Commentary
And Now, Your Local Farecast
- by David , May 22, 2007
As I’m living in Boston for the summer, I’m likely to miss a few fun events back home in Indiana.
Yes, really - there are fun things in Indiana beside those damn race cars.
I digress. I have plans on making it back for a few random events, such as Fort Wayne's Three Rivers Festival and John Mayer at the Verizon Wireless Music Center. I'm not driving, though - there just isn't enough time.
Airfare is often a pain when it comes to flying back home. Hell, it's a pain flying back anywhere. That's why I was ecstatic when I stumbled across the nifty little site Farecast.
It's not that new, but I hadn't heard of it. This type of stuff excites me to no end, as it's a great mash up of technology that's helping to make a part of life so much easier.
What travel sites do you use? I’d love to know.
I still use Orbitz. Or Travelocity. Or one of those.
Actually, I kind of cheat. I use those sites to do a broad search to see which airline is likely to offer the lowest fare for the travel I need to book. Then I go to the air carrier's website, and book through them directly -- avoiding the convenience fees you would normally get hit with using an aggregator. It's how I scored a flight for under $100 to NYC this June.
I'll have to give Farecast a shot.
Booking Buddy (http://www.bookingbuddy.com).
The trick is to input your origin, destination & dates, click all of the icons, then go back page by page, compare and X out of the higher fares until you're left with the lowest. Then go see if you can beat the lowest fare at the airline website.