Tracking airfare price fluctuations in order to point consumers to the best deals is an idea that's been around for some time.
As part of the investment agreement, Concur and Yapta have entered into a partnership under which Concur will exclusively use Yapta's airfare price tracking and price assurance services for its TripIt Pro users.
Airfares remain relatively low — about 18percentt cheaper than last year, according to Bob Harrell of Harrell Associates, a New York-based consulting firm that also tracks airfare.
"I think the writing's on the wall that the economy is pretty soft". said Tom Parsons, chief executive of Bestfares.com, a discount travel Web site that tracks airfare changes.
Hopper will track airfare prices, while HotelTonight will offer you great deals on hotel rooms.
"Travelers should be shopping now," said Joel Grus, who tracks airfares at Bing Travel.
"They're testing the price elasticity of consumers, and consumers are saying, 'We're very sensitive to price,' " says Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, which tracks airfares.
Major airlines tried raising fares across the board 10 times in the first quarter, and were successful in getting the increases to stick on 6 of those occasions, said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, a firm that tracks airfares.
The average one-way coach ticket bought in advance was $117 last week, down 13percentt from $135 in early July, according to Harrell Associates, a consulting firm that tracks airfares.
But even though some summer fares look attractive compared with last year's prices — about 20percentt less on average from June through August, according to Farecast.com, which tracks airfares — they are still considerably higher than those that were being offered this spring.
Many online booking engines such as Orbitz and Travelocity have flexible date search tools which are very helpful in tracking down the lowest available airfare over a set period of time.
