Someone recently asked us if we’ve flown all 31 million non-stop flights that will take off this year in order to score them. While we’re salivating over the miles we could accumulate doing that, the answer is more scientific: incorporating experience into flight search is an intricate, enormously data challenge that we love solving.

Here’s the summary:

We researched thousands of unique combinations of airlines, planes and cabins worldwide to build the most accurate database for flight product attributes on the planet.

And we built complex algorithms that score and match those flight product attributes to a powerful low fare search engine, while seamlessly managing the myriad exceptions, exclusions and nuances that characterize air travel data.

Intrigued? Let’s dive into what it takes to create our unique Happiness Factors and how we combine them to create Happiness Scores.

Finding the data

We start off with Happiness Factors, assessing aircraft type, seat type, seat layout, entertainment, in-seat power, Wi-Fi, flyer ratings on a route, and duration for each flight.

Each Happiness Factor is assigned a score within its category.

It’s been a massive effort to get this data because there’s no single source. We had to start from scratch — researching and validating information from hundreds of sources, including:

• Direct from airlines
• Seat maps on airline websites
• Airline blogs
• Dedicated airline fan sites
• Airline press releases
• Industry news and analysis
• Experts and bloggers
• Vendors to airlines
• Commercial sources
• Forum contributions
• Routehappy flyer reviews
• Routehappy user feedback

Happiness Factors

Each individual Happiness Factor matters to your flight experience.

Aircraft Type: Our Flight Geniuses score and explain the kind of plane you’ll be on. Is it a brand new gem? A popular regional jet? A cramped regional jet? A plane known to be particularly loud in the back? Or a spacious, comfortable modern jumbo?

Seat Type: Flyers tell us the seat is the most important consideration. From a knee-crunching 27 inches (ouch!) to first class suites dripping with bling, we rate and note down the options, with explanations if there’s anything confusing that you should know.

Seat Layout: The number of neighbors you have matters! This factor helps you get at how crowded your cabin will feel, the number of more popular aisle and window seats, and how many less popular middle seats there are. We track over 50 seat layouts so that you don’t have to.

Entertainment: We track over 20 types of inflight entertainment, whether it’s nothing at all, staring at a ceiling-mounted TV like it’s the 1980s, Netflix-on-a-plane streaming to a brand new tablet, or your very own on-demand, touch screen in the seatback.

Power: Yeah, we get battery anxiety too. That’s why we tell you if you’ll have in-seat power on board, and whether you can plug your phone into a USB socket. We’ll also let you know whether you need to pack that weird adapter gathering dust in your computer drawer. We even cover US versus UK plug types because we know it can matter.

Wi-Fi: We can’t live without Wi-Fi. But it’s arriving on flights so fast that even the airlines have trouble telling you where you’ll find it. We’re building the best info on Wi-Fi coverage in the industry flight-by-flight, including fast expanding coverage on flights outside the US.

Rating: What do real flyers like you think about a the airline and the airports you’ll be flying from and to? We create a Flight Flyer Rating for every individual flight, so you know that the score actually relates to the flight you’re looking at — not some generic thoughts about a route half the world away.

The Happiness Hover: We figure almost everyone wants to get there as quickly as possible, so we assess overall duration (and the number of connections you have to make!) and factor it into our scoring. The longer the trip in comparison to the fastest on a route, the lower the score.

Happiness Scores

We then combine the Happiness Factors on a weighted basis into an overall Happiness Score, matched and scored dynamically with real time flight availability.

The weightings are based on our extensive research of what flyers value most (so it’ll be no surprise that seat comfort is the most important factor).

Our Happiness Scores are on a 1-10 scale, and come color-coded with a facial expression to make using the site intuitive and fun.

Check out how simple yet powerful finding a flight by Happiness can be: search for a happier flight on Routehappy right now!

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ROUTEHAPPY LAUNCH HELPS FLYERS FIND THE HAPPIEST FLIGHT FOR THE LOWEST PRICE, REVEALING HIDDEN DETAILS ABOUT FLIGHT EXPERIENCE FOR THE FIRST TIME

Flights Worldwide Graded with Happiness Scores Based on Dozens of Happiness Factors; Matched with a Powerful Low Fare Search Engine, Creating a Next-Generation Metasearch Site

NEW YORK, NY (April 26, 2013) – Routehappy (routehappy.com) launches today, with the mission to help people fly better for less. For the first time, flyers can quickly and easily find flights with more comfortable seats on better planes with the amenities they care about. The industry’s first “Happiness Factors” and “Happiness Scores” are Routehappy’s secret sauce. Routehappy ranks billions of flights and connections worldwide, which are then matched with a powerful low fare search engine. Scores and prices are presented side-by-side for a fresh new approach to flight search.

Routehappy’s team of Flight Geniuses spent over a year researching, analyzing, and grading aircraft types, seats, amenities and trip duration to engineer its signature Happiness Scores based on the Happiness Factors flyers care about most. Routehappy presents more flight details than any other source. Flight data includes seat size (pitch and width), business and first class seat types, seat layout, entertainment, Wi-Fi, in-seat power, plane quality, trip duration and more.

“Flight search today is almost entirely about price and schedule. But there’s a wide range of other factors that matter when people buy flights,” said Robert Albert, Founder & CEO of Routehappy. “Routehappy’s unique default Happiness sort makes it easy for flyers to see the happiest flight on every route. Consumers want the best bang for their buck: things like new planes, more legroom, wider seats and better on-board amenities.”

Now Every Flyer Has Access To Expert Knowledge When Booking Flights
Routehappy offers unique Happiness Factors flyers won’t find anywhere else, explaining each one with expert tips from our team of Flight Geniuses. Flyers can filter results by Happiness Factors including:
Nicer aircraft: highlighting the most and the least comfortable planes, including better regional jets and the most modern, spacious aircraft loaded with features.

• Seat: 25+ types analyzed by legroom, width and style, revealing roomier economy seats, plus the full range of premium seats, including recliner, angled and full flat pod.
• Seat layout: 55+ variations show flights with fewer people per row and the lowest number of middle seats: including planes that have nine versus 10 seats across in the same space.
• Entertainment: 20+ types, from overhead monitors to full on demand in-seat video, plus the very latest in “Netflix on a plane” streaming to your own device.
• In-seat Power: nearly a dozen kinds, from adapter-required to plugs + USB.
• Wi-Fi: the most comprehensive and updated source for Wi-Fi availability on flights, including rapidly expanding international coverage.
• Duration: duration scoring helps flyers find the best possible connections.
• Flyer Ratings: real flyer ratings, reviews, tips and pictures for airlines & airports worldwide.

Routehappy Uses Big Data to Solve a Big Problem For Flyers and Airlines
Airlines are investing millions of dollars upgrading planes and airports with new amenities and services, yet online travel agencies and other metasearch sites do not reveal the many product differences among flights, causing flyers to focus on price and schedule alone.

Routehappy is solving this industry problem with big data. Routehappy’s team of airline and data experts manually gathers disparate product information about flights from hundreds of sources, including airline websites, airline press releases, airline staff, industry analysts and experts, blogs, forums, news stories, commercial sources, and the Routehappy community of real travelers. Data is fed into Flightpad, a proprietary system that scores product attributes across flights and matches them with dynamic flight fares and availability.

Routehappy’s Evolution to Next Generation Metasearch
Routehappy matches Happiness Factors and Happiness Scores to a low fare search engine with pricing and availability from Amadeus, a global travel technology company and leader in fare search solutions. Users search on Routehappy but book directly with airlines and online travel agencies. At launch, Routehappy users can purchase directly through American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and priceline.com. Routehappy will continue to add flight inventory and booking partners as the site evolves.

About Routehappy
Routehappy (routehappy.com) is the flight search site that helps people find the happiest flight for the lowest price. All flights are not created equal, so Routehappy combines a powerful low fare search engine with Happiness Factors that matter to flyers, such as seat comfort, entertainment, Wi-Fi, in-seat power, trip duration and more. Routehappy ties it all together with a Happiness Score for every flight, giving flyers all the information they need to quickly and easily select the perfect combination of experience and price. Booking is seamlessly integrated with links to airline and online travel agency partners.

Routehappy is based in New York City, and is funded by venture capital and prominent industry angel investors. Read more at Routehappy’s Flight Genius blog, featuring tips, insights, and pictures — or find the happiest flight for the lowest price at routehappy.com.

To learn more about Routehappy or to schedule an interview, contact Kellie Pelletier, kpelletier@routehappy.com, +1-917-514-5851. Digital journalists, new media and bloggers are especially welcome to get in touch. Further electronic assets, press releases, media images, reviews, photos from real Routehappy reviewers and more are available at routehappy.com/presskit

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Want to know more about how Routehappy works and why we built it? We’ve put together a 90-second video that explains it all.

All clear? Great! Find a happier flight now!

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