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Just checked, Singapore to London (one way) on Valentines day. Travala charges about 8% more than the British Airways site itself for the same flight.
I don't know if their algorithm differentiates based on customer profile, but I gave so many details so that you can try to check for yourself.
Being a TPA is a competitive business with cutthroat margin, and agencies themselves have very little pricing power. So 8% for the exact same seat is ridiculously high. It may be because they don't have the volume of Expedia and trying to make up by premium.
I mean if you take crypto out of the equation, I suspect no agent will survive by charging an 8% premium for the same seat. But may be travala finds some crypto lovers who will pay the 8% to not off ramp via an exchange.
I know some bitcoin maxis who absolutely have no asset other than bitcoin (maybe just like $100), so they have to spend their bitcoin. Probably Travala is for them.
I have a soft spot for it, as it is a Singaporean enterprise.
I booked a flight once using lightning, just to see how it works. And yes, it did work flawlessly as expected. No complaint from service or operational perspective.
But...the fare quoted was/is ridiculously high, compared to whatever the airlines quotes on its own site. I read that travala gives coins/points back, but only if you have some kind of (separately purchased) membership, so it does not work unless you are a very frequent traveller.
I do like businesses that accept sats, but not ready to pay a huge markup for the privilege of spending sats. Until there are many more competitors, I suspect merchants like travala will continue to exploit an unusual degree of pricing power.
Again, experience wise, it is flawless.