MilesBuzz! - Keeping real time track of low air fares

Hi all

With all the new internet tools like dream maps about I was just wondering which tools people had found the most useful for finding cheap airfares (in real time) eg fare watchers etc.

cheers Peter

Fare watcher tool in Expedia is useless in my opinion. Like driving forward and staring into the rear view mirror.

Fare Watcher tool on Travelocity is tardy if you are seeking the 1-2 day fares like the 1 day's recently of $54 IND-SBA or the $77 ATL-? or the $198 BWI-LAX. It checks once a day and sends an email. By the time you get the mail, read the mail, go online, some seats are already gone. But it does check

Manual checking of Dream Map and the sometimes-accurate alternatives that pop up is the best I can nominate. And watching FT!

The BestFares Newsdesk has been pretty good about posting late-breaking "Snooze Alarm" fares all day--- although they really have been slipping in the past year or so.

Who had the $54 SBA-IND fare, and when? That would have been nice to get.......

The site is http://www.bestfares.com/travel_center/desks/newsdesk.asp?LastID=0&optList=Headline+Only

[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 07-06-2000).]

One thing I've been really curious about is if there is a someplace where I could just download a file of current fares. The airlines update their fares several times a day; these are then downloaded and imported by other ticketing sites. I'd really like to find a way of downloading the actual files so that I could run my own programs to look for fare anomolies.

Anyone have any ideas?

www.air-fare.com (http://www.air-fare.com)

It's not real-time; only updated once or
twice each day. Regardless; I like it
because it is possible to bookmark the
city-pair of interest.

-doug

Viajero Joven, see
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/002214.html

What about the fare ticker? I can't get it to work on my computer. Has anyone had any luck with it?

cheers Peter

What is the "fare ticker" and where is it located?

Do you mean Fare Tracker on Expedia?

Yahoo Messenger ( http://messenger.yahoo.com ) has an option to show fares between certain (not all) city pairs. It is updated more than once a day but not immediately. I use it all the time.

No I mean fare ticker

cheers Peter

OK, I'll repeat billwr30's questions:

What is the "fare ticker" and where is it located?

http://www.travelweb.com/TravelWeb/media/get.html

cheers peter

Also
http://flyaow.com/lowfare.htm

cheers peter

Thanks! ffhound,. Now I remember it from AOW. Something's wrong with my browser at the moment and the Java applet is not working correctly. If one clicks on the fare as it shows (fleetingly) in the small window, does that take you to that specific booking (ala expedia) or to the opening reservations screen as if you were starting fresh?

[This message has been edited by Warrenlm (edited 07-09-2000).]

Speaking of cheap air fares

Check out hkg - pwm at travelocity for $00 !

cheers peter

I suggest we also augment the fare "deals" by having an area on FlyerTalk. This would be marvelous. I, too, have come across deals that are not posted on websites, and have also benefited from others who have posted on flyertalk.

Moreover, Bestfares has lost a step this past year. I agree. Morever, I believe that bestfares can "buy up" the low fares that it finds and resell to the public. I have found an anomaly myself, and it doesn't post on bestfares. Anomaly disappears, then Bestfares has the exact same deal, but only through its program/membership. Often, I believe that bestfares sometimes gives us the leftovers.

Jefflewis2, I had the same idea, so I posted in the FT suggestions forum a short time ago.