Traveling is a rewarding experience. Regardless of where you are headed, it shouldn’t be a burden but a memory-filled journey that’s one for the books. Do know a pleasant travel is all on you. If you plan, organize, and make necessary arrangements ahead of time, you might be spared from all the travel ruckus. But then again, when everything comes down to a rush, all cares are thrown to the wind and you end up going with whatever is up for the taking.
Most of the time, cramming works. But with travel, it is never a failsafe option. The problem with that is if the location you need to get to requires air transport, it’s virtually impossible to jump on a flight right there and then. Well, unless you have an earlier booking or missed a flight, then you can go as a standby passenger. But fret not, procrastinating-budget-conscious traveler, social travel booking app Cape was created for you to score standby tickets on demand and on the cheap.
Cape functions like most apps in the booming sharing economy. Through one user-friendly app, passengers can book tickets for local and international flights real-time, utilizing unused airplane capacity and encouraging more people to travel.
The app, which will be rolled out on Play Store and App Store sometime later this year, will enable registered users to book standby tickets from the comfort of their mobile phones with discounts up to 70-percent off the regular fare.
The reason for such is because standby tickets are typically held in reserve exclusively for family or friends of airline employees as well as travelers who may have missed or needs to be on an earlier flight. In the same way, there are also spare seats for ticket holders who want to bump up their seat to business or first-class. The benefit airlines would get from this, on the other hand, is it’ll be easier to fill in seats on sparsely occupied planes. According to Cape’s market research, most airlines regularly fill only 80-percent of the available seats on a flight. With this new collaborative consuming platform, their revenues will increase given a huge community in the Philippines who thrives in wanderlust.
“Most people associate innovation with something new, but there is a world of opportunity present in simply using what we already have more efficiently and intelligently, as the likes of Uber and Airbnb have shown us. In this same way, Cape will create a thriving marketplace off of what was only unused capacity for airlines, allowing them to realize real revenues from what would otherwise be empty seats,” co-founder and CEO Lyle Jover noted.
Cape was named the way it is to tickle nostalgia. Flashback to our younger days, we would wear capes and imagine flying. In the same way, it eliminates the cost barrier that makes people reluctant to fly in a way that’s as simple as putting on a cape.
You can visit www.mycape.io to get a feel of the app and join the pre-launch promo for a chance to win round trip tickets to any PH destination.
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE May 2016 Issue.
Words by Mia Carisse Barrientos