Seattle based Farecast, a service that predicts and guarantees airline prices, has expanded its reach outside of the United States, with international coverage in key markets.
Farecast, which launched in May 2006, tries to predict flight price changes for consumers so they know whether to buy now or wait. In late 2006 they added guarantees, effectively allowing consumers to buy insurance policies against price increases in the event they decide to wait. More recently, Farecast added hotel bookings as well.
The site now offers predictions for over 200 markets between U.S. cities and Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada. According to USA Today, travelers can search for international trips up to two weeks long and six months out and Farecast will predict whether fares will go up, down or hold steady over the next week.
The new extended service still has limitations, for example a search for San Francisco International (SFO) to London Heathrow (LHR) offers airfares, but doesn’t provide a prediction service despite LHR being a major gateway into Europe, where as SFO to Mexico City now does. Farecast can be used in a similar fashion to general travel sites such as Expedia as a general airfare and booking service; a search for Melbourne (MLB) to SFO gave similar results to the SFO-LHW search, although despite Farecast providing price comparison links to sites including Expedia, there was no price advantage at all over the other sites.
Farecast operates in a highly competitive space, more so since Kayak acquired Sidestep in December. Farecast’s traffic has trended up over the long term, but it is still lagging in third place (see comScore chart below).
(thx to Mark Douglass for the tip)
I think users should be allowed to set the limit suit to their budget. As the prices reach around the limit amount, tickets will be booked (date specified by user), immediately
informing the buyer.
I like the same concept that the http://www.pricefad.com is doing for prediction in the electronics space
Duncan, thanks for the post. We’re now live and you can get predictions from SFO-LHR (London) and to many other European destinations.
Mike
Farecast.com
Mike Fridgen,
Nice thing you’ve got going on over there in Seattle! I’m originally from Seattle - recently relocated to Dallas.
The lowest prices I’ve received so far came from Travelation. The odd part is that they aren’t even displayed on the Farecast results.
Today, I am homesick!
That is cool
http://www.jhatak.com/Buckler/BucklerHomePage.htm
(The Light Browser)
What about yapta.com?
sweet!, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time
thanks farecast!
Hi Vini,
Check out the Farecast Fare Alert which allows you to specify a price threshold for a trip. If the price is at or below the specified amount, we can automatically send you an e-mail which will allow you to book the trip.
Roger
Farecast.com
This is great, but how about some better coverage in America first? Going to New England? JFK, BDL, LGA or bust.
The lowest prices I’ve received so far came from Travelation. The odd part is that they aren’t even displayed on the Farecast results.
rubu, RONLG,
If you go to the Farecast.com home page you can select to compare Farecast prices to Travelation - we make it quite easy.
Thanks.
Mike
Farecast.com
I’ve been using Yapta and it’s been pretty useful. I check out FareCast and may give it a try in the future.
I thought this was going to be great - but why is only $$ based and also it doesn’t cover any of the cheap airlines for inter-europe.
Check out skyscanner.net which I will continue to use in Europe.
Interesting site. Does anyone know how much money this company makes in Revenues? Net income?