Farecast: Taking Guesswork Out of Online Travel
Written by Simon Schanche (contact - e-mail) -- June 27th, 2007 | Recommend ThisBuy or wait? Is there a chance if I postpone my purchase that the ticket price will decrease? If only there were a way to take the guesswork out of this decision… Farecast.com (a travel Meta-Search site on steroids) claims to have the answer to this question plaguing online travel shoppers. Users select their desired departure/destination/dates combination and just as on other Meta-Search sites, Farecast technology scrapes information from airline (and online travel agency) websites across the internet, displaying it conveniently in one location.
Since its arrival to the market as Beta on June 27th 2006 (Happy 1 year anniversary Farecast!), traffic to Farecast has grown with an increase of interest in the Meta-Search category. While kayak.com and sidestep.com remain the industry leaders, Farecast predictive technology opens the door to steal users from the competition.
Farecast (not Fore-cast, Fare-cast), powered by scientific historical flight data, helps make a prediction for buyers to buy now or wait for a possible better price. This intriguing new approach has led 76% of site visitors to perform a flight search. The search overlays the resulting flight choices with a tip to buy or wait, and a level of confidence that Farecast exhibits for this recommendation. With 11% of these users moving on to the airline website to review and make the purchase decision, Farecast is getting the right fares in front of interested buyers.
As an avid tourist, Farecast has become an integral part of my ritual flight search. A new product offering that I have yet to try, Fare Guard ($9.95), allows visitors to insure a Farecast recommendation. Wow, these Farecast guys put their money where their mouths are. What weather forecaster does that? If you haven’t checked out Farecast yet, I implore you to do so. Maybe incorporate them into your research process for that last minute 4th of July vacation.
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July 2nd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
We took advantage of a travel deal offered by valuetraveldeals.com we had to attend a time share 90 minute presentation but we got a good deal on San Diego and Las Vegas last summer.
Mary
July 21st, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Hi Mary,
I’ve never heard of them before. How much did you spend? I used to use another travel site but have switched to runawayholiday.com. I’ve used them three times this year (2 business bookings and my personal vacation) and have gotten fantastic prices. My vacation was the best, though. I thought Hawaii would be too expense to do but I got a killer 10 night cruise for $449 each. Very do-able (just watch the goodies once onboard - THEY add up!! lol.)
I probably won’t have to travel again until after the new year but I’m thinking that the combination of farewatch and runawayholiday.com will be a real winner.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:15 am
We have begun checking concerts that are happening when we visit a city. Going to a venue in a city during our visit not only allows us to see a concert but we get to see the venue and experience that as well as part of our visit. I also use Farecast for weather issues when traveling..
David