BootsnAll Launches Indie – the World’s First Multi-Country Flight Finder

By BootsnAll   |   January 8th, 2013   |   Comments (7)
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Since that first round the world trip in 1996 that launched BootsnAll as a travel startup, we have been on a mission to make world travel easier and more accessible. Unarguably, one of the most complicated parts of planning a multi-stop trip is the inane process of flight searching.

Did you know?

  • Did you know if you try to book a trip with more than six stops – you need a travel agent?
  • Did you know it takes at least 48 hours to book this type of trip?
  • Did you know most of the tickets for this type of trip have endless rules regarding travel direction, time, and continents visited?
  • Did you know it can take days just to receive a price quote for this type of trip?

After years of talking, planning, working, and creating, we are excited to unveil Indie™ – multi-country flight finder. For the first time ever, you can search and book up to a 25-stop trip yourself, from anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world. You can now buy your ticket in a matter of minutes — literally — without having to use a travel agent. No waiting. No lengthy price quotes. No long phone calls. No rules. Instant prices.

Indie Multi-country Flight Finder

With this free web app, users can quickly type in their route, see it instantly on the map, drag stops up and down in the itinerary, choose both overland travel and flights, enter their travel dates, get an instant price, and book their trip. You don’t have to travel in one direction. You aren’t limited to a year. There are no mileage limits. To put it simply, there are no rules.

“The idea for Indie originated from actual travelers’ feedback,” Sean Keener, co-founder and CEO of BootsnAll, says, “to give travelers the ability to search and book a multi-stop or round the world ticket in minutes. We’ve been serving round the world [RTW] and long-term travelers since 1998, and one of the biggest pain points we have heard, thousands of times, is the difficulty in planning the airfare component. Indie solves this problem.”

Indie has been in beta testing mode for a couple months, and customers have been able to search and book.  We have also shared Indie with some industry experts.  See what they all have to say about our new product.

Expert quotes

“Around the world travel planning has never been easy. For years this has been a manual task. Bootsnall is a great answer for RTW fares in just a few minutes. I don’t know any other site that can do so many legs so quickly.” –Terry Jones, Founder of Travelocity.com

“BootsnAll’s Indie allows you to explore the possibilities of long-term travel in a way that actually reflects the flexibility of independent travel. It enables you to research international multi-stop and around-the-world flights with instant pricing, online booking, and none of the cumbersome rules and restrictions that come with airline-alliance bookings. If you’re only planning a trip from Point A to Point B you might not need Indie — but if your journey entails onward travel to Points C or D or Z, Indie is an essential research tool.” –Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

Customer quotes

“We travelled around the world last year and are looking to go again in 2013… We have had a number of quotes again using Star Alliance, etc. (that we used last time), but this system [Indie] seems a thousand times easier and lets us get to exactly where we want to go without the usual restrictions placed on you with other round the world ticket companies.” –Brian Kelly, an Australian traveler who is planning a round the world trip for his family of four.

“Although I’ve never done an “around the world” trip, it’s something I think about often. It’s fun to plot out various trips just to see what the prices are, and then day dream about putting it all together.” –Jamie Boud

“I had seen the RTW ticket option but didn’t browse tickets until we decided to purchase one for our trip home.  I was hooked and probably tried 75 different trip / country combos over a month before purchasing.”  –Jessica Thompson

See what others are saying about Indie

Indie™ – the free web app, is now out of beta, so test it out, and tell us what you think.

Think you don’t have the money to travel around the world? Join us tomorrow to find out how to use Indie to find affordable RTW route from anywhere to anywhere in the world. Flight hacker in training? Join us tomorrow for #RTWchat on Twitter to see how you can find round the world routes for even less, and put your skills to the test.

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  • Brandy Sullivan Keener said at 2013-01-08T10:42:42+0000: Awesome! Gives freedom and flexibility to plan trips-exactly what all travelers crave.
    • Sean E Keener replied at 2013-01-08T16:30:41+0000: Thanks Bran. That's one of the keywords - FREEDOM.
  • Jennifer Miller said at 2013-01-08T12:51:26+0000: Changin' the world! One RTW at the time! Well done guys!
    • Sean E Keener replied at 2013-01-08T16:30:08+0000: Thanks Jen. We're excited to finally have it out there and not behind closed doors.
  • Stine-Mari Aandal said at 2013-01-08T20:37:46+0000: Really like it, great for daydreaming and planning trips without all the restrections..it doesn't even have to be around the world. :) But my home town airport is missing.. MOL, Molde Lufthavn Årø, Norway (operated by SAS and Norwegian) :)
    • Stine-Mari Aandal replied at 2013-01-08T21:14:14+0000: Correction..I don't like it..I love it! Been playing with it a bit now, so quick and easy to use! :)
    • Adam Seper replied at 2013-01-08T22:09:07+0000: Stine-Mari Aandal Thanks so much for the comments - we're glad you like it so much and are having fun! As for Molde Lufthavn, we would LOVE to add Molde Airport (MOL) to the trip planner. I bet it's beautiful like the rest of Norway! The problem is that the airport has only 2 scheduled routes in and out (to Bergen and Oslo). It's small compared to others. We've had to focus on the world's largest 1000 airports or so for now. We will be adding smaller airports as we can. MOL is within the top 2000, so we hope to get to it this year.
    • Stine-Mari Aandal replied at 2013-01-09T22:19:37+0000: Totally understand that it will take time to add all small airports in the world :) But it's on the list now! Great work! :)
  • Rick Leeming said at 2013-01-09T01:18:42+0000: what a complete and utter wank...
  • Bali Villa Holidays said at 2013-01-09T07:27:14+0000: Is this an live web version of this that may be available for embed in webpages? We're interested to having this one on our website.
    • Sean E Keener replied at 2013-01-09T16:19:30+0000: We do have embed widgets for any route that you find. Build a route in Indie, and click the embed icon in the lower "Route Toolbar". Injoy!
  • Decker Way said at 2013-01-09T22:02:12+0000: Hmmm A trip of more than 6 stops requires a TA. my booked RTW 16 segments with One World booked direct through American Airlines in 2009 without the use of a travel agent.Takes 48 hrs to book. Booked the trip at the AA ticket counter at Pearson airport in a couple hours.Endless rules Must be in one direction, no biggie.Days to receive a price quote. Entered the trip on One World planner & received instant quote.
    • Sean E Keener replied at 2013-01-10T04:38:33+0000: G'Day Decker,Good questions and I appreciate your directness!Yes - the Alliances can do what you said...there are more rules though.- Limited to the airlines for that Alliance - No Low Cost Carriers are included - Instant Pricing? - Every time we go test them (just this week) - it did not feel like instant pricing. But, it was very confusing to build a trip there and maybe I did not see it. I did eventually see a price - I would not call it instant. Took us close to 1/2 hour to get any real idea of price based on a real route with dates and flights. - Mileage Rules - # of stop rulesHere's list to some of them http://www.staralliance.com/en/fares/round-world-fare/round-the-world-fare-tc/Overall, the folks that we work with, and us, find it confusing. I do know some experts in the Industry that understand all the rules. Maybe you are one of them?We reviewed the Alliances in our Original Around the World Airfare Report: http://www.roundtheworldticket.com/alliances-reportWe will be updating it this year Decker. Could we call to interview you regarding them? Last time, every phone number we called for answers led us in circles with no answers. I acknowledge, that we could be looking in the wrong place!Our end recommendation for folks from our report was, if you have a lot of miles, the Alliances is a way to use them for an RTW. Pricing wise, flexibility wise and every other way we looked at it, they were not the best choice for independent travelers. So if you have tonnes of miles, the Alliances might be a good option.So I agree, that the Alliance(s) sort of have some of the same features as Indie...but it is very different. I think you'll agree with that?we feel can say the things we've said...More than 6 (upto 25 stop) stops instant real pricing No Rules - in regards to the alliances and there rules Online Booking - Who else can do more than 6 (that includes 500 airlines - not just an alliance)Having said all that - this is only one part of an RTW.The Why http://www.bootsnall.com/rtw/why.htmlThe How http://www.bootsnall.com/rtw/planningand much more.All parts that are equally important to indie travelers.Cheers and thanks for questioning. Fair enough and I appreciate it.
    • Decker Way replied at 2013-01-10T15:06:06+0000: To be frank I hadn't tried your Indie site before I wrote my comment, when I did it came up with a price only about $400 more than I paid 3 yrs ago, which is good. ----that said I stand by my earlier comments, one of the "rules" resulted in a 30% savings by booking with AA at Pearson airport----also only the first 3 flights needed fixed dates, only the first set in stone, the other 2 changeable at no charge with the rest being open jaw which is necessary on an extended trip----however it takes a bit more work to understand the rules & work with them----at the time an alliance RTW was at least 25% cheaper than the closest price available from Air Treks------actually Adam was in contact with me a few times by email when you first started this project but I am available for anything you would like to discuss Dave Hawke
  • Getting Stamped said at 2013-01-09T23:20:14+0000: Awesome! We are still planning our RTW trip we leave 6/29/13!