Passnfly: Interesting App With Potential That Costs Too Much

It’s great to see disruption in the travel space, and the app world is a great place to watch that happen. I read a review of Passnfly in the Wall Street Journal and could see how useful something like this could be.

Admittedly, I was glossing through the article when I read it the first time. It seemed to pick up a few good pieces of TripIt and add in some features that travelers could find useful (automatically checking you in for a flight). There are a few reasons I don’t like to be checked in automatically. But, I suspect I’m among the minority.

In certain situations, auto check-ins at the 24 hour mark can be quite valuable. For example, I just got through booking a flight for a friend on British Airways. She spent almost $200 on seating assignments for 4 different legs on an overseas flight. But, she could have checked in at the 24-hour mark and selected a seat for free.

When framed in that context, this app could be very valuable. However, when I looked a bit closer at the fine print, Passnfly wants to charge you roughly $15 (12 Euro) for a 4-segment flight. Frankly, that doesn’t fly.

It might be worth it for a single reservation like the British Airways example I used above. But, that price is way too steep for my regular travel schedule. There’s promise here, and maybe the pricing structure will change for the better.

For now, it’s really just a wait and see on this one.