Cheapflights

116 comments (top 25 by upvotes, all HackerNews) reveal a deeply skeptical, technically fluent community. The dominant thread concerns Scott's Cheap Flights (SCF): its operator insists 'we never have and never will sell users' information,' yet commenters surfaced a Product Hunt-hosted giveaway whose consent text shares entrant emails with theSkimm, Journy, The Wirecutter, Conde Nast Traveler and Product Hunt — partners one user calls 'extremely spammy at best,' citing a '#SkimmLife' welcome email. Another user documented suspected Reddit vote manipulation: 'dozens of accounts that reply addressing Scott by name and have little to say,' with dormant comment histories. On mechanics, commenters explain inventory flows through GDS intermediaries (Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport — originally airline-owned, now 'far more profitable than their parents') or direct NDC connections, and they favor power tools the mainstream misses: ITA Matrix for fare rules, ExpertFlyer, Azuon ('an annual paid service I gladly pay for,' with multi-origin/multi-destination search), Kiwi for indirect low-cost combos, and manual Ryanair hub-splitting (Paris→Rome→Stockholm for ~€20 total vs ~€150 direct). A repeated wish: search across many airports at once ('If I'm in Antwerp, I really don't care much if I have to depart from Brussels Zaventem, Charleroi or Eindhoven'). Users warn add-on fees are 'out of control' — a 'race to the bottom' where Las Vegas resort fees 'actually exceed the nightly rate shown' — and share the workaround of carrying a large backpack instead of a roller suitcase so budget airlines count it as a personal item.

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