FareCompare - Find Cheap Flights, Fast

Hi All,

I was driving to the library today and I heard an advertisement for an interesting website called 'FareCompare.com'.  What is FareCompare.com you ask?

FareCompare.com lets users find flights and hotels really, really quickly.  Click on any of the prior links in blue that say FareCompare.com and you'll visit the site.

The site bills itself as having over 4 million users each month and has been mentioned in various media outlets like the New York Times, NBC, ABCNews, USAToday, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and The Boston Globe among others. Also, FareCompare finds prices from airlines and aggregator websites as varied as American Airlines, Priceline.com, Expedia.com, BookingBuddy.com and CheapOAir.com.

So, how exactly does FareCompare help users? Indeed - great question.

From the main page users use two drop down boxes to select a flight. Users click on a box for 'Roundtrip' or 'One-way', depending on whether you want to come back or not :)

In addition, users need to click on at least 3 sites (mentioned above...) to compare.  Once the boxes on the three comparison sites are checked, users click on the green button that says 'Find Flights'.

Each of the three comparison sites information is shown on a window that appears on your computer screen.  So...that means you'll have three tiled windows on your screen so that you can compare the prices of the flight you chose.  It is fairly easy to go from one site to another fairly quickly so you can compare the information on the three sites.

On all three sites, you'll find similar information.... flight number, price and links so you can purchase the ticket and reserve your seat. Once on any of the 3 comparison sites, users can edit/change any information (ie departure time or departure city and more). 

Users can use FareCompare to find hotels and get great deals on flights by click on these links: Hotels, Deals. There is also a very helpful section on the site called 'Travel Advice'.  New users can sign-in to FareCompare in order to get fare alerts, information and more from FareCompare.com.

Finally, there is a section on the site called 'Ask Rick'.  Rick is the CEO of FareCompare and this is the section that has articles like, 'Surprising Things About Super Bowl Airfare', and '8 Airline Gotchas You Need to Know About' and '6 Travel Mega-Mistakes: When Airlines say 'Oops!'  Basically this is the fluffly, PR section on FareCompare.  That said, the articles are pretty interesting and certainly current and entertaining.

So there you have it...FareCompare.com and how it can help you to find the information you need so you can save money. And isn't that something that we all want to do these days?

Enjoy the links and the sites and the flights and the money you'll save by using FareCompare.com

Regards,
Stu

PS - At some point in the future I will probably discuss Priceline.com - the 800 pound gorilla in the hotel/room finding industry and the find-a-flight industry as well as the rental car industry.  Stay tuned.

Warm Weather Bargains in the Middle of Winter!

Hi All,

Regular readers of this blog might realize that I try to make the entries interesting, unique and value added. Regular readers might also realize that I sometimes have themes for each entries.

Well, today I'm going a step further. I'm going to write an entry that is somewhat related to yesterdays' blog entry dealing with 'Saving Money in the Winter By Saving on Heating Bills'.

Today's entry is something akin to that entry: Warm Weather Bargains in the Winter. The connection or 'theme' goes something like this: Yesterday I wrote about saving money on your home heating bills in the winter. Since it is so cold, what better way to beat the cold than to get the heck out of dodge and (like birds) go south for the winter with the family? So, after that buildup todays' entry is all about travel sites and how to save on the air fare, lodging and rental once you get to that nice warm place (wherever that might be).

Well, first folks have to decide that they even want - or even if they can - to take a vacation. Once you get that first decision out of the way, you might want to click here for a link on how to plan your winter vacation. Once you've done that you obviously have to figure out where to go on vacation...the next link set of links should help with that question...

Live from the Travel Channel.com is this link entitled, Best Vacations With Kids. An alternate site for winter vacation ideas comes from About.com and you can click this link for 'Family Getaway Ideas For Winter Vacations'.

Okay, now that you've got some ideas, you probably need to find a flight, a room, and possibly even a rental car. Folks might have heard of this next site: Expedia.com. Or not. Click here to visit Expedia.com

So, what's so great about Expedia.com? Well, first the site is easy to navigate and to use. Second it has tabs at the top of the page dealing with Vacation Packages, Hotels, Cars, Flights, Cruises, Activities, and Deals and Offers. Click on any of the phrases above and you'll go to that particular section on the Expedia website.

Notice that on the Deals and Offers section of the site you'll find a link called ASAP which gives users one 'mega-discount in a top destination for only 12 hours'. On the same page you'll find a link to the Best Deals of 2010.

So there you have it - some vacation ideas and a website that can possibly help you make your vacation dreams come true.

Enjoy!
Stu

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