Plane Ticket Price Forecasting

It’s about time.

Finally someone out there has created an algorithm which helps predict when to buy an airline ticket, and when to wait it out for a better deal. Or, so the theory goes…

A brand new site, Farecast.com, promises to do exactly that. Originally named Hamlet (To buy or not to buy) the site implements “data-mining algorithms to search for patterns, in the accumulated airfare data, which are associated with significant price changes.” The theory is that this “predictive technology” can then be applied to current ticket considerations to determine when, exactly, is the cheapest time to buy.

The site claims a 75% success rate which is 100% better than my haphazard guesses.

Unfortunately, Farecast.com is up and running for only two cities right now: Boston and Seattle. I’ll be keeping an eye on it, however, and look forward to its arrival on my home town.