FareCompare, a Dallas startup that's
focusing its efforts on leveraging the complexity of airline fare
changes, has started an air- fare e-mail alert service for
consumers that claims to deliver fare changes up to four hours
sooner than the Web sites of network airlines and online agencies.
With this service,
FareCompare can alert consumers and travel agents to fare changes
by airport to major destinations or for specific city pairs before
the GDSs display them or transmit them to the airline and online
agency Web sites that they support.
FareCompare said
that it can get fare changes earlier because it subscribes to air-
fare data from the Airline Tariff Publishing Co., the entity that
receives fare changes from the airlines and disseminates them to
the GDSs and also because FareCompare has put its resources into
developing a "deals engine" that processes air-fare changes as
quickly as possible.
The company said it
gets the jump on airline fare changes because major carrier and
agency Web sites get their fare updates from the GDSs, which
process feeds from the ATPCO and can take two to six hours
incorporate the new data.
"With this alert
system, consumers are reaping the benefits of our five-year
investment in building the fastest fare-processing system
available," said CEO Rick Seaney.
FareCompare can't
beat all airlines at posting fare changes on their Web sites, only
airline Web sites that rely on GDSs, which, according to
FareCompare, includes all of the major U.S. network
carriers.
The fare alert
solution addresses the volatile world of air-fare price changes,
where low fares can be introduced and withdrawn within a couple of
hours without much notice.
FareCompare cited
an example of a low fare Aug. 7 from Cleveland to Palm Springs,
Calif., for $360.
The next day, the
fare dropped to $109, but three hours later it zoomed to $320. All
but the most persistent consumers would most likely have missed the
$109 fare.
And FareCompare's
e-mail alert service is geared to inform consumers of changes like
these fast enough so they can book the deal before it
disappears.
In fact,
FareCompare could be so fast that consumers could be made aware of
lower fares before they could be booked anywhere. After all,
FareCompare doesn't process bookings.
However, consumers
can look for the new fares on airline and agency Web sites over
subsequent hours, and those fares likely will remain available for
booking until they are sold out or until the Web sites get the next
updates from the GDSs several hours later.
Consumers who
enroll at www.farecompare.com/email can subscribe to alerts
about fare changes from any airport or for several city
pairs.
FareCompare uses a
star rating to indicate the scope of the savings, with a four-star
designation indicating that the fare is approaching or is at a
historical low, for instance.
Consumers, or
travel agents who want to track fare changes even before they are
available in their GDSs, can sign up for alerts via RSS feeds at www.farecompare.com/rss.
To
contact reporter Dennis Schaal, send e-mail to [email protected].