Seattle based Farecast is turning into quite a good way to find cheap airline tickets.
The core service predicts if airline prices will increase or decrease in the near future from the current prices. They added a price guarantee in late 2006 that allows users to pay a $10 fee and lock in the current low price. They can then make a purchase decision later.
This morning, Farecast is launching a new deals feature. Unlike other travel sites, where deals are generally excess inventory being dumped at a low price, Farecast is saying they’ll find particularly good deals based on their analysis of the airline pricing stream which goes through their engine every day. On their home page right now they are showing a $333 ticket from Seattle to Honolulu.
The company has raised just over $20 million in capital.
Predicting a trend is exciting, but not enough to spin money. Because, a rival can always spill open the beans for free to his readers, thereby weakening the FareCast in the short run and make it shut business in the longer term.
Anyway, it is the airlines that is ultimately increasing or decreasing prices, so even otherwise it is not fool-proof. However, offering the ticket at the lowest price is always great to have
Farecast is a pretty decent service imho, and they don’t seem to have much competition right now either. Now it will be interesting to see if they can make money or not, aside from vc money.
Michael.. It had been a long time since you made a comparison of different sites providing the same service.. What about comparing the different sites that provides this air fare service? I can think of another site makemytrip.com
Inflation catching on in US eh,
or just hedging price risk.
http://www.tekn...ld.blogspot.com
- Really paying $9 to maybe save $20-$30 … isn’t an appealing business model.
- to the ‘’someone could just do it for free”
- I point out “Allthefish.com” or whatever which is a free dating site; but yeat Eharmony and every other dating site is still making a living –
-RB
Their origin/destination and date chooser are really excellent uses of ajax (yes, it can be used for more than just shiny things). I wish that more major airline booking sites would implement such an easy interface.
This is a nice feature, but it does not bring any news nor does it top Kayak’s buzz tool.
Farecast are able to use their fare database in quite handy ways, yet they could not find a steady business model (to my view).
Another vote for Kayak. Check my website for my positive experience with it. I’ve used Travelocity, Expedia & Orbitz in the past, but Kayak sold me on the interface, access to the most airlines, the fare history feature, and use of Google Maps.
@ Oz Har Adir and Victor – I just published an article discussing Farecast thanks to TechCrunch jogging my memory. I referenced a few earlier articles one of them covering Kayak. I agree with you both that Kayak is a great tool, but for a few extra seconds of checking you can review two or more services that ensure you are getting the best deal.
Often when I shop, I use Froogle and Amazon, just to make sure Amazon is in the ballpark.
Article – http://www.dkwo...down/trackback/
This is a very over crowded arena already. They had better work some magic or that $20 million will be spent hidding.
Jo
http://www.cerealinsider.com
not that impressed with it.
the interface is ajax and spiffy, yes, but the usability still sucks. I fly out of the washington dc area, which has three nearby airports – dulles, national, and bwi. on farecast i would have to search each one separately, and that’s a pain. other sites have the “check nearby airports” feature to eliminate that.
also, the prices are really not that impressive. $333 seattle to honolulu is ok, but i’ve flown dc to honolulu (via newark) for like $340 with taxes. it’s those megabargains that i would like to be able to find more easily. checking a few of their “cheap flights departing from..” links on the frontpage also left me wondering “wait, where are the CHEAP ones??” this just seems to be a slick site to get the same crappy airfares you could get anywhere else. it’s just more hay in the haystack. find me the damn needle!!
kayak
Farecast is ok, but I don’t see this feature really driving anything additional for them. Kayak’s buzz is ok, too, but I’m still partial to Sidestep. Their deals area always has new deals, usually ones I don’t see elsewhere, so I don’t need to wait for them and don’t need to search multiple sites. Have found three trips this way (including a $159 RT from Seattle to Ft. Lauderdale) and will continue to do so.
So whats the news here? All OLTAs publish deals based on analytics, not have some random marketer hand pick deals one at a time. Also, the only reason a fare is a “deal” is because there is excess inventory. Airlines know how to do pricing, and wouldn’t provide you a low fare on a full flight. The only business that hand picks deals Travelzoo and Hotwire’s Travel Ticker
Interesting concept – the big question becomes is Fare Guard a gamble or has Farecast put in too many restrictions, that they have limited their downside, rendering it really a useless offering to the public.
Comment at http://www.yawpco.com