Online Booking Revolution 3- Farecompare
In my first two installments, I covered how Flyspy and Farecast are changing the online airfare booking scene. In Part 3, I’m exploring the benefits of using Farecompare.com
Farecompare allows users to view graphs of historical airfares between destinations They have a helpful “advanced graph” allowing you to see the historical data over a 7 day to 2 year period, while booking the tickets 0-30 days in advanced (advanced graph shown below). Their advanced graphing system also allows users to filter the airlines that are shown on the graphs to help those actually loyal to their air line carrier.
Farecompare also simplifies the graphs for the analysis-challenged travellers by giving you a star stystem by the present rates. One star means that the fares are at an all time high, and five stars means that the fares are at an all time low.
One difference between Farecast and Farecompare is that Farecompare does not give you a flat out prediction whether now is the time to buy. Instead, they make their users infer whether the prices will fall or rise. They do offer a guide teaching their users how to interpret the data though. I’m assumming they do this to avoid potentially disgruntled users who would be recommended to buy, and then find out that fare prices dropped.
Other noteworthy aspects of farecompare are their widgets offered for the technically advanced. You can have email fare alerts, a Yahoo! desktop fare widget, Google desktop plugin, a Firefox extension, and RSS feeds that can aid in your online search for the lowest airfares.
So while planning your next trip domestically or abroad, remember the online tools at your disposal that make up the online booking revolution.
[tags] farecompare, travel, fares [/tags]
[...] Internet still Impacts Travel The internet and the Online Booking Revolution (Flyspy, Farecast, Farecompare, and Triptie) will continue to impact the travel industry 2007. With Web 2.0 staying strong, expect even better online travel tools developed in the next year for you to use at your disposal. After Web 2.0 bursts, there may be a drought until Web 3.0 starts up, but that’s several years away.So there are five of my not so risky travel predictions for the year 2007. If you have one of your own, feel free to leave it as a comment. [...]
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