Talk about a brilliant business model that even Ralph Nader could get behind, FareCast has become my starting place for finding great airline prices.  The site was built to give consumers inside knowledge on when to purchase an airline ticket.  We have all seen shows and read articles about the varying prices people pay for the same flight, all based on where they buy and how far in advance they book.  The “where to buy” question has been all but answered by the industry…buy direct from the airline websites.  It is possible at times to get a better deal from travel sites like Expedia, but booking direct usually offers incremental benefits (more frequent flier miles, better cancellation or ticket change policies etc).  When to buy is still a great question.

Farecast was built upon a sophisticated algorithm that allows the site to parse through gobs of data in search of patterns.  They collected data on ticket prices for specific routes over a long period of time (years), searching for patterns on when an airline would raise or lower rates for that route.   Applying their algorithm to the historical data creates a base pattern, which is then adjusted on the fly as demand factors influence the airline’s pricing behavior.  What does all this mean for consumers?  When you run a date search, the site will tell you whether to buy now or wait, and why.  For example, I recently looked for a flight from SLC to Chicago.  The site graphed the lowest ticket price for that flight over the past 60 days, gave me the best current price from various travel sites, and suggested I buy in the next 7 days.  Farecast predicted that prices would increase $50+ pver the next 7 days, and gave the prediction with 69% confidence.

With consumers looking for more information, more ways to get third party unbiased information, Farecast should do well.   We have all found their predictions to be accurate, and in a short period of time they have saved me thousands of dollars.  Kudos to Farecast, just don’t let it get to your head and decide to run for president.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.