences.

Also, on the airport lounge, one can often find a pass on eBay for $20 or so. Your pricing would need to take into account what my price would be for the same thing. Granted you may be a trusted seller where the person on eBay may not (of course eBay has ratings to help with that decision).

Your site is blocked at my work, so I'm not able to make comments based on anything there and apologize if what I've written is addressed there.

I wouldn't pay for this type of service and would be unlikely to use it even if it were free; most of those enhancements, I can arrange on my own, if I decide I want them, and I'd imagine many FT'ers would do so as well. It just doesn't meet my travel style. For my friends and family who aren't as experienced as I am, I think they'd like the concept but wouldn't like the price tag--- even without the third-party/broker markup, sedan service to the airport is more expensive than asking a friend for a ride or catching a taxi, club access is more expensive than sitting at the gate, and so forth.

I think your target demographic may be wrong. It sounds like a service better suited to those who prefer convenience/comfort/pampering over cost, which often is not what we FT'ers are about. In many cases, we want the most miles and most free stuff for the least cost. Now if you were selling a $2.99 app that would give all of those things for free, at zero cost, you'd sell a gazillion of them :D But you would also go broke paying for all those free sedan rides!

Isn't this already offered by a lot of airlines, hotels or airports?

It sounds an awful lot like AA's Five Star Service.

I know that a lot of airports also already offer a very similar service. And some hotels in other countries will set things up like this to help expedite you through customs and have a car waiting for you.

I'd only even consider paying for the customs help and only in countries where I know this might take more than 15 or 20 minutes. If I want a car, any decent hotel will give me a concierge number to call and they can set up the car service. And I have no use for any sort of lounge access at most airports. Between *G, Priority Pass and Amex Plat I have access to a huge list of lounges already. I'm sure most FTers already have a healthy list of lounges they can access.

Are you planning on just partnering with all the currently available services? If so this might work, but probably not with this community. You will just be opening up your services to the masses. I don't think the average traveler even knows that most of these things exist. The number one being lounges.

Still at work, so can't open your site but from reading other comments perhaps the target demographic is an infrequent traveler; a Nervous Nellie type who wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for some hand-holding. Of course, it would take a lot of these people to make money, and since they are infrequent travelers they likely wouldn't become repeat (or regular) customers.

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful feedback. Sounds like this might not be a great product for the true FTers, but could be useful if we teamed up with the right services and airports (which is what we are talking about). As always, I really appreciate the community here and have learned a lot. Feel free to let me know any other thoughts / ideas.

Isn't this already offered by a lot of airlines, hotels or airports?

It sounds an awful lot like AA's Five Star Service.

I know that a lot of airports also already offer a very similar service. And some hotels in other countries will set things up like this to help expedite you through customs and have a car waiting for you.

I'd only even consider paying for the customs help and only in countries where I know this might take more than 15 or 20 minutes. If I want a car, any decent hotel will give me a concierge number to call and they can set up the car service. And I have no use for any sort of lounge access at most airports. Between *G, Priority Pass and Amex Plat I have access to a huge list of lounges already. I'm sure most FTers already have a healthy list of lounges they can access.

Are you planning on just partnering with all the currently available services? If so this might work, but probably not with this community. You will just be opening up your services to the masses. I don't think the average traveler even knows that most of these things exist. The number one being lounges.

Yes, it would be similar to AA's Five Star Service, although our initial thought was that seems more aimed at the newbie traveler and less towards the hard-core traveler (and maybe there isn't a real solution for the HC traveler). We would be partnering with existing services versus trying to recreate the wheel. At the end of the day, we have a significant amount of people that leverage GateGuru to make their day-of travel easier, and so brining in additional services that make the entire day-of travel an even better experience seems like there could be some demand for it. Again, some really interesting perspectives on what FTers are really looking for / in need of. Thanks!

Something like the Virgin service, with limo check in, straight through to the lounge, that sort of lounge expereince, yes, absolutely I can see a market for it, and I would consider paying an amount to use such a service when it wasn't something that formed part of the flight (eg flying economy). Whether that is a service you could arrange is another matter.

what about priority immigration/customs?

app only? (some of us dont use apps.)

I think hard-core travelers are more focused on speed than luxury. I rarely spend enough preflight time at the airport to make proper use of the lounges. If you came up with a package consisting of curbside vehicle drop-off, express bag drop, true fast track through security, and fast track through immigration on arrival, I'd think about it. (A hellish 45-minute immigration wait this week at JFK T7 at 1100p is fresh in my mind.) What would you charge?

I think hard-core travelers are more focused on speed than luxury. I rarely spend enough preflight time at the airport to make proper use of the lounges. If you came up with a package consisting of curbside vehicle drop-off, express bag drop, true fast track through security, and fast track through immigration on arrival, I'd think about it. (A hellish 45-minute immigration wait this week at JFK T7 at 1100p is fresh in my mind.) What would you charge?

speed is the luxury. im starting to think paid VIP at airports can be better incremental value than paid J.

Fast track through immigration on arrival, I'd think about it. (A hellish 45-minute immigration wait this week at JFK T7 at 1100p is fresh in my mind.) What would you charge?

You can already get this, for $100 for 5 years. Global Entry seems as if it would be a good program for you.

You can already get this, for $100 for 5 years. Global Entry seems as if it would be a good program for you.

for US returning to US