Comments on: Track airfare before and AFTER you buy?

By: Yapta launches alerts for award ticket availability » Upgrade: Travel Better

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:23:27 +0000

[...] - Track airfare before and AFTER you buy? - Check in the mail: Orbitz refunds airfare price drops, but is it [...]

By: 10 Tips: How to score a cheap airline ticket

10 Tips: How to score a cheap airline ticket — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:33:01 +0000

[...] • The New York Times: How to Fly As a Courier (February 17, 2002) • Upgrade: Travel Better: Track airfare before and AFTER you buy? (May 16, 2007) • FareCompare: Same Day Cheapest Airline Ticket Refunds - Hype or Hope? • [...]

By: 2008 June 24 » Upgrade: Travel Better

2008 June 24 » Upgrade: Travel Better — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:57:20 +0000

[...] Yapta, which tracks fare drops and alerts you when the published price goes down, Orbitz will [...]

By: Nicole Gustas

Nicole Gustas — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 01:28:12 +0000

Once again, another great post. I linked to you over here:
http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Book_a_Cheap_Flight
Mahalo for all the great information you put out!

By: Short hops — May 23, 2007 — Free wine declined, a new front in the all-premium flight wars, downgraded upgrades, and more » Upgrade: Travel Better

Wed, 23 May 2007 13:10:36 +0000

[...] comes alive! Yapta, the service that tracks fares after you’ve bought, mentioned here last week, is now [...]

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Fri, 18 May 2007 20:36:52 +0000

This is a good point, too. Who is the market that Yapta is after? Since they’re targeting people who book their own travel, they’re presumably not going after the major corporate contract market. If it’s individual leisure travelers, then those folks, like you, are already aiming for the lowest prices when they purchase a ticket in the first place. The voucher game is rarely worth playing if you’re already at rockbottom fares.

I’m also wondering how many airlines this would actually work with in the first place. I know that United offers free vouchers when there are price drops. But others require change fees, and you are essentially cancelling your old ticket and buying a one. How large is this voucher “market”?

So again, while a good idea for consumers in theory, it’s not clear how it plays out in practice.

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Fri, 18 May 2007 20:32:29 +0000

Thanks for this thoughtful comment. I think that the benefit that Yapta would theoretically provide the airlines is to lock in customers for future purchases. Their management suggested this in an interview with Business 2.0, here:

Airlines looking to maximize short term profits are not going to like us. Yield management systems are built to maximize revenue on a single flight, but the real win is building value over the long term. Look, as an airline I still keep your cash. I’m taking a short-term hit, and over the next 12 months I have the opportunity to turn that $100 coupon into a $500 ticket. I’ve locked in your loyalty.

There’s something to that. If you’ve got a voucher in hand for, say, United, then you’re going to try to use it. So United gets your money twice: once for the original purchase, and once for the second flight, which will inevitably cost you more than the voucher.

I am not sure how this model would scale, but I can see the logic behind it. Theory, and practice, however, are very different…

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 18 May 2007 20:23:23 +0000

One of the problems that I see with this that greatly devalues the service for me is that I generally buy only very low fares (relative to all the fares available–e.g., an expensive fare for me is $350-400 and that’s rare). So even if the fare drops, after paying the fees ($50-100 or more) for the change, it’s rarely a profitable effort. Even if there is some gain, my time is probably more valuable than the $20 or so it would net me.

By: Would Rather Not Say

Would Rather Not Say — Fri, 18 May 2007 03:02:15 +0000

Kayak and Sidestep have value to both customers and suppliers in that they refer traffic to suppliers (low cost) and provide unbiased results (customer value). They also have audience share.

Farecast is demonstrating that it can develop unique ways of looking at data - and give customers confidence in their purchase (customer value) and will drive people looking for bargains to book earlier - thus allowing suppliers to raise fares closer to flight dates (airline value).

cFares offers targeted unpublished discounts to individuals who register - again value of airlines and for customer.

Yapta doesn’t offer anything that Expedia or the others couldn’t turn around and offer w/o much trouble (no competitive advantage - long term); has no audience, and if airlines drop fares by much more than $10-$15 domestically, will likely cost suppliers more than the value of having customer book directly.

Additionally, the market doesn’t seem to have much room for more than 2-3 big metasearch companies. Kayak/Sidestep are in the 2-4 million uniques - but its a huge step down to the rest of the crowd. Even if Yapta can draw an audience, all its likely to do is steal share from those already in the space.

Taken the the extreme - what Yapta proposes is a world of flat fares - airlines wouldn’t survive in this environment.