Low fare alerts: machine vs. human
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Reader David S. writes:
Have you heard of the site airfarewatchdog.com? They list some very good fares. However I sometimes have a difficult time finding the fares that they list. What do you think about the site?
Indeed, I’m certainly familiar with George Hobica’s Airfarewatchdog. He and his team scour the internet for low fares and post regular updates, both listing the best fares in America, and the best fares for individual departure cities. It’s a great overview. His site has pointed to some good stuff, and I’ve linked to him before — like the $750 round trip business class fare on Maxjet back in March. He offers e-mail subscriptions, too, though the mailings are sometimes erratic.
Meaning no disrespect against Airfarewatchdog, but I find FareCompare’s alerts to be faster and more consistent. E-mails go out as soon as lowered fares hit the databases. If that’s too much information, you can get a good snapshot of fares from your city with the site’s Destination Deal Maps (effectively the same as Travelocity’s recently downgraded Dream Maps — except it functions both domestically and internationally.)
To see the Deal Maps, go to FareCompare.com and enter your departure city in the middle of the page.
To join the fare alert list, go to FareCompare.com, click on the Deal Maps or run a search for city pair, and then click on the “FareCompare AirFare Email Early Warning System” box in the upper left corner.
The downside of FareCompare is that it doesn’t cover Southwest or JetBlue, since those airlines don’t participate in the big global fare networks (GDS’s). So a human touch is necessary to test those fares.
It’s a case of machine vs. man. FareCompare’s automated system offers faster response than the more human search of Airfarewatchdog. But the ‘dog includes airlines that the machines can’t.
tags: travel | Airfarewatchdog | FareCompare
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March 6th, 2007 at 10:33 am |
[…] Rick’s conclusion, though, is once again without a magic bullet. Shorter version: Get a feel for the historical price range for your desired itinerary and buy whenever it’s cheap. Use fare alerts to keep on top of price drops. Pull the trigger when the price is in the comfort zone. Don’t expect great deals more than 5 months before your flight date, or within two weeks of travel. […]
March 6th, 2007 at 10:44 am |
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March 19th, 2007 at 6:24 am |
[…] like what they’re doing to lift the hood on the mechanics of airfares. I’ve previously posted about their fare alerts that tell you what the discounted fares will be hours before you can […]
April 25th, 2007 at 10:11 pm |
[…] a fan of FareCompare’s fare drop alerting service, which I’ve mentioned before here. The alerts go out as soon as a lower fare is loaded into the system, sometimes several hours […]
April 25th, 2007 at 10:40 pm |
[…] FareCompare’s fare alerts — which I have strongly recommended in the past — give you several hours’ advance warning when a fare is about to drop, […]
May 18th, 2007 at 4:29 pm |
[…] for me, it just requires too much effort for too little return. I’d rather just subscribe to low fare alerts and try to snag low sale fares when they come up. No muss, no fuss. And no calling in to cancel […]
March 1st, 2008 at 2:28 pm |
We are looking for low air fare to Alaska in August. Our son is in the coast guard and we want to visit him. The time he has is August, obviously coasties are very busy during the fishing season so we are pretty firm on our time.
Right now we are suffering from sticker shock. Should we wait? Will the fares go down?
Not sure.
March 1st, 2008 at 7:48 pm |
I’m not sure what to tell you. Farecast.com might be able to help you with predicting the fare. Also, run the fare through Farecompare.com or Kayak.com to see how it stacks up against historical fares for that route.
But Alaska in August is peak season, and fares will be high. Perhaps you can cash in some frequent flyer miles for the occasion?
Good luck.
March 1st, 2008 at 9:53 pm |
Hi Mark - I am on those sites daily - probably a little too much! So I am waiting to see a shift in the price.
We do not have enought miles yet maybe next year - by that time who knows where he’ll be…
Cheers!
KD