Thursday, November 15, 2007

Travolution@PhoCusWright 07 - Whizzy Farecast

General nods of approval in the press area - where hacks take a feed from the mainstage onto screens or headsets - as Hugh Crean of Farecast runs through a multitude of functions.

"Selection and price is not enough," seems to be the Facecast mantra.

And they are clearly trying to live up to it in reality.

The site allow users to search for flights using every possible permutation: price, weather, date, class, distance, type.

But how can something such as Farecast grow and attract consumers who don't actually care about such a multitude of options?

This would be a worry, someone mutters in the press area, because "info overload" is just not attractive, especially to those who actually like 'From' and 'To' type search capability.

Travolution's recent Generations project backs this up. Our focus groups across all ages preferred the simplicity of a Google-style website than reams of content.

Hmmm.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I too agree that a site like Farecast causes information overload for most consumers. I think a much more useful site is Airfarewatchdog.com.

These guys search thousands of fares by hand every day to come up with the best possible deals. They cover all of the discount carriers as well as specials listed only on airline websites. Plus you can sign up for a daily newsletter which let's you know about the best fares from your city.

Worth checking out...