Farecast predicts airline ticket pricing

Farecast, currently in a closed beta, is a new service which uses historical pricing data from airlines to forecast when airline tickets will be the cheapest. Farecast beta currently only works for Boston and Seattle. However, when it’s launched later this year it will be available nationwide.

John Batelle spoke with Farecast founder Hugh Crean earlier last week, and has a great article on the upcoming service.

You can sign up for the private beta on the homepage, it’ll be out later in the year. The basic premise is neat - 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.

Read John Batelle’s article here.

Source: BoingBoing