This entry is sponsored by My Airfare Secrets. Read it before you buy your next ticket and save money.
There are a couple of trips looming in my future, 2 business and 1 personal, and I’m always looking for better and easier ways to book the best flight. Farecast represents an interesting option in this never ending battle between airline variable pricing and timing. They answer the question “When is the right time to book my air travel?” Check out a screenshot of a search on flights from San Francisco to New York in the screen shot below:
The service takes advantage of the airline’s “best fair” guarantee such that you can purchase your tickets whenever you’d like, pay Farecast $10, then they’ll watch for better prices. If that happens before your flight, the airline will match the discount refunding you money. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. Thus far, Farecast claims to have saved travelers an average of $35 per ticket, seems like it could be a good deal.
Don’t buy your ticket until you read My Airfare Secrets, it could save you cash.
The thing I like best about this is one simple feature, put your search parameters in and save them. The results are then presented in an RSS feed to your reader of choice on a daily basis (the snapshot above is from my RSS feed this morning.) This business model and approach looks like a winner, at least until the airlines get wise and change their “best fair” policies to prevent this sort of reverse arbitrage in the system.
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Booking air travel? Then Farecast could help.
05.13.07 | 4 Comments
4 Comments
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No doubt, Farecast is an interesting idea, but it’s a gimmick that doesn’t produce nearly as good and consistent results as Sidestep or even Kayak. It’s limited in locations, and isn’t even that accurate. Other than that, there’s not really any content on the site. Sidestep for example, has a bunch of travel guides and hotel reviews. Farecast only does airfare. I like the one-stop-shop aspect of Sidestep and Kayak. Get everything done in one place. Farecast will however, definitely be a site to watch as time goes on.
Chris, I’ll check out Kayak and Sidestep. I’ve also recently heard of another, Your Personal Travel Assistant that I’ll check out.
Thus far, Farecast has been consistent with the other services I’ve been using, what’s the basis of the inconsistent results comment? Just curious as I haven’t seen that…
Maybe inconsistent was the wrong word, but inaccurate would be better to describe it. I’ve read statements from the company saying they only have about 60% accuracy… if that. Perhaps the inconsistency i was thinking about was actually getting the low prices that the site promises and that I get consistently better prices from Sidestep and Kayak. I’m not saying Farecast is the worst site, i’ve seen worse (See Trabber) I just think it’s a gimmick as i mentioned before. Overall, other sites can provide a better overall service for travel. That’s just my opinion. Hope this clarifies a little.
[…] is the third, and final entry about Farecast on Musings from the Coast. For those who don’t know, Farecast is a travel service that allegedly has a model that […]