Elloplane

Inspiration

Both of us fly a lot. Check-in rules vary from airline to airline, and depending on where you go, so it's nice to have one place to ask.

What it does

We ask the user for a flight number, and then send a series of API calls to the FlightAware interface. This lets us know where the flight is going, coming from, what airline it is, etc. With the origin and destination, we class the flight as European, Domestic, or International. We then lookup what the baggage and check-in rules are for this airline, for this type of flight. We also determine how long it would take to get to the airport by the user's preferred method, using the Google Maps Directions API.

With this and the check-in information, we then determine when the user should leave home. The user can then ask follow-up questions about their bag allowance, and whether meals are served onboard, which will then be answered.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

It works. Miraculously.

What I learned

Alexa is really limited in terms of understanding speech. You need to template every conceivable way someone could phrase the question, there is no built-in aliasing.

In the Alexa skills API there is no way to retrieve the location of the user, not even the address hardcoded into the Alexa account. These details are exposed to only a small set of industry API users, such as Uber, granting an unfair competitive advantage.