Farecast Beta for Boston

Because we know everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas perhaps it's time to go to Vegas. The time to buy is, apparently, today. Thanks to the new public Beta version of Farecast, a - wait for it – forecast system for airfares we know that for our end of July trip to Las Vegas the fares will rise by approximately $50 if we wait to purchase the tickets. That's $50 we could drop on the craps table and build into the first million. After concluding a private Beta they've gone to a public version of the site searching only for travel originating in Boston and Seattle. Of course, SouthWest doesn't participate in the fare forecast, you won't find them in the mix on other sites either (like Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc…). They have a fixed price structure that doesn't fluctuate with the dates, just sells a certain number of seats on every plane for every price.

The interface is fairly simple. Select your cities and date and find out if you should buy now or wait for a better deal. The flexible date search seems to be a helpful tool as well. In addition to finding out when you should buy tickets for a pre-set date you can search for a period of time and return the best times to travel. The sliding bars to limit your departure times and length of stay helps the interface on the flexible search. Find your preferred date and jump back (with just a click) to find out if you should buy now or chance it to find a lower fare for those dates. Another reason to be caught in a somewhat infinite loop looking for airfares – at least with Farecast they provide a confidence meter for time of purchase. At some point you'll just have to trust your gut, or the confidence meter.