Farecast spreads its wings
August 21st, 2006Farecast.com is a new tracker service that can promise to put a stop to getting ripped off for domestic flight tickets. The service that originally started as a beta web application for flights departing from Seattle and Boston, has now expanded to over 55 cities. I received a invite to test the beta version a few months back, but it was hardly useful at the time. Little wonder, that I was happy to find an email notifying me that Minneapolis-St.Paul (MSP) is now part of Farecast. The site utilizes predictive technologies and data-mining to improve the online travel experience. The airfare prediction engine technology, which evolved from a University of Washington research project, works well to indicate trends in airfare over the next few days or weeks, allowing better chances of getting a good deal on tickets. The site also links customers directly to airline websites, thereby avoiding booking fees (and ensuring registration for frequent flier miles).
The feature I like most is the ability to set up and track custom airfare predictions via an RSS feed. Now all that remains is to give the service a spin while planning my next trip and hope it saves me some greens.
