pixelbomb

The web has made it undeniably easier to search, compare, and purchase airline tickets online. However, while many feel that sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz are providing them tools to beat the system, they are sorely mistaken. The problem is that even at those sites the real customers are the travel companies — not you.

The trick is understanding the airlines’ complex algorithms (which analyze demand, competitors’ prices and other data) that are used to determine ticket prices. It’s those algorithms which can cause the price of the exact same flight to fluctuate hundreds of dollars in a matter of days, and sometimes hours.

Enter Farecast, a new web based service that aims to monitor and analyze price data, and attempt to predict when airfares might rise and fall and by how much — and more importantly, when they might hit their low point. “Farecast leverages the power of data to put you back in charge, or at least more in charge.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 1:27 pm and is tagged with news, tech, travel, web. You can discuss this entry, share pictures, and more in the pixelbomb forums. Responses are currently closed, but you can click here to generate a trackback url for your own site.