Farecast Looks Pretty Cool
I recently read about Farecast on John Batelle's blog. He describes the business case very effectively:
Farecast pays attention to the market price of all airline fares out of particular cities (it only does Boston and Seattle for now) at all times (it uses an industry data feed that, unfortunately, does not include Southwest). It then uses this data to help forecast when the right time might be for you to buy your ticket (and get the best price). In short, it's a rip off detector for flights. Farecast leverages the power of data to put you back in charge, or at least more in charge.
Sweet. It's a gas price tracker for flights. Consumers just got a little bit smarter.
I appreciate this service because I've never been able to decipher the black art of flight pricing. I look forward to some meta-advice about optimal purchasing times, based on the data they collect.
Of course, if they become really popular, they'll start Heisenberging flight prices. I know it's not really Heisenberg, but the observer effect, but the former sounds way better.
The service is only for Seattle and Boston at the moment, and I expect they'll handle all of the US before they address us Canucks, but it's a nifty project.
Pamela also mentioned a competing service, FareCompare, which will handle the True North Strong and Free.
I've got some Farecast invitations, if anybody else wants to try it out. Just leave a comment.
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