Iain and Dirk spent a lot of time on the train. They would compete against each other to see who could get a better upgrade by haggling with the conductor. When you're almost 6 feet 4 inches tall, it's terrible to travel in standard class. The amount of space for a person with mostly legs is a challenge.
They tried to beat each other to an upgrade because of the empty first class carriages. If you buy a standard train ticket in the UK, you can sit in a first class seat on the train and pay the price difference when the train attendant checks your ticket.
When Dirk got an upgrade and sat in first class, he would text me to say where he was. We talked to the guard to see if we could get a better price.
When trying to get a cheaper upgrade from a ticket guard on a train, the pair would argue that the first class carriage was empty and the guard could upgrade them for less.
It was always hard. It's not a great experience, but sometimes it works. He said that nine out of 10 times they would accept a better price for you instead of just charging you the difference. They launched Seat Frog, an app that allows travelers to bid for cheaper seats. Users can get good deals on tickets and upgrade with its auction feature. More expensive seats can be filled by train companies.
The cheapest ticket upgrade we can offer is for $5, but the average price in the UK is more than double that.
Seat Frog can be used by passengers to book tickets. Until they are on board, users can upgrade their tickets at any time. They can use the uploaded tickets to get discounted upgrades.
24 hours before a train departure, Seat Frog runs an auction for first class seats. It's cheaper to bid in an auction than it is to purchase a ticket at its "buy it now" price.
If it's during off-peak, there might be less than 10 people bidding, but during peak service we've seen upwards of 60 or 70 people bidding to upgrade.
Depending on how busy the trains are, the capacity varies between five and 45 seats.
Seat Frog has more than one million users and is on track to make more than 20 million dollars this year. It will offer European journeys next year.
The consumer experience in rail has not been good for a decade, and it's time for someone to change that. We are best placed to lead that charge because of the regulation in the market.
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