Feb 5, 2007 5:55 pm US/Central
Get The Lowdown On High Flying Airfares
by Bennett Cunningham
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
If you can't land a cheap airfare, fear not. Your fortune is about to change.
Airfares go up and down as fast as the planes takeoff and land. Predicting fares is like reading tea leaves, and that drives Rebecca Carrier into the stratosphere. "I like to check around when I travel for prices, and I don't like to pay full price," she said.
So imagine if you had the ability to predict when a fare goes up and down, like looking into a crystal ball -- well not really. You just need a computer, a city to fly to and a certain website.
It's called Farecast.com. Hugh Crean is the CEO. "Consumers are coming in and searching the same as they would on Expedia. They are provided free prediction and a tip to buy or to wait," said Crean.
During Christmas, CBS 11 News tested the accuracy of the website by asking it to make more than a dozen predictions to more than a dozen U.S. cities. Farecast's predictions were correct 60 to 100 percent of the time.
Fort Worth based American Airlines is one of the carriers that lets Farecast into its airfare computer system. Billy Sanez of American points out "what Farecast does. They look at past experience. But past performance doesn't show future results so you always have to be careful."
Farecast graphs airfares over time so you can see price trends. And when you are ready to book, it links you directly with the airlines website, not a travel agent. There is no sign up fee -- it's all free!
Farecast states it makes 38 million predictions per month.
It doesn't predict international flights and only predicts fares at major US cities up to 90 days in advance. Locally based Southwest Airlines doesn't participate with Farecast.
(CBS 11 News)
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