Comments on: Farecast launches for 55 US cities http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/ Startup and Technology News Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:32:02 -0800 hourly 1 By: House of Benjamin Blogness » Blog Archive » Farecast launches for 55 US cities http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-152100 House of Benjamin Blogness » Blog Archive » Farecast launches for 55 US cities Thu, 24 Aug 2006 02:43:17 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-152100 [...] Farecast launches for 55 US cities: “ [...] [...] Farecast launches for 55 US cities: “ [...]

]]> By: Jaroslaw http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-151146 Jaroslaw Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:11:07 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-151146 In Europe you can use SkyScanner (www.skyscanner.net) that has been doing pretty much same for the last 3 years. In Europe you can use SkyScanner (www.skyscanner.net) that has been doing pretty much same for the last 3 years.

]]> By: Nick http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-150301 Nick Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:41:40 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-150301 I had a good time on the site. Found a flight that I had booked months ago and it was cheaper on this site! Anyways you guys have to remember just because they have 8.5 million under the belt doesnt mean they have gone though all of it! Programming and development takes time and testing. My 2 cents.... I had a good time on the site. Found a flight that I had booked months ago and it was cheaper on this site!

Anyways you guys have to remember just because they have 8.5 million under the belt doesnt mean they have gone though all of it! Programming and development takes time and testing. My 2 cents….

]]> By: Stephane’s Web 2.0 Blog… » Blog Archive » Farecast launches for 55 US cities http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-149400 Stephane’s Web 2.0 Blog… » Blog Archive » Farecast launches for 55 US cities Tue, 22 Aug 2006 05:09:30 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-149400 [...] Story from Techcrunch [...] [...] Story from Techcrunch [...]

]]> By: Avinash http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-149169 Avinash Mon, 21 Aug 2006 23:24:40 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-149169 I liked what I saw, personally. I did a quick search, and it gave me something tangible. I completely agree with the comment above about the arrow colors, it <strong>is</strong> counter-intuitive. Sure, I was surprised to read that this website cost 8.5 million dollars...but hey. I liked what I saw, personally. I did a quick search, and it gave me something tangible. I completely agree with the comment above about the arrow colors, it is counter-intuitive.

Sure, I was surprised to read that this website cost 8.5 million dollars…but hey.

]]> By: Thyaga http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148995 Thyaga Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:08:20 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148995 When i checked - it shows Fare Prediction unavailable ! -- Thyaga When i checked – it shows Fare Prediction unavailable !

– Thyaga

]]> By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Farecast、航空運賃予測サービス、米55都市で開始 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148932 TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Farecast、航空運賃予測サービス、米55都市で開始 Mon, 21 Aug 2006 20:05:45 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148932 [...] [原文へ] Farecast [...] [...] [原文へ] Farecast [...]

]]> By: Shannon Clark http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148892 Shannon Clark Mon, 21 Aug 2006 19:34:31 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148892 I just checked a couple of destinations that I am fairly familiar with now that farecast has launched with additional cities and a I noticed a couple of serious flaws. 1. They are missing some combinations that include the usually cheapest flights (specifically Oakland to Chicago Midway) 2. This implies that they are not (or may not be, I have to test further) capturing data from Southwest Airlines 3. They do not have a concept built-in for "the city" vs. "the airport" there are many parts of the country where a good fare search should include multiple airports. The Bay Area (Oakland, San Francisco, perhaps San Jose and even Sacramento); Chicago (O'Hare and Midway at least, even Milwaukee sometimes); New York City (Newark, Laguardia, JFK), LA (five options for many passengers) etc. My current practice for finding the lowest fare is to start with www.kayak.com - their search engine is fast, accurate, and very comprehensive, though they have a few minor flaws (can't easily get them to search for a flight after 10pm or do complex multi-city fares). They too don't seem to include Southwest, so I then always compare with what Southwest is offering. I also like that kayak links to the site (or sites) that offer the lowest fares, and they show when/if those sites are charging any fees. And unlike the truly dreadful UI of a site such as United Airlines (which insists on only showing you a handful of time combinations if you search for the lowest fare with next to no flexibility for you to adjust it even if other search sites show the times you want at the price you want) Kayak's site shows you a lot of fare options with a flexible ajax ui to drill down to the factors that matter for you (time of departure/arrival for example - albeit with the caveat of not often offering after 10pm arrival times - there have been many times I would gladly arrive home late to save serious money on the flight). Shannon I just checked a couple of destinations that I am fairly familiar with now that farecast has launched with additional cities and a I noticed a couple of serious flaws.

1. They are missing some combinations that include the usually cheapest flights (specifically Oakland to Chicago Midway)

2. This implies that they are not (or may not be, I have to test further) capturing data from Southwest Airlines

3. They do not have a concept built-in for “the city” vs. “the airport” there are many parts of the country where a good fare search should include multiple airports. The Bay Area (Oakland, San Francisco, perhaps San Jose and even Sacramento); Chicago (O’Hare and Midway at least, even Milwaukee sometimes); New York City (Newark, Laguardia, JFK), LA (five options for many passengers) etc.

My current practice for finding the lowest fare is to start with http://www.kayak.com – their search engine is fast, accurate, and very comprehensive, though they have a few minor flaws (can’t easily get them to search for a flight after 10pm or do complex multi-city fares). They too don’t seem to include Southwest, so I then always compare with what Southwest is offering.

I also like that kayak links to the site (or sites) that offer the lowest fares, and they show when/if those sites are charging any fees.

And unlike the truly dreadful UI of a site such as United Airlines (which insists on only showing you a handful of time combinations if you search for the lowest fare with next to no flexibility for you to adjust it even if other search sites show the times you want at the price you want) Kayak’s site shows you a lot of fare options with a flexible ajax ui to drill down to the factors that matter for you (time of departure/arrival for example – albeit with the caveat of not often offering after 10pm arrival times – there have been many times I would gladly arrive home late to save serious money on the flight).

Shannon

]]> By: VerticalSearch.net » Blog Archive » Travel Search - Farecast http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148836 VerticalSearch.net » Blog Archive » Travel Search - Farecast Mon, 21 Aug 2006 18:34:19 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148836 [...] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave aReply [...] [...] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave aReply [...]

]]> By: Chris http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148806 Chris Mon, 21 Aug 2006 18:05:36 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148806 When this first beta tested, I suggested to them to change their suggestion arrow colors. I know it is small, but tons of people have commented about that before. Buy now is red, and wait is green. Isn't that kind of counter-intuitive? I'm pretty sure, most people associate go with green, and wait/stop with red. $8.5m and they can't get colors correct! When this first beta tested, I suggested to them to change their suggestion arrow colors. I know it is small, but tons of people have commented about that before. Buy now is red, and wait is green. Isn’t that kind of counter-intuitive? I’m pretty sure, most people associate go with green, and wait/stop with red. $8.5m and they can’t get colors correct!

]]> By: CH http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148790 CH Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:56:08 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148790 cFares is also very cool. It differs from Travelocity, Expedia & Orbitz that rely completely on whatever inventory is kicked over to global distribution ticketing systems but have no access to airlines’ internal inventories. That’s where Kayak and SideStep outdo the older travel sites. Now cFares becomes the first and only online travel that provides travelers with access to additional $20 billion of consolidator bookable inventory. cFares can find the cheapest fares internationally. cFares also gives airlines a unique opportunity to under-bid another airline at the point of sale, thereby providing a below-market price to the consumer. What would be very cool is to combine the two services, FareCast to find out if prices are increasing or decreasing for a particular timeframe, and then use cFares to scout out the cheapest airfares. cFares is also very cool. It differs from Travelocity, Expedia & Orbitz that rely completely on whatever inventory is kicked over to global distribution ticketing systems but have no access to airlines’ internal inventories. That’s where Kayak and SideStep outdo the older travel sites. Now cFares becomes the first and only online travel that provides travelers with access to additional $20 billion of consolidator bookable inventory. cFares can find the cheapest fares internationally. cFares also gives airlines a unique opportunity to under-bid another airline at the point of sale, thereby providing a below-market price to the consumer. What would be very cool is to combine the two services, FareCast to find out if prices are increasing or decreasing for a particular timeframe, and then use cFares to scout out the cheapest airfares.

]]> By: Shahar Nechmad http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148622 Shahar Nechmad Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:16:38 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148622 This site is really cool... I would love having such a thing in Europe. What'w more... I wonder if youcan take their prediction engine and tweak it to work on other stuff... for example - online auctions. If they could predict if I should buy someone on ebay or other vendor site in specific price, this could be an amazing tool. This site is really cool… I would love having such a thing in Europe.
What’w more… I wonder if youcan take their prediction engine and tweak it to work on other stuff… for example – online auctions. If they could predict if I should buy someone on ebay or other vendor site in specific price, this could be an amazing tool.

]]> By: BuckingTheTrend http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148562 BuckingTheTrend Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:36:19 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148562 I wonder if this is generating any sort of unfair advantage for the airlines with whom they have contracts. Search engines do it. They tend to rank paying customers higher on the results. It brings into light the question of true data accuracy. How do consumers know they're getting the best deal (and not being screwed by some secret partnership)? I guess those in the know will just have to choose not to use the tool. And haven't I seen this kind of tool somewhere before, on some other airfare search site? I wonder if this is generating any sort of unfair advantage for the airlines with whom they have contracts. Search engines do it. They tend to rank paying customers higher on the results. It brings into light the question of true data accuracy. How do consumers know they’re getting the best deal (and not being screwed by some secret partnership)?

I guess those in the know will just have to choose not to use the tool.

And haven’t I seen this kind of tool somewhere before, on some other airfare search site?

]]> By: DvB http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148527 DvB Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:14:02 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148527 Farecast is based on the premise of using "data-mining algorithms to search for patterns, in the accumulated airfare data, which are associated with significant price changes." In other words, they claim to be "predicting" the future to advise when to buy the cheapest airfare. Um, okay. So, what happens if they're fabulously successful in capturing marketshare and most travelers are using their service? What's left to predict? Farecast is based on the premise of using “data-mining algorithms to search for patterns, in the accumulated airfare data, which are associated with significant price changes.” In other words, they claim to be “predicting” the future to advise when to buy the cheapest airfare.

Um, okay. So, what happens if they’re fabulously successful in capturing marketshare and most travelers are using their service? What’s left to predict?

]]> By: Cruncher http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148426 Cruncher Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:11:09 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148426 Couple of tickets that I checked, seems it did well. However I am not really travelling now, and when I travel, I do lot of research. I goto websites travelociyt,orbitz,expedia etc. along with the actual airline website, also travel deal sites, monitor prices for few days and then finally purchase ticket. If this site really beats all my research, that would be amazing, and it will be huge hit. They have 22 phd's, that must be something. Couple of tickets that I checked, seems it did well.

However I am not really travelling now, and when I travel, I do lot of research. I goto websites travelociyt,orbitz,expedia etc. along with the actual airline website, also travel deal sites, monitor prices for few days and then finally purchase ticket. If this site really beats all my research, that would be amazing, and it will be huge hit.

They have 22 phd’s, that must be something.

]]> By: Allen http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148389 Allen Mon, 21 Aug 2006 11:11:56 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148389 Worked pretty well for me. Not sure I like the amount of ads they are running. Worked pretty well for me. Not sure I like the amount of ads they are running.

]]> By: CenterNetworks http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148388 CenterNetworks Mon, 21 Aug 2006 11:11:17 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148388 <strong>Farecast opens for 55 cities...</strong> Farecast, a Seattle based startup, launched a 55 city beta today of their product. The basic idea is that you can find the best fares available at the current time for your selected trip. The RSS feed, one of the best features of Farecast, allows you t... Farecast opens for 55 cities…

Farecast, a Seattle based startup, launched a 55 city beta today of their product. The basic idea is that you can find the best fares available at the current time for your selected trip. The RSS feed, one of the best features of Farecast, allows you t…

]]> By: Concerned http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-148168 Concerned Mon, 21 Aug 2006 07:26:45 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/20/farecast-launches-for-55-us-cities/#comment-148168 Has Farecast actually worked for anyone? It failed pretty miserably for me. The only thing useful, is the cool graph it creates with the rates for the past few weeks. Not really worth $8.5 million though. Has Farecast actually worked for anyone? It failed pretty miserably for me. The only thing useful, is the cool graph it creates with the rates for the past few weeks. Not really worth $8.5 million though.

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