Crowdfunding Deadline For Airfare I Might Not Use?

October 22, 2014 2:55 PM

In November, other people will make a decision which will determine whether they want to appear at an event. Then, I need to use a crowdfunding site to raise the money from their fans. I'm looking at a site that shows cheap rates, which I know will rise. The crowdfunding deadline will be two months after I start the campaign. Assuming this all works out, when should the 2-month crowdfunding begin?

Roundtrip airfare from Newark to Detroit, April 2015. It's happening this way because the event already spent its guest of honor budget. I am not guaranteed to succeed in raising the money, so I can't book tickets until I know they are appearing and until I know I have raised the funds.

posted by matt_arnold to Travel & Transportation (3 answers total)

Unless I'm misreading this, why don't you wait until the decision is made in November and then launch the campaign?

It would guarantee that you 'need' the tickets and would still have the crowdfunding ending in January, which is three months before the event. Three months is still in plenty of time to get good rates on the flights. Most things I've seen suggest 6 to 8 weeks ahead of your planned travel is the best time to buy, which would be sometime in February for you.
posted by CharlieSue at 3:32 PM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

CharlieSue's answer definitely seems like the obvious one. I mean, from what I can tell even if you bought the tickets for next week, you could still get each ticket for about $400 - I guess I'm assuming you're talking about 2 people here, so it doesn't seem like a huge amount to raise and if these people truly have a 'fan base', surely you'd raise it in no time. If you're talking about a group of 20 or 30 people, then I suppose getting the most bang for your buck on the ticket price and booking way way ahead makes sense - trying to raise money and promising it would be refunded if the project doesn't come to fruition is a thing that you can easily do, but it likely won't be nearly as compelling to donors. You could straddle the decision date with the 2 month window, so that if they do decide to go, you start promoting the campaign much more heavily at that time, or quietly refund whatever's been raised to that point if they don't, but I wouldn't do it that way because you risk alienating fans.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 5:45 PM on October 22, 2014

Response by poster: CharlieSue, I should have explained that's because I don't want to pressure them into a decision if they aren't ready to decide in November. On the other hand, I wonder how much of a price break I stand to gain, if I jump the gun and starting the campaign on the assumption they will accept. Is there any way to estimate how much prices generally tend to rise, given the time of year?
posted by matt_arnold at 8:13 PM on October 22, 2014