Surprised no one has mentioned how the cards were stacked against them from a bureaucratic level. I understand the airport authorities help run their operations from what they get from rental car fees. But Flightcar was clearly treated in an heavy handed way by different municipalities. That's very difficult to overcome.
I only used them at SFO and the rules kept changing underneath them. They had to change locations multiple times and went from curbside service to being treated as an off-airport vendor. It's all the bloat and corruption of the taxi industry PLUS local municipalities getting their cut and fighting to keep it. That was going to be a very difficult terrain to overcome even if the customer service was perfect.
Overall, I was probably typical. When I could avoid the airtrain with their blackcar I was willing to put up with the off-airport location. As soon as I had to take the airtrain to the rental car facility and then hop in the blackcar, the modestly lower prices with more variable car quality was no longer worth it. Curbside pickup made a lot of sense. Until the SFO authority regulated it toward their own bloated interests.
> all the bloat and corruption of the taxi industry PLUS local municipalities getting their cut
Isn't that simply capitalism? An analog: iPhones default to google for web searches because google paid Apple $1b to keep it the default. Yet we typically don't call this bloat or corruption.
Hertz (or whoever it is these days) is the closest car rental at every airport because they pay the airport the most for this scarce resource.
Yes, this makes it difficult for new entrants into the marketplace. But, don't blame corruption, blame capitalism for everyone maximizing their own profits. Oh, and to bring this back to startups. What is Hertz/Taxi unfair competitive advantage? Multi-year agreements with each airport to give them closest access for airport passenger pickup. That is what Flightier had to overcome, it seems they struggled overcoming their competitors lock-in with the airports.
I only used them at SFO and the rules kept changing underneath them. They had to change locations multiple times and went from curbside service to being treated as an off-airport vendor. It's all the bloat and corruption of the taxi industry PLUS local municipalities getting their cut and fighting to keep it. That was going to be a very difficult terrain to overcome even if the customer service was perfect.
Overall, I was probably typical. When I could avoid the airtrain with their blackcar I was willing to put up with the off-airport location. As soon as I had to take the airtrain to the rental car facility and then hop in the blackcar, the modestly lower prices with more variable car quality was no longer worth it. Curbside pickup made a lot of sense. Until the SFO authority regulated it toward their own bloated interests.