ear-fung.us I’m a programmer. I’m also pro-grammar.

Farecast.com Really Works!

I recently had to get two plane tickets to Dallas for a conference that my wife and I are going to. I decided I'd use Farecast.com because of all the hype about them recently on some of the blogs I follow.

The service they provide is amazing. The airline industry is pretty hush-hush when it comes to how they price their flights. What Farecast has done is plot historical prices from city to city and will tell you if the prices are going to drop, stay the same, or go up. It's really a quite ingenious way to think about air travel. I guess their "How It Works" page says it best:

Farecast offers unique features to help you Know When To Buy™, When To Fly™, and Where To Stay™—all based on science, not marketing. And now it's available from most major U.S. and Canadian cities to destinations worldwide. Our smart travel search also allows you to easily compare, sort, and narrow down flight and hotel results for hundreds of websites.

Thanks to our technology and data, you can find out if the lowest fare for a trip is rising or dropping over the next 7 days.

To find an Airfare Prediction, select cities and dates highlighted in green when you search flights.

My recent experience with Farecast was spectacular. I checked rates from Raleigh, NC (RDU) to Dallas, TX (DFW) in February and they told me to wait (ticket prices were about $375 if I recall correctly). When I got around to checking the price again on April 3rd, they said to buy the tickets at $299.

I jumped on it and bought the tickets. I looked at the same flight again today (7 days after I purchased the tickets).

Purchase Price:

Current Price:

As you can see, Farecast.com saved me about $200 ($100 each ticket) by telling me when would *statistically* be the best time to purchase the tickets.

Everyone should use Farecast.com. (They do hotel prices too.)