About Connects: costs, uses and balances

Connects are virtual tokens that instructors and flight schools on Skyfarer use to reply to new inquiries and to make offers on flight-training Requests. This overview explains where Connects are used, how balances work, and where to find more detailed help.

In this article

What uses Connects?

Send a reply to a new inquiry on your training listing. In a new inquiry, your first step is a reply. You can send an offer, a booking proposal or screening answers after you've replied.
Submit an offer on a flight-training request listing. You pay once per Request. A second offer on the same Request, counter-offers and messages are free.

Reading inquiries and Requests is free. Once you've paid to reply, everything else you send in that conversation is free, including offers and booking proposals.

A new inquiry from the same student is a new conversation and costs Connects again. An offer on that student's Request is separate too, even if you've already paid to reply to their inquiry. The offer page tells you when that's the case. If a student contacts several instructors, each one pays for their own reply.

How many Connects does a reply or offer use?

It depends on the student's training goal. The Send button shows the exact number before you send, on both replies and offers, and we never take more than that. If your balance is too low, the button says "Buy Connects" instead.

What if I can't take the student on?

Choose Pass instead of replying. Pass appears next to the Send button whenever your reply would cost Connects, and it's free.

The student sees this note in the conversation: "[Your name] isn't available to take this on right now. Find other instructors and flight schools on Skyfarer." The last part links to a search for instructors and flight schools near your listing.

A Pass doesn't count against your response rate, but ignoring an inquiry still does. You can still reply later, at the normal cost.

What Connects cost, and how do I buy Connects?

Connects cost $0.15 each. Buy them on your Connects page in bundles of 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 150, 200, 250 or 300 Connects ($1.50 to $45).

Tax: sales tax is added where Skyfarer collects it, currently Washington.
Payment: payments are processed by Stripe.
Suspended accounts can't buy Connects.

Your first purchase is through Stripe checkout. There you can check the box to save your card for next time. You can remove a saved card at any time on your Connects page.

If you saved your card, you can pay on your Connects page without going to checkout: choose an amount, press Continue, check the summary, then press Buy Connects. This works where Skyfarer doesn't collect sales tax for the billing address you gave at checkout. If you're in Washington, Continue takes you to checkout so sales tax can be added.

How do I get free Connects?

Welcome bonus: 20 free Connects, once, for each instructor account, flight schools included.
- Accounts that exist at launch get them on launch day.
- A new account gets them when it signs up as an instructor.
- An account that changes to an instructor account later gets them once it has a published CFI or flight-school listing.
Skyfarer Pro: 100 Connects for each paid month of an active Pro membership, monthly or yearly.
- Your account must be able to use Connects: an instructor account, or one that has published a flight instructor or flight school listing.
- They aren't added during a free trial or while a payment is past due.
- A month whose payment is still past due when the month ends doesn't get them.
Review rewards: 30 Connects for each verified review a student leaves you, whatever the rating, up to 3 rewards (90 Connects) in a calendar month.
- What makes a review verified: a phone-verified student reviews you after either a completed booking on your CFI or flight-school listing, or an accepted, completed offer of yours on their training Request.
- Payment conditions: the student must have paid for it through Skyfarer, it must not have been refunded or disputed, and Skyfarer's fee on it must be at least $4.50.
- Limits: each student can earn you one reward. Skyfarer checks and approves each reward by hand. Only reviews published after review rewards start count.

Where can I see my balance and history?

Your Connects page shows your balance and your 50 most recent purchases, uses and credits. Connects never expire, and your oldest Connects are used first.

You can't send a reply or offer that costs more than your balance. If you run short while replying, press Buy Connects in the reply box. After you buy, you're taken back to the conversation, and the message you were writing is still in the reply box, as long as you stay in the same browser tab. Details of an offer you were writing aren't kept, so note them before you buy.

Fair use

Use the Send button for your first reply. If a first reply, offer or other first contact reaches a student another way, for example through the marketplace API, we may charge the usual number of Connects for it.
Don't send messages around the Send button. Doing so can lead to the removal of free Connects and suspension of your account.
Don't trade anything for reviews. Never offer a student anything in exchange for a review or a rating, and don't ask only the students you expect to be happy to leave a review.

Frequently asked questions

Am I charged per message?

No. You pay once per conversation, for your first reply to a new inquiry. After that, messages, offers and booking proposals in that conversation are free. A new inquiry from the same lead starts a new conversation, and an offer on their Request is separate.

I'd rather show my contact details on my listing. Can I?

Yes, with Skyfarer Pro. Your website, phone and social links show on your listings to signed-in visitors, students can reach you through a direct inquiry form, and you get a Featured badge and 100 Connects every paid month (none during the yearly plan's free trial).

Who can I ask about Connects?

Email support@skyfareracademy.com.

For the full rules, see the Connects Terms.