
CheapAir accepts Bitcoin - mrb
http://www.cheapair.com/blog/travel-news/book-your-flights-on-cheapair-with-bitcoin-virtual-currency/
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colinbartlett
I've used this to buy tickets and it was an incredibly easy process. Really,
buying anything with Bitcoin is pleasurable experience... even simply to not
be beholden to any bank to send money is amazing.

~~~
makira
It's similar to watching only downloaded/purchased content versus watching the
TV. Once you're used to having no advertisement, turning the TV on is very
awkward with all the publicity.

When using Bitcoin, not having to deal with all the road blocks and fees from
banks is quite refreshing. Not having to ask permission to do what you want
with your money is great!

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LukeWalsh
I feel like a lot of these headlines lately are extremely gimmicky given the
high volatility of bitcoin prices. These companies are just straight
converting BTC back to USD which in the long run does nothing positive for
true widespread adoption of bitcoin as a means of exchange.

~~~
drcode
Baloney: If I buy an airline ticket with a credit card, my credit card info
may get stolen- There seems to be a story about stolen credit cards in the
news almost every week.

With bitcoin, I can buy an airline ticket without this being possible.

~~~
calbear81
But your credit card is almost always protected from financial liability if
someone steals it and you report any non-authorized charges. With bitcoin,
there seems to be no recourse when the exchanges get hit. This is not to
mention that you are much better protected with a credit card due to the
ability to contest a merchant charge if things go sour (you didn't get the
product, it was defective, etc.) not to mention other benefits of credit.

~~~
codeulike
The overall cost of all the fraud-protection that credit cards have is quite
large, and ultimately gets passed on to the consumer.

~~~
notahacker
Sure. But I can pay Cheapair for a return ticket $1343 with my credit card and
get the fraud protection or pay the exact same price at prevailing Coinbase
exchange rates (plus mining fee) and not get the fraud protection. Or, in the
example I picked at random, find whitelabelled $1008 or Scandinavian $1212
returns running the same search on Kayak.

Only a shill, or someone without a credit card, could argue that paying in BTC
was an advantage in this instance.

~~~
pfisch
Or someone holding an appreciating currency dodging capital gains tax.

By using btc you avoid paying capital gains tax since basically everyone who
holds bitcoins right now has seen their investment go up in value. Converting
back to usd is not as good as spending the btc.

It is kind of nice having a currency that appreciates in value over time vs
slowly getting robbed by inflation or capital gains tax.

As a vendor right now it makes sense to accept bitcoins and immediately
convert back with bitpay or equivalent because there is no risk, lower
transaction fees, and you open up your business to selling to people who want
to do business with bitcoins for a variety of reasons. Some crazy reasons,
some more rational reasons, but it really doesn't matter because they have
money and want to spend it in btc.

Also I suspect there is a lot of "new money" in bitcoins right now made up of
people who got lucky as early investors but have little or no sense of money
management and tons of disposable income. This group of people make up a very
desirable customer segment. I expect we will see a lot of businesses selling
luxury goods rush into the bitcoin space soon(Like people selling space trips
that may or may not ever exist).

~~~
zwily
Technically, you owe taxes the moment you buy something with Bitcoins that
have appreciated in value:

[http://www.bitcointax.info/](http://www.bitcointax.info/)

(That says nothing about how many people actually report that though.)

~~~
pfisch
Technically you owe taxes on online purchases.

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possibilistic
Does anyone know how these guys are processing Bitcoin? Are they using
Coinbase or another processor? (Would it be feasible to roll your own
transaction handling?)

~~~
dmnd
They're using Coinbase:
[https://coinbase.com/docs/merchant_tools/examples](https://coinbase.com/docs/merchant_tools/examples)

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pdq
Please don't upvote a 2 week old article, and especially one with little
actual content other than a "rah rah Bitcoin!" message.

~~~
gress
rah rah Bitcoin!

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antr
I'd like to know how they are hoping to hedge BTC volatility, or if they are
not planning to hedge at all.

~~~
guyht
I assume they are using a bitpay or similar which allows merchants to
instantly convert bitcoin to USD (or equiv) funds at the time of purchase.
Using this system, the merchant always receives the correct fiat amount, while
still benefiting from the other advantages that bitcoin brings (low fees, no
chargebacks).

~~~
misterbwong
Wow. No chargebacks? I know almost _zip_ about BTC but this seems a bit
dangerous for the consumer, though VERY merchant friendly. If BTC goes
mainstream, do we expect a middleman-type escrow service to arise for everyday
purchases?

~~~
bdcs
You can do clever things with BTC to make them reversible in cases where
reversibility is nice. First, you can implement a centralized PayPal-type
company that clears after X days to implement chargebacks. Boring, but easy to
understand and effective. The clever way to do it is with M-of-N transactions,
[http://www.bitescrow.org/](http://www.bitescrow.org/)

PS. When I order from Amazon, etc. I trust them. I get 2% back using bitcoins
(from Coinbase.com (-1%) -> Gyft (+3%)). I like the 2% discount more than the
credit risk of Amazon not making me happy at the end of the day : )

~~~
caw
Fidelity offers a 2% cash back on everything card. Amazon's credit card also
gives you higher than 2% on Amazon purchases. Could you elaborate more why you
do a double conversion to buy something rather than a straight credit card
transaction?

~~~
pfisch
Basically at this point it is tax avoidance. By using btc you avoid paying
capital gains tax since basically everyone who holds bitcoins right now has
seen their investment go up in value. Converting back to usd is not as good as
spending the btc.

It is kind of nice having a currency that appreciates in value over time vs
slowly getting robbed by inflation or capital gains tax.

------
SilasX
Gee, this isn't a direct route to "extra TSA attention" or anything ...

------
woah
Where's Dogecoin support? This is a major oversight on CheapAir's part, IMO

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kolev
This is ridiculous! Some said the price of BTC dropped to overreaction to bad
news. Well, a street vendor in UK starts accepting Bitcoin for burgers and
price jumps above $1,000 in excitement (I'm kidding, of course). Talking about
overreaction! Let's see some real commerce numbers, not marketing tricks to
get more news coverage. I got tired of seeing everywhere in the news that one
Florida guy bought a Tesla in California! With such volatility, you need to
put a huge buffer in your pricing and only idiots and criminals will spend
their BTC instead of paying with fiat in such case. There was some new about
Indian business accepting Bitcoin then some Indian guy converted the price and
showed Bitcoin price was x3 higher! If BTC is a currency, it should move up
and down by no more than 1-2% (like a real currencies do) otherwise it cannot
be used in serious commerce, period. At this point, Bitcoin, unfortunately, is
a speculators tool. And if you invest in Bitcoin, don't forget, you're in the
hands of the Chinese investors (kings of the panic sells) and the governments.
Also, there are many fake news and incorrect interpretations of news about
Bitcoin. Like some putting the wrong wording in Al Gore's mouth about Bitcoin
when he meant something totally different or Snoop Dogg making a joke and
people taking it seriously.

If Bitcoin dropped 40% due to overreaction to no-so-bad news, imagine what
will happen when really bad news come out!

I believe in Bitcoin, but I cannot tolerate the madness around the price. Even
if you use it as a speculator, your future medical bills will not be able to
cover the profit you're gonna make - with such huge swings, the stress is way
too much for the profits. Just try to imagine the Winklevoss seeing BTC
dropping by 40% and tens of millions of their imaginary wealth disappearing in
minutes! It's better to do margin trading with Forex - you can make even more
with less stress. So, speculators, please, leave the Bitcoin land and move to
Litecoin or other speculator playgrounds. Don't kill Bitcoin with your greed,
please!

~~~
ye
> _it should move up and down by no more than 1-2%_

1-2% in what period of time?

EUR/USD pair can move 10% in less than two months. Which it did Feb 3rd ->
March 28 this year. It moved -20% in 3 months (24 Jul -> 25 Nov, 2008).

~~~
kolev
I'm talking about daily movements - with Bitcoin we see huge up and down
movements, which are good for speculation, not for business.

~~~
ye
It will settle down, give it time, it's too new, it's still growing very fast.

~~~
haberman
It _might_ settle down. It also might not settle down. BTC might lose
popularity in favor of an altcoin. We don't know yet. We're in completely
uncharted territory, nobody knows for sure what is going to happen.

~~~
ye
Yes, it's possible, but not likely. There's a ton of infrastructure behind
bitcoin. Tons of news coverage. Tons of debate. Nobody is aware of the second
biggest coin - litecoin.

~~~
kolev
Too young to remember DotCom? There was tons of infrastructure back then as
well.

~~~
ye
So? IT is doing extremely well. The internet is bigger than ever. Valuations
are still crazy.

~~~
kolev
IT will always be well - I'm talking about people who put their savings into
vaporware stocks. I'm not sure why everybody is giving Tulip Mania as an
example when DotCom is away more similar to Bitcoin. I even thought about a
version of Bitcoin, which is based on stock. You create a vaporware
corporation and use its stocks as a currency, well, commodity. :)

