Blockchain-powered travel platform Locktrip is now also offering flight tickets on its own marketplace. This was announced by the travel company on Monday. The company has included over a thousand different airlines, ranging from budget trips to trips in the upper price classes. Consumers can book flights using their LOC tokens, or by using their credit card.
According to their own research, Momondo is the cheapest flight ticket provider available. Compared with them, Locktrip cuts 2% from the price in the USA, 3 to 8 percent in Asia, and 4 to 9 percent in Australia. The company admits it has work to do in Europe and Latin-America, because on average Locktrip is actually 5 to 13 percent more expensive in those market. The main reason would be that there are many budget flight companies in Europe, like Ryanair.
At least in 60 percent of the flights in the United States, consumers can find the cheapest offerings through Locktrip. On average there's a discount of 2 to 3 percent, but with some luck it might be 10 percent. Ninety percent of the Canadian flights are cheaper on Locktrip.
In Asia, Australia and New Zealand consumers can expect major discounts. Often the prices on Locktrip are ten percent below the competition, and sometimes the price difference even reaches twenty percent.
Locktrip states that the current version of the flight booking platform is still alpha. That means that it's still under heavy construction and it will change more in the coming weeks. Small glitches might occur in these early development stages, but 'funds are always safe'.
There aren't many competitors that offer the services Locktrip does. BTCtrip.com offers the option to pay for your travel in bitcoin. Just like Locktrip it combines data from multiple carriers, but the pricing has been rounded up and therefore a trip from Istanbul to Amsterdam and back costs me 0.08 to 0.11 BTC. Other sites like CheapAir.com have bitcoin as a payment option, but that's not a competitive advantage in the same way that Locktrip is doing it.
Offering flight tickets is the second product Locktrip is offering to consumers. Last year the company launched its booking platform for hotels. By cutting out the middleman, Locktrip can often provide prices that are 10 or even 20 percent cheaper than major booking services like Booking.com and Expedia. On a one night stay in Amsterdam, Locktrip can be around fifty euros cheaper than its competitors. Have a look at my article about Locktrip from December last year.
In this space Locktrip does have some serious competition. Travala.com is another blockchain-powered booking platform, and it also offers hotel booking that are often considerably cheaper. In December I did some research and concluded that Locktrip in general was the cheapest, but the research also showed that Travala sometimes comes out on top as well.
As always, when you're booking your flight tickets or hotel rooms, then research is key to finding the cheapest offerings.
