The ability to fly, though impressive, isn’t necessary when trying to be a superhero to your kids. In a pinch, knowing how to fly cheaply will suffice.
Take, for instance, when this year’s American Idol tour dates were announced, and much to the disappointment of 5-year-old Stefanie Seaney, Dallas was not originally slated as a stop. Stefanie’s father, Rick Seaney, logged onto FareCompare.com—the airline pricing information website he launched in March. Faster than a speeding bullet, he found a good deal on airfare to St. Louis where they would be able to catch the show.
Seaney is making such superhuman feats possible for more and more of the buying public. “We felt like there was a lot of frustration out there with consumers about when to buy and how to buy,” he says. So, utilizing the same technology he used for years to analyze airfare data for corporate comparative analysis, Seaney founded the layman-friendly FareCompare—a far cry from well-known sites like Orbitz and Expedia, which merely lay out current prices in a side-by-side grid format. Instead, FareCompare calls upon two years’ worth of historical pricing data to chart the rise and fall of ticket fares over time. By entering a desired destination, shoppers can view graphs showing the lowest selling price for that city over the last 30 days in addition to the high, low, and average prices for the past 12 months. The lowest currently advertised prices for the next year—broken down by month, week, and day—are also displayed, along with an easy to interpret one- to four-star fare-rating score.
To make bargain-hunting even easier, customers can sign up for RSS and e-mail alerts to be tipped off to price updates hours before they appear on sites like Travelocity. And though users can’t book from FareCompare directly (at least not yet), a few quick clicks will link them to individual booking sites. But as Seaney explains, that isn’t the point of his service. “What we’re trying to do is educate the buying public what the right price point is, when it makes sense to buy, when you might want to wait,” he says.
Armed with his useful knowledge and money-saving advice, Seaney has discovered a newfound popularity that extends beyond just his daughter. “I’m kind of the, ‘How the heck do I get somewhere?’ guy,” he says with a laugh. “I think I can probably go into any airport in the United States and get a free drink.” Forget flying. That’s talent.
