Stop the email sign up ad.
Stop the email sign up ad.
Stop the email sign up ad.

Between that, the fact that few, if any fares are actually bookable, and the lack of accurate prices I've given up on it, though I do use it when I need to look at a map.

I agree with you and not completely buying the "We still dont have a source of inventory info" reason. You used to have it and FC used to be on point as far as low prices. When FC changed their business model (show teaser prices and maybe people won't care and book anyway), I found the site of no value. If FC went back to their old model, they could be a small-time travelocity. I find Yahoo travel more useful for showing discount fares.

Just speaking my mind.

The search results page (Flyertalk) can also be improved - if I say show me all fares from ORD on AA, then the results should only be for AA. It's very frustrating to go through the trouble to retrieve data for AA, enter AA again on the next page, and see that all airlines are displayed and AA's fare jumped from $150 teaser to $700. Sounds like it might be a coding issue, but I think we're back to the good old bait and switch.

Thank you for listening our feedback. I am seeing the price breakdown. (base/surcharges/taxes)

Farecompare no longer works. I've done a dozen searches over the last two months, and have NEVER been able to get a bookable fare for less than several hundred dollars more than the farecompare price.

Your website stopped working. I don't know why, and I know the industry is in chaos but... you guys are dead in the water, right now. You'd better fix it fast, because as of right now there is no point in using your website. Its broken.

It's possible that the airlines are listing phantom fares.

Yes, I've seen a number of them recently, where they will release a fare that is cheap, for K class seats. Of course, there are NO K class seats that have been released on any of the dates!

You're completely missing the point. Airline tickets are time-to-live inventory AND a commodity to most people. Most people don't care about what it could cost, they only care what it will actually cost. That's why people get upset when they don't see all-in prices; the fare goes up by as much as 250% on cheap TATL tickets because of taxes, surcharges and YQs. Your analogy also doesn't make sense, since at least with a car, you can haggle, negotiate, and do all sorts of other things to get the price mutually agreeable. I think we'll all agree that isn't the case with airline tickets.

If Joe Schmo wants to book a ticket, chances are he goes straight to Travelocity/Orbitz/Kayak/Expedia, ie a booking engine that everyone knows about, rather than a third-party tool that isn't as widely known. I don't see you guys winning a lot of tier 1 display, and only specialty products like RTW, Circles, packages, etc, do a lot on search, so how are trying to get top of mind to the average consumer?

For an example of just how frustrating and confusing FC has become, take a look at this thread, where no less than 102 city pairs for domestic first class travel were posted, and that's just originating in SFO, SJC and OAK. I received similar alerts from SMF, PDX, GEG, SEA and RNO, so I'm assuming that thousands of city pairs were advertised on just last Thursday that were completely unbookable.

Then you have to give the more detailed information (preferred carrier, travel dates/time, routes, etc.) if you want to know "actual" cost. It's almost impossible to know real price without providing these key factors.

The recent most popular two threads in MR forum were regarding how to drop fuel surcharges. In this case, current FT page works very efficiently to identify which city pair has inexpensive base fare. I am not a subscriber of KVS/ExpertFlyer, but do they have the function that you can review the cheapest base fare from certain airports in order?

I really hope the "Todays Price" on FT page excludes fuel surcharges/taxes like we are currently seeing (and put these in a separate column). Obviously, FT page is for power users. However, people suggest it to whomever looking for cheap fares. I don't think this is a good suggestion.

This thread covers a few problems people have had with FC. I personally don't mind the "low fare without availability" issue, which many people attack FC for -- however, FC should be clear about what it's trying to do.

I don't much like the "compare with other sites" auto-pop-ups. If I wanted to open a bunch of browser windows, I'd do that.

Has FareCompare totally dropped searching for International Airfares?
 

I just looked at this (have not searched recently because of the problems with inconsistency in handling the fuel surcharges); seems all international fare searches have been dropped. I'm trying to figure out whether the $399 all-in fare for NYC or WAS to LON advertised on another site really exists and is bookable, and if so, on what airline.

Maybe they thought it was getting so inaccurate that they dropped the international tool until they could solve the programming challenges the surcharges present.

For example at:
http://www.farecompare.com/search/fl...?departure=WAS

filtering for international fares yields no results

The fare listed have no connection to the bookable reality. How can you not have a problem with that? What else is the site good for if not finding fares?

re: Has FareCompare totally dropped searching for International Airfares?

I didn't think FC actually "searched" for anything; just put the GDS feeds in a readable format ... hence, would have thought there might be a temporary issue with the feeds.
But, since the "Getaway Maps" are apparently updating just fine... hmmmmm...

Hoping this isn't a repeat of "DreamMaps Intl -meets- the Golden Goose". :(

/.

Even with just the base fares, I found this to be useful for monitoring fares. While there are other ways to get the info, FC was better for a quick scan for myself. Hope that it does come back.

How do you determine what the best business class fares in the world are?