every update to FC makes it worse.

KISS.

I can't say I'm a fan, either, of the new changes.

Not a fan either . I wish I could receive updates in plain text.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I agree.

I would be interested in a page for flyertalkers like the current First class one that shows M, B, Y and other potentially upgradeable fares to various destinations.

Since DL took over NW and doubled or tripled these fares, an easy way to search for bargains on international travel would be most appreciated.

I suppose this gets complicated because some airlines allow you to upgrade ANY fare for a price (e.g. CO), but if you swing over to the DL and NW forums, you would feel our pain.

Farecompare.com is one of the most painfullly slow websites I have ever used. It takes up so much memory, it's crashed my computer 2 times. It is really painful, and I don't use it anymore because it is so slow and ruins the rest of my computer.

Two other reasons I don't like it:

1) It only allows you to search for economy & first class. There is no business class ticket search.

2) It lies. I searched SFO-FRA first class tickets, and then it says that they are available for $904. I then check, and everything is thousands of dollars. There are no first class tix from SFO-FRA for $904. It's totally inaccurate.

So are they querying the fare buckets when you search from the fare catcher e-mail? Or just pulling over Orbitz pricing?

On a quick check, It brings up a different calendar than usual with the various pricing available on those dates. Make your selections and then FC dumps you to Orbitz which actually prices it out.


Also, The fare display tool is still down!! Please bring that back if you would.
http://www.farecompare.com/fare-display/index.html

I am afraid I must agree. This one is one of the worse ones I�ve seen

I agree - it used to be quick and showed the information I could use readily...

Now, it's slow, painfully loaded with ads/partners and most of the real estate on the screen is information I don't really care about.

The e-mail update is the worst part - I used to enjoy seeing plain text e-mails on my BlackBerry, now the e-mails show with images (which I don't care to download) without showing the operating carrier of the deals...

Too bad we can't have the old site back!

-jeremy

Sure the guy needs to make money....but farecompare stuff is starting to more and more to just resemble a bunch of junky ads and the core information is getting harder and harder to access.

Starting? I'd say it's way past starting. The functionality has dropped more and more. Wacky interface, and not getting the details you need put it into the junk category now.

1. We had to take the fare-display app down as an airline complained about a bug in our routing rules printout. The developer thought he could fix it quickly but it turned out to be more complex that he thought. I've re-enabled the app now but without the routing rules til we figure it out.

2. The new alerts system. We signed a deal with ITA back in December - the new alert landing page is our first attempt to tie our alerts in with their 30/60 day calendar search. We havent made any noise about this because we wanted to try it out quietly first, fix any major problems that came up etc. Its been out for almost a week - and we're still sorting out issues.

3. Email delivery. At the same time we launched the new alerts system (last monday) we changed from sending the emails ourselves to using a third party. This was to ensure that the alerts were actually getting delivered, a problem that was becoming harder and more time consuming as things went on. One of the things that this new provider allows us to do, is set a preference on each user for text or html emails. We're hoping to complete this integration shortly.

4. Taxes. We know our international taxes suck. Fuel surcharges and YQYR's have had a bunch of work done to them and should be much more accurate - international taxes because of their complexity are going to take us much longer to do - and it can never be truly accurate as you need an exact itinerary to calculate them - best we can do is give an approximation.

5. Functionality. Drop me a private message or send me an email if you want to see something back that you think we've removed. Can't guarantee that we can allocate resources to new development that want - but if you don't ask you don't get

6. New development. I've been playing with the ITA stuff. Looks like we could do a form of dream maps - where the prices are actually 'real' as opposed to published. 30 day calendar to various 'zones' around the world. Works pretty good for weekend trips in the US too. Question is, how could we
cover our query costs to ITA, and what functionality would it take to make it a success...

regards to all


Graeme

Graeme, Thank you for the update and bringing the fare display tool back.

Glad to hear about the integration with ITA. I was wondering where that new fare alert calendar was pulling from. It really does give a quick way to check the alert to see if it's worth further research. After selecting a departure date, it's a little strange as the default trip lengths seem long. Is that just what ITA is pulling up?

Would be nice to simply have the alert pull the returns in calendar format for better flexibility but understand the ITA cost issue. Again still very nice and usable tools for myself.

I'm not sure how much the queries cost, but would $10/year cover them for most power users? I would certainly be willing to pay that much (and perhaps more, but I think that's a price point that would not run off many people) for access to a tool that did everything I wanted.

We're querying a length of stay of 3-7 days for domestic, 7-14 for Europe and Asia and 4-8 (i think) for Mexico and the caribbean.

We can only pull so many length of stays in one message - we could do the whole return calendar for 30 days from a departure point but it would cost another message.